Walking the Land ~ Chant #1

Pegi Eyers

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This chant holds the tension, or unresolved paradox, of loving the Earth with one's entire heart and soul, and yet still being a Settler on  Indigenous lands. In 2018 the Williams Treaties First Nations and the Ontario and Canadian governments came to an agreement, settling the litigation started in 2012.

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I am an ecocultural weaver
Of the old and the new,
Senistrognata in the blood
Nogojiwanong sings to the soul.
 
I am a creature of Earth
I belong to Her only.
I am a creature of Earth
I belong to Her whole-y.
 
I have given my heart to the Earth,
She holds the warp and weft of me.
 
Walking these hills
I meet leaf, rune, stone
Weaving over and under
In, out and through -
Stories in feather and ice.
 
I have given my heart to the Earth,
She holds the warp and weft of me.
 
I am a creature of Earth
I belong to her only.
I am a creature of Earth.
I belong to her whole-y.
 
I am an ecocultural weaver
Of the old and the new,
Senistrognata in the blood
Nogojiwanong sings to the soul.

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Pegi Eyers at Stone Circle Farm, April 2021, Otonabee Watershed

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Pegi Eyers is the author of  Ancient Spirit Rising: Reclaiming Your Roots & Restoring Earth Community, an award-winning book that explores strategies
for social justice, ethnocultural identity, the ancestral arts, building land-
emergent community and resilience in times of massive change.

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