Importance of water stressed – MiningJournal.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Marquette Information | The Mining Journal

As many of you may have heard by now, I walked with the copper pail with water from the Gulf of Mexico last Saturday when Sandy Stein and I caught up with the Mother Earth Water Walkers between Old Post and Reserve at LCO.  Anna Merritt and I are going to Bad River Reservation tomorrow, June 10. Follow-up on this day afterwards.

Please take the time to read about the important issue of protecting water for all species and for generations to come. Water is a gift and not a resource to be plundered, contaminated, bought and sold.

Importance of water stressed – MiningJournal.net | News, Sports, Jobs, Marquette Information | The Mining Journal.

Today when you take that sip water, be sure to thank the water. She has been taken for granted and disrespected for far too long. In ancient times and with many tribal cultures of today, people remember to thank the water and honor her for the gift of life she brings.

Mother Earth Water Walkers Press Release

Press Release – For Immediate Release

Ottawa, ON (17 May 2011) – The Native Women’s Association of Canada is acknowledging with the highest esteem the Grandmothers and other supporters who are walking from the four oceans that surround North America. The leaders of the Water Walk carry copper vessels that contain the “healing and sacred salt water” from the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and from Hudson Bay that will be used in a ceremony where the waters converge in Bad River, Wisconsin on June 12, 2011. The water will then be united in Lake Superior where the first Water Walk began in 2003.

Water is a life force that has been respected and honoured through ceremony since time immemorial by the world’s Indigenous peoples. With this respect it is of growing concern that many Indigenous people and others around the world do not have access clean drinking water.

The women in the Water Walk, many whom are Elders have taken on a physically daunting campaign journeying over 10,400,000 steps to raise awareness about the crisis. Like many great concerns it is the women who lead and give voice to the issue.

“The Anishinaabe, also known as the Ojibwe, Odawa and Potawatomi, are the caretakers of the eastern woodlands and Great Lakes, the largest freshwater system on Earth. Anishinaabe women, as givers-of-life, are responsible for speaking for, protecting and carrying our water.” (Mother Earth Water Walk, 2011)

NWAC, NGO’s and government officials are listening and will respond. You too can support the walkers! For more information see http://www.motherearthwaterwalk.com/ and follow them on Facebook.

Art and Spiritual Quilts

Please visit http://www.carolbridgesartquilts.com or http://www.sacredarts.infoto to see Carol Bridges beautiful quilts. This is fiber art at its best. Many are already sold. We think you will love her work. In honor of the water and dedicated to women who are the protectors of water, we are showcasing Carol’s quilt on our Blog. The quilt Emergence is a prayer to protect all water species especially after  the oil contamination in the Gulf of Mexico.

Emergence by Carol Bridges

Carol Bridges quilt Emergence

“Emergence”  is an homage to the creatures of the Gulf of Mexico. May all the fish and turtles and dolphins, whales and others be lifted from their suffering, their souls again returned to the Mother of the Sea. 30″ x 30″. $1200.

There is a connection between the monarch butterfly and the creatures and plants of the Gulf. Many monarchs willl be flying through the gulf area and we wish them good speed to the other side as they return to Mexico. Here is a poem from the 18th century Polish poet Ignacy Krasicki:

The Wagon-Driver and the Butterfly

A wagon got stuck in the mud, and couldn’t move.
The driver was tired, the horse exhausted.
A butterfly, sitting on the wagon, thought:
“I’m told compassion is a virtue.”
He flew off, calling back to the wagon-driver:
“Now get going, bless you!”

Source: Ken Parejko, Monarch of the Butterflies, page 88.