As Long as the Sun Shines

Nadia Bouchier hugs her son Dylan on a Saturday afternoon in Fort McKay, Alberta. Fort McKay, an Indigenous First Nation, is located in-between numerous Oil Sands developments. The community is divided over their leadership's cooperation with the oil industry. © Ian Willms

Kanahus Manuel brings her niece Wasayka, 2, to the banks of the South Thompson River, in Shuswap, British Columbia. For years, many the Secwepemc First Nations people have been rallying to protect their water and prevent a new Oil Sands pipeline from being built through their territory. Construction on it began in 2017. © Ian Willms

Dez, 7, plays in his bed, in Fort McKay. Dez was born with an underdeveloped heart and has received multiple open heart surgeries. His family and healthcare professionals in Fort McKay believe that his condition was caused by environmental pollution. Fort McKay is an indigenous community that is surrounded by oil sands developments. © Ian Willms

A swath of Boreal forest is stripped away to reveal the bitumen-laced ground at the Fort Hills Suncor Oil Sands site, near Fort McKay, Alberta. The area will soon become a gaping strip mine as the bitumen, a mixture of sand and tar, is trucked away for processing into petroleum products. © Ian Willms

Sisters Makenna (L), 7, and Mia, 3, play around their parents' custom truck, in Fort McMurray. The vehicle is one-of-a-kind, custom made by International truck company. Their parents first came to Fort McMurray over a decade ago with hardly any money. Today, they run a successful welding and machining business. © Ian Willms

Syncrude oil sands upgrader plant. © Ian Willms

The shoreline of the Shell Albian Sands tailings pond, near Fort McKay. The oil sands tailings ponds are leaking toxic waste into the surrounding environment and poisoning local water systems. © Ian Willms

Ian Willms’ project “As Long as the Sun Shines” is an intimate portrait on Canada’s oil sands developments and the 39 Indigenous First Nations in the region who are suffering the brunt of the hideous effects of the industry – one which is large enough to be seen from space. This work won 2018’s Greenpeace Photo Award and Ian has recently become a member of Panos Pictures.

The series smartly juxtaposes intimate portraits with the epic scale of industry and ruined landscape and is currently on show at the Coalmine Gallery in Winterthur, Switzerland through April 9, 2020.

This is what Willms has to say about “As Long as the Sun Shines”:

“The Canadian province of Alberta holds the world’s third largest oil reserves, which sit beneath 175,000 km2 of boreal forest. Around Fort McMurray, the Earth has been stripped away to make way for gaping tar sand pit mines since the 1930s. The destruction of nature is insanely vast. Oil production from tar sands requires more water and energy than traditional production methods and generates three to four times the amount of greenhouse gases. Over the years the industry has accumulated more than a trillion litres of toxic waste in retention pools, making the tar sands one of the largest and most environmentally destructive industrial projects.

All of this amounts to devastating public health impacts: according to doctors in communities close to the mining sites, rates of cancer and birth defects are rising. Comprehensive pubic health studies have been asked for decades but the government does not act. The lack of adequate investigation of a crime does not rule out harm or foul play. It is unjust for the burden of proof to be placed upon an adversely impacted, disempowered population. A toxic corporation should not be afforded the same rights as a human being, who is innocent until proven guilty.

Due to industrial pollution and development, the Indigenous Peoples around oil sands developments are no longer able to sustain themselves off the traditional economies of hunting, trapping and fishing, which had previously nurtured their lives for centuries. The general lack of economic opportunity on First Nations reserves is a crucial part of the power dynamic between industry, government and Indigenous Peoples. First Nation members are often left with few options for employment outside of the very industries that are destroying their culture and territories. Industry, in turn, uses Indigenous employment statistics as a marketing point to soften their image.

This “environmental racism” is the manifestation of colonialism today.”

— Samantha Reinders

“As Long as the Sun Shines”
Ian Willms
Coalmine Gallery,Winterthur, Switzerland
Through April 9, 2020.