Our Future First

Looking for a new documentary to watch? and have woven together a powerful look at all that biggest threat to life on this planet — the water contamination, PFAS, killing of wales, destruction of coral reefs and mountain slopes, millions of war casualties, and the largest source of climate emissions that aren’t being talked about. The truth is hard but shown with love.

The U.S. military is the single largest consumer of fossil fuels on the planet, using nearly 270,000 barrels of oil a day, amounting to 55 million metric tons of CO2 annually. It would take the average American driver over 40 years to burn as much fuel as a single flight of a Boeing Pegasus.

After watching Abby Martin and Mike Prysner’s new documentary, Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the need to address the system that is the military industrial complex becomes strikingly clear.

What was powerful is that what was shown calls on people not to turn on each other but to think more strategically about how to get unstuck from something that ultimately threatens life on the planet.

Truly inspired.

Like droplets of water pooling, we gathered along the Humber River to listen, learn, and remember how our well-being is tied to the wellbeing of the river 🌊

Guided by First Nations teachings about fire and water — with song and drumming — “In Flow for the Humber” invited community members to explore how to connect, protect, and celebrate our shared watershed 💙

Together we imagined a future where:
🌳 Mature trees and sacred medicines are protected through policies, dedicated programs, and cultural awareness
💧 Homes are resilient to floods
🪴 Natural assets are valued, cumulative impacts accounted for, and investments made in green space
🏗️ Regenerative building and materials foster community well-being and harmony with nature
🤝 Community is connected through civic forums, arts based engagement, and spaces to celebrate culture and steward the land with care

Gratitude to all who joined, shared, and actively steward the Humber River watershed.

Special thanks to Melvin Pine , Vivian Recollet Bigasohn Kwe and Tabitha Shurgold 🤍

🌿 In Flow for the Humber River is part of Our Future First’s ongoing Watershed Circles series — civic dialogues celebrating Toronto’s diverse cultures and watersheds.

💙 Supported by Park People and City of Toronto through the InTO the Ravines program.

🔗 Learn more: ourfuturefirst.org | toronto.ca/ravinestrategy

Supported by & through 🌿

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In Flow for the Humber River — Watershed Circle w Indigenous Teachings

Sun. September 28, 2025
1:00-3:00 pm

Weston Lion’s Park
135 Humber River Recreational Trail

Join Our Future First for a watershed circle. Like droplets of water gathering over the land, watershed-based circles invite you to explore your relationship to the Humber River and how this ecosystem can be protected and restored. In a watershed dialogue, we both share and learn how watershed health relates to our own well-being.  

Our Future First will guide rounds of dialogue that will bring forward the embodied knowledge each person holds about the land and the water.  While in circle along the shores of the Humber we become part of the river seeing itself through uncertainty into a desired future.

Teachings about the Sacred Fire
w. Melvin Pine, Turtle Island Carers of the Fire

Teachings about Water
w. Vivian Recollet Bigasohn Kwe

Drumming
w. Tabitha Shurgold

Today marks 80 years since the bombing of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, which destroyed the city and killed 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped by the Allies three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui warned against a growing acceptance of military buildups and of using nuclear weapons for national security during Russia’s war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East, with the United States and Russia possessing most of the world’s nuclear warheads.

“These developments flagrantly disregard the lessons the international community should have learned from the tragedies of history,” he said. “They threaten to topple the peace-building frameworks so many have worked so hard to construct.”

Last Year Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese grassroots organization of survivors won the Nobel Peace Prize for their pursuit of nuclear abolishment. However, Japan’s government has rejected the survivors’ request to sign the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons or attend its meetings as observers because it is under the protection of the U.S. nuclear umbrella.

Equanimity — inner calm in a difficult situation — is aided by deep breaths, gratitude, and curiosity.

Breathe — connecting you to your body and pulling the air in to fill your chest and revitalise your blood flow.

Gratitude — sensing what goodness, support, stability you already possess.

Curiosity — seeing new paths and ways of creating through the challenges.

From that place of clarity the decisions you make can be ones that build or preserve life.