Atikamekw

Uh, and for us, it's, it's in solidarity with one another.

We signed a, an alliance with the Atikamekw nation, uh, from the Iroquois caucus, and, uh, and you know, we will defend our land, uh, as we need to.

Well, so this is not our first, you know, kick at the can here, so to speak.

We've gone through this twice before, once in 1980, once in 1995.

Six years after her death, a large crowd gathered in Joliette, Quebec for a vigil.

The thirty-seven-year-old Atikamekw was dying and was subjected to racist behavior from hospital staff.

Some say since then there's been talk, but not a lot of action to address systemic racism.

Natalia Weixel reports.

Hundreds of community members gathered in Joliette, about ninety kilometers north of Montreal, to pay their respects to Joyce Echaquan.

As people lit candles to honor the late Atikamekw mother, they joined in song.

Jennifer Brazeau is executive director of the Lano Deser Native Friendship Center.

On this particular anniversary, I think everybody's wanting to know what we're going to continue to do concretely to make sure that the events that happened here six years ago don't happen against anywhere else.

Among them, Kino Askii LNG, a proposed gas pipeline from Alberta through to Quebec, its contents to be eventually exported to Europe.

A project enjoying support from some First Nations within Quebec and Ontario, including Atikamekw.

And Grand Chief Constant Awashish calls Kino Askii an opportunity for First Nations to play a leading role in new economic and energy relationships between Canada and Europe.

Meanwhile, other First Nations, such as Lac Simon, oppose the project.