water is life

'The spirits hear us': Paddles and prayers protect Lake Simcoe

'The spirits hear us': Paddles and prayers protect Lake Simcoe

For an Anishinaabe woman, water is life — and water had taken life away. “It was very emotional for me. I guess you can say I was a little bit angry at the water.” Then she realized that part of her healing journey must include this. She would organize Shining Water Paddle to bring prayers, offerings, blessings and songs to the water. They would honour the spirits, remember the ancestors and seek their guidance to protect this precious resource, this essence of First Nations peoples. It was time to make their voices heard — and for her to heal, too.

Water as a divine gift, and justice issue

Water as a divine gift, and justice issue

Amos 5:24 states “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Beyond being used as a metaphor, water itself is a justice issue. Two billion people in the world lack access to safe drinking water at home. At the 11th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC), the Rev. Elias Wolff, from Brazil, talks about the situation in his own country. “Brazil has 12% of the world’s fresh water, and 53% of the fresh water of Latin America. But 35 million people in Brazil have no access to fresh water, and 100 million lack access to sanitation infrastructure.”

Canada gets serious about water woes. Will Indigenous voices be heard?

Canada gets serious about water woes. Will Indigenous voices be heard?

Makaśa Looking Horse has been protecting the water since she was a child – as part of her spiritual beliefs, in protest against Nestlé’s extraction of water from her nation’s traditional land, and today as a youth advocate of Ohneganos, an Indigenous water research project that, in the Cayuga language, means “water is life.” She doesn’t consider herself an activist. “It’s more like my way of life. And I do it every single day,” she says. It was passed down from her parents. “But it doesn’t stop there. My grandmothers and my ancestors, that’s what they always did, too. So it’s not just me and my activism in a little compartment. It’s me and my whole lineage and my people and my way of life, of always protecting the water.”