Marjorie Johnson Williams (Ojibway/Potawatomi)
Colleen Nadjiwon Johnson (Anishnaabe)
"Sweeping the Earth: Women Taking Action for a Healthy Planet"
Minobimaatisiiwin – We Are to Care for Her
Bkejwanong - Where the Waters Divide – (Walpole Island) is situated in the heartland of North America’s largest fresh water supply. In fact the territory itself is heart shaped, and therefore the efforts of our women are to speak from the heart of the issues we know best. The issues we know best are our spiritual connection with the water and all our relations, those that fly, crawl, swim, and of course, our connections with all humankind.
Now that we have been asked, it is our duty to speak out on behalf of our Earth Mother and the water so crucial to all life.
We speak today not as victims, but as authors of our own future. We speak on behalf of our brothers and sisters, the plants and animals whose care and concern has long been ignored by the world. Many of our elder women recall when the water was still pure, when they spent their days swimming in the river and when they were able to drink without worrying about contaminants. They remember when the river froze over solidly every winter, 60 centimeters of ice as clear as glass.
We speak of our concerns for the plants and wildlife that are disappearing from our watershed because these plants and animals are necessities for food and clothing for our people. They are necessities for the medicine and crafts with which we pass our knowledge down to future generations.
Among all Native cultures, no force is considered more sacred or more powerful than the ability to create new life. All females are the human manifestation of the Earth Mother, who is the first and ultimate giver of life. Our instructions are “Minobimaatisiiwin – we are to care for her.”
Indigenous people worldwide have teachings instructing us in our stewardship of the Earth, and these teachings tell us that the Creator has provided a balance between male and female, each with our own role. We are here to carry out our roles as women and as Native people. We have been honored with these two responsibilities, both of which we take very seriously.
In the past Native leaders were chosen by the women in their communities. This is partly because the women have an intimate spiritual connection with the children, from the time of pre-conception, and the women would do only what was in the children’s best interest. It is also because women were held in high regard for their life-giving responsibilities and their phenomenal spiritual power. Women do not select war as an alternative, because war brings with it the loss of children.
We understand that the Creator made all that there is, and breathed life into it. He made the land the water to be pure. When our Father the Sun sends his power to join with the seed of the Earth Mother, new life is born. Our teachings also tell us that the Earth Mother has structure just as we do. The rocks are her bones and the waters are her blood. The streams and groundwater that that flow throughout her body are her arteries, taking nourishment to all her living parts. This sacred water that is being so heartlessly abused continues to give life to all people because this is the way the Creator would have it. Our beliefs, our practices, our usage, our customs and our culture have proven this to be so.
When we pray, we finish with the closing, “Kina Enwemgig – All Our Relations.” This closing not only refers to our human relations, but also to the creatures that swim, crawl and fly, to the plants and the trees, to the mountains, lakes and streams, and to the moon, stars and planets of the universe. Simply put, this closing refers to everything. Everything is relational and can only be understood in this way. These understandings are the basis for our spirituality, which honors the natural laws necessary for balance.
In our teachings, Original Man walked the earth, giving names to all the creatures, plants and insects. He was given a companion, the Wolf. When they separated, they were told: “What will happen to one of you will also happen to the other.” Since then, the Anishnaabeg and the Wolf have come to be alike, and they have experienced the same things. Both mate for life. Both have a clan system and a tribe. Both have had their land taken from them. Both have been hunted for their hair. And both have been pushed close to extinction by chemical genocide. A world terribly out-of-balance, wouldn’t you say?
In many world religions, when people are welcomed into their faith, they are baptized with holy water. Our teachings say these river waters are our holy water. By taking even the minutest chance of contaminating these waters, you are desecrating all that is sacred to us. We use this sacred water in our purification lodge, in our ceremonies of healing, in our rites of passage – in our naming ceremonies and especially in our women’s ceremonies. At these times, the teachings are spoken to the water and it is then passed around from one another in the circle to be shared. At the change of the seasons, a pilgrimage to the water is carried out in order to honor the Spirit of the Water.
Our people have always understood that this sacred and powerful water gives life, and can take it away. When industrial society makes decisions about water quality, do they consider that our bodies are made up mostly of water? The Creator has bestowed many gifts on us, including this sacred water. Therefore, we must honor the teaching that says if the gifts are misused, such as tobacco was, these gifts will turn on us and make us sick. There are proven links between pollutants and diseases of the reproductive systems, specific kinds of cancer, and other systemic diseases. Our Elders tell us that if the women become sick, then the children will become sick and nations will cease to exist. Is this what we really want?
Our demands are the following:
• We are demanding spiritual and moral accountability from the industrial world that so blatantly ignores the conditions of the earth, the sacred water and our people.
• We are asking for the understanding of all women and of all cultures for the concerns we raise about the care of our Earth Mother and of the sacred water.
• We are asking that women from all cultures stand beside us we continue to protect our Earth Mother in her battle to survive, and we are asking for their vigilance for resources that can help this cause.
• We are asking for prayers of support from women of all faiths so that these issues may come to peaceful resolution.
• We are reaching out to connect with women throughout this region, this country, and this world. We need the strength of all women – to analyze, to empathize, to voice their values, to state opinions, to summarize findings and to speak from the heart.
We ask these things in a spirit of strength, humility, and respect for our elders’ position of zero toxic discharge into our precious watersheds.
Now that we have been asked, it is our duty to speak out on behalf of our Earth Mother and the water so crucial to all life.
We speak today not as victims, but as authors of our own future. We speak on behalf of our brothers and sisters, the plants and animals whose care and concern has long been ignored by the world. Many of our elder women recall when the water was still pure, when they spent their days swimming in the river and when they were able to drink without worrying about contaminants. They remember when the river froze over solidly every winter, 60 centimeters of ice as clear as glass.
We speak of our concerns for the plants and wildlife that are disappearing from our watershed because these plants and animals are necessities for food and clothing for our people. They are necessities for the medicine and crafts with which we pass our knowledge down to future generations.
Among all Native cultures, no force is considered more sacred or more powerful than the ability to create new life. All females are the human manifestation of the Earth Mother, who is the first and ultimate giver of life. Our instructions are “Minobimaatisiiwin – we are to care for her.”
Indigenous people worldwide have teachings instructing us in our stewardship of the Earth, and these teachings tell us that the Creator has provided a balance between male and female, each with our own role. We are here to carry out our roles as women and as Native people. We have been honored with these two responsibilities, both of which we take very seriously.
In the past Native leaders were chosen by the women in their communities. This is partly because the women have an intimate spiritual connection with the children, from the time of pre-conception, and the women would do only what was in the children’s best interest. It is also because women were held in high regard for their life-giving responsibilities and their phenomenal spiritual power. Women do not select war as an alternative, because war brings with it the loss of children.
We understand that the Creator made all that there is, and breathed life into it. He made the land the water to be pure. When our Father the Sun sends his power to join with the seed of the Earth Mother, new life is born. Our teachings also tell us that the Earth Mother has structure just as we do. The rocks are her bones and the waters are her blood. The streams and groundwater that that flow throughout her body are her arteries, taking nourishment to all her living parts. This sacred water that is being so heartlessly abused continues to give life to all people because this is the way the Creator would have it. Our beliefs, our practices, our usage, our customs and our culture have proven this to be so.
When we pray, we finish with the closing, “Kina Enwemgig – All Our Relations.” This closing not only refers to our human relations, but also to the creatures that swim, crawl and fly, to the plants and the trees, to the mountains, lakes and streams, and to the moon, stars and planets of the universe. Simply put, this closing refers to everything. Everything is relational and can only be understood in this way. These understandings are the basis for our spirituality, which honors the natural laws necessary for balance.
In our teachings, Original Man walked the earth, giving names to all the creatures, plants and insects. He was given a companion, the Wolf. When they separated, they were told: “What will happen to one of you will also happen to the other.” Since then, the Anishnaabeg and the Wolf have come to be alike, and they have experienced the same things. Both mate for life. Both have a clan system and a tribe. Both have had their land taken from them. Both have been hunted for their hair. And both have been pushed close to extinction by chemical genocide. A world terribly out-of-balance, wouldn’t you say?
In many world religions, when people are welcomed into their faith, they are baptized with holy water. Our teachings say these river waters are our holy water. By taking even the minutest chance of contaminating these waters, you are desecrating all that is sacred to us. We use this sacred water in our purification lodge, in our ceremonies of healing, in our rites of passage – in our naming ceremonies and especially in our women’s ceremonies. At these times, the teachings are spoken to the water and it is then passed around from one another in the circle to be shared. At the change of the seasons, a pilgrimage to the water is carried out in order to honor the Spirit of the Water.
Our people have always understood that this sacred and powerful water gives life, and can take it away. When industrial society makes decisions about water quality, do they consider that our bodies are made up mostly of water? The Creator has bestowed many gifts on us, including this sacred water. Therefore, we must honor the teaching that says if the gifts are misused, such as tobacco was, these gifts will turn on us and make us sick. There are proven links between pollutants and diseases of the reproductive systems, specific kinds of cancer, and other systemic diseases. Our Elders tell us that if the women become sick, then the children will become sick and nations will cease to exist. Is this what we really want?
Our demands are the following:
• We are demanding spiritual and moral accountability from the industrial world that so blatantly ignores the conditions of the earth, the sacred water and our people.
• We are asking for the understanding of all women and of all cultures for the concerns we raise about the care of our Earth Mother and of the sacred water.
• We are asking that women from all cultures stand beside us we continue to protect our Earth Mother in her battle to survive, and we are asking for their vigilance for resources that can help this cause.
• We are asking for prayers of support from women of all faiths so that these issues may come to peaceful resolution.
• We are reaching out to connect with women throughout this region, this country, and this world. We need the strength of all women – to analyze, to empathize, to voice their values, to state opinions, to summarize findings and to speak from the heart.
We ask these things in a spirit of strength, humility, and respect for our elders’ position of zero toxic discharge into our precious watersheds.
The following poem eloquently illustrates what is in our hearts, and is simply entitled “Nibi.”
NIBI
Anishinaabekwe, the Daughters,
You are the keepers of the water.
I am Nibi…..water…..the sacred source,
the blood of Aki, Mother Earth,
the force, filling dry seeds to green bursting.
I am the womb’s cradle.
I purify.
Nibi
forever the Circle’s charge.
I have coursed through our Mother’s veins.
Now hear my sorrow and my pain
in the river’s rush, the rain…….
I am your grandchildren’s drink.
Listen, Daughters, always,
You are keepers of the water.
Hear my cry,
for the springs flow darkly now
through the heart of Aki……
****
An Elder once told me that Mother Earth’s vast complexity is her profound simplicity. Things that seem so hard to understand can become so simple when we retreat to the source of true knowledge, our Earth Mother. And the knowledge can be very practical when applied to our everyday lives.
For example, we could be working away, and all of a sudden run into an immovable object. We push and shove, and there is no way we can remove the object. What are we going to do? We will just have to take a walk as we think it over. While we are on this walk, we run across a stream. In this stream there is a huge rock (the immovable object). Does the stream stop because it cannot move the old rock? I think not. It proceeds to go over, under and around until the objective is reached. All this is done softly and quietly with no fuss and bother. But did we have to go to the store and get a book of old and wise sayings to learn this? No.
All we had to do was consult our own free source of knowledge and learning. Our Earth Mother has just taught us a lesson about women and power. No books……no videos…...no overhead projectors……no media blitz…...just profound simplicity. There are ways of seeing that have no vocabulary. These are natural qualities of the mind that all of us can re-learn, and that can help us in our fight to protect the Earth Mother.
In our attempts to make the industrial world understand our position, we have used many approaches. We have used ceremonies, demonstrations, presentations, and invitations to our territory to hear our voices. We are finding that these industrial hearts have been so hardened by their economic focus, that they are next to impenetrable. We are only now becoming aware that the environment is almost totally under the influence of politics and economics.
We are therefore going to have to prove the benefits that stand to be gained by listening to, and aligning with, the First Nations of Turtle Island. Pray for us, as we continue to be guided by the one Gchi Manitou (Great Spirit). We will continue to use poetry, writings, networking, meetings, video productions, conferences, and any other means at our disposal to fight and win this war. It is critical not only to the survival of our people, but of humankind as a whole.
Kina Enwemgig – All My Relations
NIBI
Anishinaabekwe, the Daughters,
You are the keepers of the water.
I am Nibi…..water…..the sacred source,
the blood of Aki, Mother Earth,
the force, filling dry seeds to green bursting.
I am the womb’s cradle.
I purify.
Nibi
forever the Circle’s charge.
I have coursed through our Mother’s veins.
Now hear my sorrow and my pain
in the river’s rush, the rain…….
I am your grandchildren’s drink.
Listen, Daughters, always,
You are keepers of the water.
Hear my cry,
for the springs flow darkly now
through the heart of Aki……
****
An Elder once told me that Mother Earth’s vast complexity is her profound simplicity. Things that seem so hard to understand can become so simple when we retreat to the source of true knowledge, our Earth Mother. And the knowledge can be very practical when applied to our everyday lives.
For example, we could be working away, and all of a sudden run into an immovable object. We push and shove, and there is no way we can remove the object. What are we going to do? We will just have to take a walk as we think it over. While we are on this walk, we run across a stream. In this stream there is a huge rock (the immovable object). Does the stream stop because it cannot move the old rock? I think not. It proceeds to go over, under and around until the objective is reached. All this is done softly and quietly with no fuss and bother. But did we have to go to the store and get a book of old and wise sayings to learn this? No.
All we had to do was consult our own free source of knowledge and learning. Our Earth Mother has just taught us a lesson about women and power. No books……no videos…...no overhead projectors……no media blitz…...just profound simplicity. There are ways of seeing that have no vocabulary. These are natural qualities of the mind that all of us can re-learn, and that can help us in our fight to protect the Earth Mother.
In our attempts to make the industrial world understand our position, we have used many approaches. We have used ceremonies, demonstrations, presentations, and invitations to our territory to hear our voices. We are finding that these industrial hearts have been so hardened by their economic focus, that they are next to impenetrable. We are only now becoming aware that the environment is almost totally under the influence of politics and economics.
We are therefore going to have to prove the benefits that stand to be gained by listening to, and aligning with, the First Nations of Turtle Island. Pray for us, as we continue to be guided by the one Gchi Manitou (Great Spirit). We will continue to use poetry, writings, networking, meetings, video productions, conferences, and any other means at our disposal to fight and win this war. It is critical not only to the survival of our people, but of humankind as a whole.
Kina Enwemgig – All My Relations
by Marjorie Johnson Williams (Ojibway/Potawatomi) and Colleen Nadjiwon Johnson (Anishnaabe). Reprinted from Sweeping the Earth: Women Taking Action for a Healthy Planet – edited by Miriam Wyman, gynergy books,1999
artists unknown
artists unknown
