Fighting Violence Against the Lubicon Cree Land with Melina Laboucan-Massimo

Going Wild with Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant

WNET

Science, Pets & Animals, Nature, Kids & Family, Natural Sciences

4.9 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 29 April 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sign up for NATURE's Newsletter here: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/newsletter/ Growing up in her Lubicon Cree community in northern Alberta, Melina Laboucan-Massimo witnessed the destruction of her once-pristine boreal forests for oil. A massive oil spill in Melina’s community became the catalyst to launch an initiative that would bring not only clean energy jobs to her community, but a vision for a just and equitable transition to renewable energy. But after decades of putting her body on the line to fight for the land and her people, Melina hit a breaking point. Learn how she redefined what it means to care for the collective while also taking care of herself. Thanks for listening to Going Wild. You can learn more about season four HERE and catch up on seasons one through three HERE. If you want to support us, you can follow Going Wild on your favorite podcast-listening app. And while you're there, please leave us a review. It really helps. Follow PBS Nature and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant on Instagram, TikTok, X, and Facebook. You can find more information on all of our guests this season in each episode's show notes. And you can catch new episodes of Nature, Wednesdays at 8/7 Central on PBS, pbs.org/nature, and the PBS app. Going Wild is a podcast by PBS Nature. NATURE is an award-winning series created by The WNET Group and made possible by all of you. Views and opinions expressed during the podcast are those of the individuals expressing them and do not necessarily reflect those of THIRTEEN Productions LLC/The WNET Group.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You fly out of the airport area and you see the beauty, like the initial beauty of the boreal.
0:11.0	And then as you get more north, going towards the mines, you start seeing Mordor.
0:18.0	No longer forest, basically complete deforestation down into the Earth's core.
0:31.3	I'm Dr. Ray Wynne Grant, and this is a different kind of nature show, a podcast about the human drama of saving animals.
0:42.0	This season, we're talking to all kinds of nature advocates, from a paleoanthropologist who hunts fossils in conflict zones,
0:50.3	to someone who helped save an endangered species while in prison.
0:54.8	We're going to hear from real-life heroes with widely different expertise and life experiences
1:00.7	about what led them to be champions for the natural world.
1:04.9	What transformation did they go through to create change within themselves, their community, and the world. Together, we'll find out
1:13.1	how these ordinary people fell in love with nature and became their most extraordinary selves.
1:20.3	This is Going Wild.
1:35.5	Today, I'm talking to Lubicon Kree climate activist and renewable energy entrepreneur, Melina Labukon Massimo.
1:43.2	Tensei, Guakia, Nia, Nihiao, Kinauqa. Thank you for having me today. My name is Melina Miao,apin Lippocamasmo, and that's my language.
1:45.4	Nihiao, also known as the Cree language. After experiencing firsthand the harm that extractive
1:53.6	industries pose to the land and the lives of indigenous peoples, Melina dedicated her life to
1:59.2	fighting the atrocities of colonialism by campaigning
2:02.4	internationally on the impacts of resource extraction and advocating for energy literacy
2:08.0	and indigenous rights.
2:10.0	She's also outspoken in highlighting how resource extraction is inextricably linked to violence
2:16.3	against women and the ongoing crisis of murdered
2:19.8	and missing indigenous women in North America.
2:23.1	And just a heads up to our listeners, before we jump into the episode, my conversation
	...

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