Raising and protecting children amid the climate crisis 'is the revolution': Anishinaabe activist Sarain Fox

In the midst of the climate crisis, young people are expressing anxiety about their future, and many are choosing not to have children. The CBC Docs Original The Climate Baby Dilemma, explores the question of having children when the future is so uncertain — airing Friday, November 25th at 9pm on CBC and now streaming on CBC Gem.

The following words are from Anishinaabe artist, activist and mother Sarain Fox, as featured in the documentary. (Her commentary has been condensed for length.) 

There's this real pain about imagining a future. And I think for so many populations who have had the privilege to live outside of genocide, they've never had that before. Futures have been handed to them.

But I have never met an Indigenous person who didn't want to have kids because they thought the world was ending.

Why would we think about not having children when we've already experienced the apocalypse? We, as Indigenous people right now, at this moment, have already experienced post-apocalyptic times. We're living in them. 

When somebody comes to your land, takes all of your resources, removes you from everything that's sacred, kills your ability to survive and have a family, and then takes your children and separates them from you, and tells you that everything about who you are and your whole existence is shameful and wrong — that's the end of the world.

To lose our very existence, which is our culture, is the end of the world.

Raising children, for me, is a political act informed by history, because the choice to be a mother, to raise and protect my child is the revolution. 

It's time to do something — for their future

My daughter's name is Maamaatesiinh, and it's Potawatomi for "firefly." 

Fireflies are threatened, and they're magic. And it feels like we live in a time right now where we don't protect magic. We don't protect anything that is sacred.

My biggest fear is that we will come to a moment where I won't know if I can keep her safe. And in that place, I know why people don't want to bring precious life into this world. 

Because once you've looked into your child's eyes, and you see them relying entirely on you, that's it. Like, that's what changes you. You're never alone. [You] could never make a decision [just considering] yourself anymore.

[But] if you are doing enough work right now as an activist, then you shouldn't be afraid of bringing in children because you know and you believe that the work that you're doing is going to work. What's the point of all of this if we don't believe that it's going to work?

We need young people to be inundated with solutions so they can be a part of the change. Because I think the anxiety around climate change comes from the idea that there's nothing we can do. 

But if you believe in life, if you see the work having impact, and you see the way on the other side, you'll be unstoppable [in] your quest for change. Because you're not living in disaster — you're striving for a future.

Watch The Climate Baby Dilemma.