Honouring water on World Water Day
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY — Fort William Elder Sheila DeCorte and Lakehead University associate professor Robert Stewart honoured water during Lakehead University’s World Water Day event on March 24 at the Faculty Lounge on the Thunder Bay campus.
“I’m a Water Walker so I’m going to share some water reflections with you from the time my journey began to where it is today,” Elder DeCorte says. “Instead of doing an opening prayer and land acknowledgement and the thanksgiving address, I’m going to omit those things and instead open with a Water Song that I’m going to invite you all to, if you know it, you can sing it.”
Elder DeCorte says the participants were also offered cups of water during her presentation.
“But before you drink the water you get, I’m going to invite you to speak to the water and tell her you love her, tell her you respect her, and most importantly, give thanks before you drink the water that is being handed out to you,” she says. “So that’s how I’m going to open with the Water Song.”
Elder DeCorte says her water Jingle Dress was unveiled a couple of years ago during the City of Thunder Bay’s World Water Day event.
“It took me a lot of years to finally get my water Jingle Dress made,” she says. “When our [late Grandmother Water Walker Josephine Mandamin-baa] was sick in 2019, she called all the Jingle Dress dancers to come and do a healing dance for her, and I was invited to go and dance also, but I said I’m not a Jingle Dress dancer — she said, ‘That’s OK, you can wear one of mine’. I think that was her way of prompting and planting that seed that I need to make myself a water Jingle Dress.”
Elder DeCorte says she only wears her water Jingle Dress when she is doing work for the water.
“So when I go to a pow wow where there’s a source of water close by, I will pick up water from that water source and bring it into the pow wow circle along with my staff,” she says. “And speak to that water to the community, so that [they] will help bring awareness to the community of what they can do to help care for their own water in their area.”
Elder DeCorte also spoke about the upcoming Water Walk that they will be holding in September.
“This year is going to be different because we just finished our second four-year commitment,” she shares, noting that they will be holding just one Water Walk this year focused on the Kaministiquia River. “It will be a water/land-based ceremony and experience.”
Elder DeCorte says the dates for the Water Walk, which is a partnership between her and Lakehead University’s Outdoor Recreation, Parks and Tourism program and its students, have not yet been finalized.
“In 2024 was the first time that we were able to transfer from land to water, and being on the water in 2024 was an amazing, powerful experience,” Elder DeCorte says. “And it just made it more clear that’s where we need to be.”
Stewart, associate professor, Geography and The Environment at Lakehead University, shared a film about the experiences of a group of Lakehead University students during a 50-day research trip on Lake Superior.
“They were on kayaks going from island to island, and I went out for 20 days with them,” Stewart says. “When you’re out there that long, you fall into this rhythm with the waves and you’re sleeping on the shores of islands and the lake really starts to speak to you, and it starts to change the rhythm of who you are.”
Stewart says the World Water Day event was about honouring the water.
“And reminding ourselves how much it does provide for us and give to us,” Stewart says. “It’s not just a resource, it’s something that cares for us and teaches us, so today I think was a lot about taking the time to remind ourselves of that.”