Mother Earth Water Walk is an

Anishinaabe The Anishinaabe (alternatively spelled Anishinabe, Anicinape, Nishnaabe, Neshnabé, Anishinaabeg, Anishinabek, Aanishnaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of C ...

led initiative dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of water and the need for protection of water. Organizers and participants have walked around bodies of water since 2003 as a way of taking action against water pollution.

History

In 2003 Anishinaabe grandmothers, including Grandmother Josephine Mandamin, along with many Anishinaabe women and men, began walking around the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes spanning the Canada–United States border. The five lakes are Lake Superior, Superior, Lake Michigan, Michigan, Lake Huron, H ...

Turtle Island Turtle Island is a name for Earth or North America, used by some Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American Indigenous peoples, as well as by some Indigenous rights, Indigenous rights activists. The name is based on a creation myth common to se ...

. They came together to raise awareness about society's negligence towards water. In 2011 a

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; )Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary units, department of the Gove ...

study found that 122 First Nation communities were under water advisories. The rising need for water preservation and clean water inspired a much larger water walk to take place in 2011. The 2011 Mother Earth Water Walk involved walks collecting water from the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Lake Superior Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. Lake Michigan–Huron has a larger combined surface area than Superior, but is normally considered tw ...

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

and the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. Water from the four directions and four bodies of water was walked to Bad River, Wisconsin and mixed with Lake Superior waters during a ceremony on June 12, 2011. Since its conception Mother Earth Water Walkers have walked over 10,000 miles along the shores of bodies of Water in Canada, Central America, and the United States. In 2016 Josephine Mandamin, founder of the Mother Earth Water Walk, was awarded the

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

's Ontario Heritage Award for her work raising awareness about

water conservation Water conservation aims to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, protect the hydrosphere, and meet current and future human demand. Water conservation makes it possible to avoid water scarcity. It covers all the policies, strateg ...

and the dangers of fracking, pollution, and the bottled water industry.

Past Walks

Mother Earth Water Walkers have traveled around numerous bodies of water to raise awareness about the need for water preservation. Walks have included: * Lake Superior (2003) * Lake Michigan (2004, 2008) * Lake Huron (2005) * Lake Ontario (2006) * Lake Erie (2007) * St. Lawrence River (200

* Four Directions Water Walk (2011) * Lake Monona (2012) * Lake Nipigon (2012) * Lake Winnebago (2015) * Sacred Walk (2015) * Back Forty Mine, Menominee River (2016)

Walks Inspired by the Mother Earth Water Walks

* Lake Winnipeg

Awards

* Excellence in Conservation, Ontario Heritage Trust, February 26, 2016 * 2015 Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award * October 2015, George R. Richardson Conservation Award of Honour * Lake Superior Magazine 2011 Achievement Award * Outstanding Achievement Award Winner, Earth Ball 2016 * Honouring Grandmother Josephine Mandamin 2017 * Diamond Jubilee Medal 2012

References

8. McGregor, Debra (September 2012). “Traditional Knowledge: Considerations for protecting Water in Ontario”
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1080&context=
The International Indigenous Policy Journal, Volume 3, Issue 3, Article 11

External links

* Mother Earth Water Walker websit

* Publisher, Second Story Press {{Cite web, url=https://secondstorypress.ca/kids/the-water-walker, title=The Water Walker, website=Second Story Press, language=en-US, access-date=2018-03-14, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315134010/https://secondstorypress.ca/kids/the-water-walker, archive-date=2018-03-15, url-status=dead Environmental organizations based in Ontario Water organizations Advocacy groups in Canada Canadian community activists Advocacy groups in the United States