World Water Day March 22nd – Idle No More

World Water Day – Sunday, March 22nd 2015

 

#LoveNibi #InTheNameOfTheMother #LoveWater

 

“The Water is sick and people need to really fight for that water, to speak for that water, to love that water.” – Josephine Mandamin, Grandmother, Water Walker

 

Video posted on YouTube by UPLIFT 

Below is a list of Indigenous Women Led World Water Day Events:

If you would like to organize an event in your city or on your territory, please feel free to do so and we will update the list to include it here for others to join. Send your event details, Facebook links, pictures and/or videos to info@idlenomore.ca. You can also create an online event page here: www.idlenomore.ca/events. Please make sure your event page is public before you send us a link otherwise we will not be able to share it here. Thanks for your updates!

Water March

Kenora, Ontario

WWdayKenora.jpgGrassroots Indigenous Water Defence is hosting a Water March in Kenora – “In solidarity to protect our water, for our future generations.”

For more details and updates, you contact the event organizers through the Facebook event page here.

 

World Water Day Sing!

St. Paul, Minnesota

WWday.jpgHidden Falls Regional Park in St Paul, Minnesota from 9 – 10 a.m.

For more details and updates, you contact the event organizers through the Facebook event page here

“In celebration of the water, we will gather to sing to the beautiful Mississippi River” Sharon Day, Water Walker

 

 

 

Water Blessings on the Shores of Lake Michigan

Michigan City, Indiana 

Water2.jpgThis is a free event from 3 – 5 p.m., on the beach at Washington Park & Beach, Michigan City. Please dress for the weather, bring a chair or blanket to sit on if you wish.  Participants may bring a vessel of water that they have set their intentions with to be added to the World Water Vessel if they would like. Dogs are not allowed at the park, no alcohol permitted, please observe Shelf Ice Warnings at all times.  Participants are encouraged to bring a musical instrument (drum, flutes, rattles, etc.) if they wish, after the blessing we will follow with a drum circle as time allows. 

For more details you can check out the Event Page here. You can find the event organizer details there or contact her to volunteer.

Prayers for the Water

Richmond Point, California

KellerBeach.jpgYou are invited to join us on Sunday, March 22nd for World Water Prayer Day. For several years a group of Indigenous grandmothers in the San Francisco Bay Area have gathered to send our prayers to the waters. These grandmothers include some of the founders of Idle No More SF Bay.

We will meet at Keller Beach (which is very near the Richmond Chevron refinery) in Point Richmond at 10:00 a.m. We will create an altar for the waters, followed by prayers and offerings. You are welcome to bring small item(s) for the altar.

There is street parking near Keller Beach and a large parking lot along the shore approximately 1/2 mile away. There are stone steps leading down to the beach.

Keller Beach, Point Richmond, Richmond, California

You can stay up to date by joining the Facebook event page Prayers for the Water here.

 

Video posted on YouTube by Raven Redbone

 

World Water Day 2015 – Water is Life

Toronto, Ontario

Seriously.jpgJoin Idle No More Toronto on Sunday March 22, 2015 for World Water Day. Anywhere You Are!

Join humanity everywhere by celebrating and protecting water. Take action by posting pictures of yourself, family or friends by your favorite body of water. You can also create posters, memes, videos, songs and poetry to celebrate how important water is to all life. Please feel free to post on our Facebook Event Page Here.

You can also celebrate by gathering a group of people near a body of water which no longer has environmental protection due to Harper’s passing of omnibus Bill C-45, and clean up the area and post pictures as well. Please include the name of the lake, ocean, spring or river in your post.

Another way to participate is by contacting your Member of Parliament (MP) to reinstate protection for that lake or river.

 

Photo taken by Idle No More Toronto Organizer, Crystal. “This picture has special meaning to me. I live in Beaches area Toronto. This was taken one day when I was sitting beside the water in spring 2012 after Harper introduced omnibus Bill-c45. I was looking onto Lake Ontario and looked over to an area of boulders and this was written on the rock.”

 

Water Healing Ceremony

West Alton, Missouri 

WaterHealingCeremony.jpgLincoln Shields Recreation Area, St. Louis, at the Mississippi at 9:00 am will be the site of our healing prayers for the water. Life would not exist without water. We pray for clean water for ourselves and future generations. 

All with good intentions are invited to pray for the healing of the water. This is an indigenous ceremony led by Mississippi River Walkers under the direction of Sharon Day, an Ojibway elder in Minnesota. Please come join us in a respectful way. Bring your loose tobacco (and skirts for women) to thank, pray and sing for our greatest resource, water/ nibi.
These ceremonies are an extension of the prayer walks along the most polluted waters in the country . The Nibi (Water) Walks are Indigenous-led extended ceremonies to pray for our water. After the group walked from the start of the Mississippi to the Delta, one of the Anishinaabe Grandmothers, Sharon Day, asked if supporters would meet at 9:00 am on Sundays from the beginning of the river to the end and continued the prayer for the healing of the water. People have been standing in support of water at the rivers since the 2013 Mississippi River Walk.
For more information visit www.nibiwalk.org. Songs and photos are on the web sight. Contact one of the host with questions.

For Updates, please check on the Facebook event page, Water Healing Ceremony here.

 

Unite to Protect the Inlet

Unceded Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver)

 

Unite.png

2pm Pacific Time, Celebration/Demonstration on UN-Water World Water Day with:

Tsleil-Waututh Nation Sacred Trust Representatives Carleen Thomas and Charlene Aleck
Holly Arntzen
The Gram Partisans
Left Labour Choir
Rita Wong
MP Fin Donnelly, Deputy Critic for Fisheries and Oceans (West Coast)
Information tables
MC Benjamin West

New Brighton Park, Vancouver/Unceded Coast Salish Territory. ALL WELCOME – For more details check out the Facebook Event page Unite to Protect the Inlet here.

 

World Water Day Ceremony on the Salish Sea

At the English Bay Inukshuk, Unceded Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver)

 

The International Council of the Thirteen Grandmothers invites you to English Bay tomorrow at 430pm Pacific Time:

 

WE MAY CHANGE LOCATION TO SOMEWHERE NEARBY (INDOORS) IF IT IS RAINING – STANDBY FOR FINAL LOCATION ANNOUNCEMENT!
Updates can be found on the Facebook event page for World Water Day Ceremony on the Salish Sea here.

LoveWater.jpg♥~~All My Relations, we are excited to announce the #LoveWater campaign as part of this year’s World Water Day on Sunday, March 22, 2015, uniting millions across the world to raise awareness about the sacred nature of water, our most precious resource. 

♥~~At 4:30 pm, all Colors of the World from the Four Directions are welcome in traditional regalia, and to carry any kind of loving water display, to a Sacred Water Ceremony at the Inukshuk at English Bay, Vancouver, B.C. 
♥~~Unify #LoveWater A Global Moment of Synchronization at 6:00pm Pacific Standard Time.
♥~~Please join our leaders and elders: Ta-ah George, Chief Rueben George, Chief Phil Lane Jr., and Mona Polacca (of the Thirteen Grandmothers), and many other leaders, chiefs, and youth, and water advocates, in ceremony that will be broadcast globally. 
♥~~Many groups, organizations, alliances and advocates will be representing, including the Salish Sea Marine Sanctuary, The Four Worlds, and the International Indigenous Leadership Gathering. 
♥~~As a unified people, we will honour the life-giving preciousness of water that keeps each creature alive on our planet in ceremony, song, dance and mediation! 
♥~~We will start with a Sacred Water Ceremony of 19 Women Water Carriers from various Colors of the World, who will combine the Sacred Water from all over mother earth and then carry the unified water to the Salish Sea. 
♥~~At 6:00pm we will synchronize with millions around the globe in a moment of silence and meditation to honour our connection to Mother Earth through the gift of water. 

Please bring a small container of water from your home or sacred waterways as we will combine it in ceremony. Each person is welcome to leave with a small amount of the combined Sacred Water after the ceremony. 

♥~~Come one, come all, to honour and bring awareness through ceremony in protecting our Sacred Water, worldwide. #LoveWater 

♥~~If you cannot attend, please feel free to host a World Water Day event in your area on this day (Please also register your event at World Water Day so that it can be mapped world wide)