Tshaukuesh "Elizabeth" Penashue

Tshaukuesh "Elizabeth" Penashue is an indigenous activist, environmentalist, teacher, and respected Elder from Kanekuanikat, Labrador. She has spent all of her life advocating against programs and infrastructure that harm the indigenous way of life, and the environment. She has been arrested a number of times while protesting NATO low-flying planes (1980s), Voiseys Bay Mine (1990s) and most famously Muskrat Falls (2000s)

Tshaukuesh Penashue beginning a three week walk through Innu traditional territory.

Penashue was born in the wilderness of Labrador in 1944, and she and her siblings were raised knowing only the Innu way of life. The Innu of Nothern Labrador were among the last indigenous peoples in so called Canada to undergo forced assimilation, as Labrador was considered to be part of British-Newfoundland, until Newfoundland joined Canada in 1949. During the early 1960s, her and her family were forced by the provincial government of Newfoundland and Labrador to resettle to the town of Sheshatuish, with promises of a better life. They quickly regretted moving into the city, and away from their traditional nomadic lifestyle, but the development of the Churchill Falls megaproject, as well as the creation of the Smallwood reservoir destroyed their traditional home and hunting land.


Penashue has been a trail-blazer in so many ways, and without her, I know that the already limited decolonization efforts in my home province would be even less active. Penashue is responsible for re-introducing culture, full of knowledge, to hundreds of people. She has protected thousands of acres of land, hundreds of species, tonnes of freshwater, indigenous languages, practices and knowledge. As a direct descendant of colonizers, I know that the "rich" culture found in colonial Newfoundland, that immersed me throughout my childhood, and which I love and treasure very dearly is not the true culture of the place I come home, and without Elders such as Tshaukuesh Penahue, the true culture of these lands would be even less prevalent than they are.

Tsaukuesh "Elizabeth" Penashue has worked tirelessly to preserve and promote Innu culture, by passing it down to her 9 children, 33 grandchildren, as well as dozens of Innu youth in Labrador. She organizes yearly, 3 week long walks from Goose-Bay, Labrador to MineiNipi Lake, as well as canoe trips along the Churchill River, to pass down important parts of indigenous knowledge. By teaching Innu youth how to survive in the bush, Penashue helps them rediscover their ability to survive off of, and maintain the land.

Tshaukuesh Penashue teaching Innu'amin.

Penashue is an environmental warrior, and has fought for decades to protect land in Labrador. She believes that the land gives people everything that they need to be happy and healthy, and that when we destroy the land we destroy something that has given generations of life to us, and stopping it from giving life of generations to come.

During the 1980s, land that Penashues family had hunted, harvested, and lived on for generations was being used to conduct military exercises by NATO, rendering it inhabitable. The low flying planes were being flown, and displacing dozens of species crucial to the Innu lifestyle that was core the Tsaukuesh "Elizabeth" Penashue.

"When she was younger, caribou and beaver were never found dead for no apparent reason, and now they are, she said. Partridges used to bear five or six chicks; now it is more like two or three. The animals all used to be fat; now some are thin, she said." The Washington Post

Angered by the destruction being done unto her peoples land, Penashue led and participated in intense protests against the Canadian government.

"Canada sees our land as uninhabited land. It is inhabited by the Innu, and it is inhabited by wildlife. This is hunting territory, nomadic territory. It is not for war games." Elizabeth Penashue (through an interpreter The Washington Post


Penashue, along with many other Innu people, set up camps along the military runway a number of times between 1984 and 2000, with up to 23 tents at certain points. They were brutalized and arrested again and again, but they continued to fight for their land, and the creatures living on it.


"During a later raid on their camp, women were dragged off without being able to properly dress their children. Many were separated from their children and imprisoned." CulturalSurvival.Org


This is clearly a demonstration of Penashues courage, but more than that it is a clear illustration of how much the environmental philosophy of the Innu differs from that of the colonizers. Knowingly destroying the land for Innu people is totally unthinkable, as they acknowledge that the land gives in abundance, and provides us with everything we need to survive. Penashue was not fighting for the land because she feels entitled to her traditional homeland, her environmental stewardship is one of the core tenants of her culture and value system.



More recently Tshaukuesh Penashue has been a loud voice against Muskrat Falls, a hydro dam that is being built on the traditional fishing grounds of Innu and Inuit people, and poisoning the water of indigenous communities with methyl mercury. Penashue began her 14th trek across labrador in protest of Muskrat Falls, because she knows how mega projects like these destroy the environment and often take key parts of indigenous culture and knowledge with it.

Tshaukuesh Penashue has spent her whole life promoting Indigenous knowledge in my home province for her entire life. Without this incredible woman many crucial pieces of Innu knowledge would be dead. I admire her as an activist, environmentalist, and community figure.