Wiikwemkoong Water Walker delivers teachings on the sacredness of water

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—Water Walker Josephine Mandamin emphasized the importance of continuing to raise awareness about water during the Biidaaban Healing Lodge Empowering Our Nation Annual Wellness Conference in Thunder Bay from May 14-16.

“I need to bring as much information about the water to people,” says Mandamin, who began her water walks around all five Great Lakes, down the St. Lawrence River and across Turtle Island with a walk around Lake Superior in 2003. “This is a good way to do it. [There’s] a large crowd, lots of people from all over. I just met some from Christian Island.”

Mandamin, a Wiikwemkoong citizen who lives in Thunder Bay, says people need to be spiritual in their thinking when they are participating in activities such as the water walks.

“If they don’t, they will run into problems,” Mandamin says. “They will get political, and water walking is not political.”

Mandamin is pleased that her niece Autumn Peltier, from Wiikwemkoong, is continuing her journey on the water walks.

“She’s been through many water walks and she’s been my helper in many ways,” Mandamin says. “She’s really taken to heart about the water. She really believes in taking care of the water.”

Mandamin delivered her Sacredness of Water keynote address on the third day of the conference. Other presenters included Garden River’s Barbara Nolan on Truth and Reconciliation, Red Rock Indian Band’s Ron Kanutski on Reclaiming Our Youth and Long Lake #58’s Bridget Perrier on Human Trafficking and the Exploitation of Our Girls.

“I wanted to dwell on how do we move forward, what do we do,” Nolan says. “A man shared about the forgiveness stage — that is the final thing that happens in our healing journey is to forgive. We’ll always remember the things that happened to us, but we don’t have to stay there. We have to learn to move on.”

Kanutski says the highlight of his presentation was “seeing the ‘aha’ look” on the faces of participants.

“That’s when you know you’ve reached someone,” Kanutski says. “When we’re going to talk about working with youth, we have to pay attention to them first and foremost. I think that’s the key.”

Kanutski adds that people need to love what they are doing to be successful in working with youth.

“If you’re going to work with youth, you’ve got to love it,” Kanutski says. “And relating to young people at their terms and at what they enjoy, what they connect to.”

Perrier says the ages of prostitutes are younger now than when she became involved in prostitution in the late 1980s.

“I’ve seen the whole act in general is more violent and pimping has become more violent,” Perrier says. “We really have to be keen of what is happening in our city [and] in northwestern Ontario.”

Other workshops were presented on Lateral Violence, Trauma Recovery, Seven Grandfather/Generations Teachings, Gang Prevention, Birchbark Basket Making, Beading and Healing and SAFE Talk certification. A Healing Through Laughter comedy show was also held on the first evening of the conference by Kanutski.

“[The conference] gets information out to our First Nation communities, and this year’s topic was Empowering Our Nation,” says Simone Desmoulin, Biidaaban’s executive director. “It went really well — we’ve doubled in size from last year with double the participants. We’ve grown, we’ve evolved, it’s an exciting time.”

The Biidaaban Healing Lodge, located in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, is a 12-unit facility that provides services to Aboriginal people living in the Robinson Superior Treaty area.