This Anishinaabe ceremony calls for perseverance in connecting with the water, giving hope for healing the polluted water of Hamilton Harbour
The Hamilton Water Walk is a four-year Anishinaabe ceremony that inspires participants to connect with a body of water, in this case the Hamilton Harbour and Cootes Paradise. Once a year during the cycle, a multi-day walk around the body of water begins at daybreak and concludes when the whole of the body of water have been encircled.
This year, the Hamilton Water Walk completed its second cycle on Oct. 12 and Oct. 13. Throughout the two days, a sacred fire was kept ablaze at Princess Point while participants walked around the perimeter of the harbour. To commemorate the end of the ceremony, a feast was held at Princess Point.
The water walk ceremony was developed by Josephine Mandamin in 2003 for the Great Lakes. Mandamin, an Anishinaabe elder, was a water activist famous for walking around the entirety of the Great Lakes starting from the Wikwemikong First Nation in Ontario.
Danielle Boissoneau, who has had the teachings of Mandamin passed to her, is a McMaster alumna and an organizer of the Hamilton Water Walk. She cites the connection that Indigenous women have with the water as a motivation for the ceremony. "Indigenous women, particularly, have a very close relationship with the land and the water in terms of observation and relationships and experiences," said Boissoneau.
Indigenous women, particularly, have a very close relationship with the land and the water in terms of observation and relationships and experiences.
Danielle Boissoneau, organizer
Hamilton Water Walk
The first cycle of the annual water walk around Hamilton Harbour began in 2017. Boissoneau explained how the walk came to be in Hamilton with her fellow activist Kristen Villebrun. "Kristen was able to determine that something was wrong with the water in the harbor because of the amount of human waste that she was seeing on the shorelines," said Boissoneau.
Boissoneau shared that she and Villebrun wanted a way to draw attention to this issue that would disrupt people's everyday lives. "Historically that would have been through protests, rallies or marches and at that point in time Grandma Josephine Mandamin started to do water walks, she inspired me so greatly because she was so peaceful, so determined, but she was still making such a huge presence," said Boissoneau.
The second cycle was initiated in response to information about the water quality of Hamilton Harbour that was reported by a 2019 article by The Hamilton Spectator. The piece exposed a four-year cover up of 24 billion litres of human waste being leaked into Chedoke Creek and Cootes Paradise over that period of time. This news incited Boissoneau and the other organizers to begin the second water walk, this time around Cootes Paradise in addition to the Hamilton Harbour.
Boissoneau outlined her frustration with the increased development around the harbour and its effect on the ceremony. "There's not much to see and be grateful for because of the amount of destruction and the industry. Around Burlington side, you just see country clubs and golf courses. Both of these things stand in the way of us getting close to the water, and our ability to maintain our focus, a huge part of our ceremony," said Boissoneau.
There's not much to see and be grateful for because of the amount of destruction and the industry. Around Burlington side, you just see country clubs and golf courses. Both of these things stand in the way of us getting close to the water, and our ability to maintain our focus, a huge part of our ceremony.
Danielle Boissoneau, organizer
Hamilton Water Walk
Boissoneau added that the water walks and their work are not complete. "The situation in the harbour is not getting better, there's still sewage being leaked, especially when it rains a lot. I don't believe that the wastewater system that Hamilton has is equipped to deal with the population or the industry that it currently has," said Boissoneau.
Boissoneau encourages anyone to make a connection with the water and give offerings through one's presence. "It doesn't need to be this gigantic ceremony for you to go down and make a relationship with the water and make your own offerings for the water. Just let the water know that you're there," said Boissoneau.
It doesn't need to be this gigantic ceremony for you to go down and make a relationship with the water and make your own offerings for the water. Just let the water know that you're there.
Danielle Boissoneau, organizer
Hamilton Water Walk
The importance of making a personal, individual connection with the water was emphasized by Boissoneau. She emphasized that the work is not finished and that a third cycle of water walks is likely.
Cassandra Jeffery
Assistant InsideOut Editor
The startling documentary Blue Gold was screened on the McMaster campus on March 5 as an attempt to spark the interest of our student body on world water crises.
The first official event of McMaster’s Water Awareness Week (WAW) was followed by a discussion period by representatives of a number of student-run organizations, including Hamilton Students for Social Justice, Global Citizenship Planning Committee, Paws@Mac and the McMaster Water Initiative.
The documentary Blue Gold illustrated the horrible reality of the globe’s corrupt water industries. Water, a basic human necessity, is stripped away from those who need it most, privatized by large corporations and re-distributed at crippling prices.
Globally, Canada is a privileged country, yet along with privilege and a bountiful supply of fresh water we have become blind to the hardships others must endure just to have safe drinking water.
Justine Schultes and her fellow committee members have rallied together in order to bring water awareness to Mac students and initiate a number of green movements, such as wise water use, the banning of plastic bottles on campus and in the public sphere, steps to recycling smart and the reorganization of Hamilton as a Blue Community. McMaster’s WAW offers a series of seminars, lectures and presentations in order to educate students on the global, national and provincial water discrepancies.
“It is vitally important that we as the next generation recognize the issues surrounding access to freshwater worldwide and how here in Canada we may be impacted by the strain on the world’s fresh water resources,” says Schultes.
Although the water crisis falls into the hands of everyone, it’s the younger and future generations who will have to pay the consequences if this issue is not treated as priority.
“We need to recognize water as a human right,” states Schultes. Aside from a human’s vital need for water, our agricultural and fragile ecosystems also require uncontaminated water in order survive and ultimately sustain our lifestyle. If we can recognize water as a basic human need, then, ideally, it would be impossible to ignore such a fundamental human right.
The WAW event on March 6 was the “Blue Community Workshop,” held open to Mac students who wished to participate in an informal discussion on the water systems in the Hamilton area.
Various issues were raised, such as the need for greater stringencies to be placed on our recycling system. Students often do not take the time to properly recycle, which includes rinsing and drying any recyclable material thrown into the blue bin. Often, this ignorance leads to contamination of the entire unit of recyclables, meaning that most of it is thrown out as waste.
Another issue raised in the WAW event was the need for communication between the Canadian government and our citizens. Schultes and her committee facilitate discussion around the need for transparency in our governmental affairs, especially when dealing with our water supply.
“A lot of things are being done to our water systems without our knowledge,” says Schultes. For example, the government has been discussing the draining of Canadian lakes to facilitate corporate use, and the CETA trade bill in the works will allow the European Union to utilize our fresh water supply as they wish. Schultes suggests that we need to implement a national policy and have the same water legislations for all provinces.
Water Awareness week will conclude on Saturday, March 10 with a discussion panel at the Global Citizenship Conference.
Prior to this date, several events will be held as a way to bring the global and national water crises to the forefront of student politics. If interested, students can check out dates and times via the Facebook page of Water Awareness Week 2012, McMaster University.
