A Conversation with Ramon Kataquapit: Okiniwak Youth Movement Rising Against Bill 5

As part of our ongoing Indigenous reporting, we share an interview with Ramon Kataquapit, a young leader from Attawapiskat First Nation and founder of the Okiniwak Indigenous Youth Movement. RPTV met Ramon at the Indigenous Youth Gathering and Pow Wow in Regent Park, where he spoke about the urgent need for youth leadership as Ontario moves forward with Bill 5 — a provincial law that opens the door to large-scale development on Indigenous lands without proper consultation. For many Indigenous youth, the response to Bill 5 is about more than policy. It is about defending land, language, identity, and the right to self-determination. Throughout the year, organizers have held gatherings, cultural teachings, and rallies across Toronto, including a summer encampment behind Queen’s Park that called attention to the lack of consent and the ongoing impacts of colonial land decisions. Regent Park TV has followed these actions closely, documenting how culture, ceremony, and community care guide the movement. In this interview, Ramon reflects on the growth of Okiniwak, the responsibilities young people carry, and what it means to protect land while building community here in the Downtown East. This conversation shows that the fight to protect land and treaty rights in Ontario is being led by youth grounded in culture, courage, and collective responsibility. And here in Regent Park, we see clearly how the struggle for safe neighbourhoods, housing, and dignity connects to the broader movement to protect land and water across the province.