February 12, 2022

Quote of the Week

"We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors--we borrow it from our children." --Native American proverb

Learning From Indigenous Wisdom-keepers

"I first met Indigenous wisdom keepers as a child. After days of off-road driving to the Gran Sabana in Venezuela, we had arrived at the ancestral lands of the Pemón people, where they still lived. 'Go fill up your thermoses with water from the river,' my father said. As I got out of the car with my round, red canteen strapped over my shoulder, I knew that I wanted to be a part of whatever was going on at that river.[...] This is my first memory of meeting those who treated the river as a respected being. At that time, I didn’t know the mental, emotional, and physical depth of this connection with the river. I didn’t know of their spiritual relationship with Tuwenkaron, the name the Pemón gave to the feminine sort of energy they experienced from the river. I just knew that I felt her too as I drank her exquisite water, and that engaging with her in this way made simple sense to me as a child [...].

Time passed, and I welcomed my daughter into this world and raised her in the ancestral lands of the Ohlone and Coastal Miwok people, now known as the San Francisco Bay Area. Naturally, I wanted to offer her what my parents had given me—an opportunity to be guided first-hand by Native knowledge holders. As a filmmaker, I started to envision a project where I would ask a young Native person if they might share one word from their ancestral language—a word that changed their life and a word they could offer to the next generation as medicine to heal our relationship with the Earth." Read more in this week's article from Yes! magazine about what the creator of the short film One Word Sawalmem learned while collaborating with indigenous wisdom-keepers.

Reading Corner

Title: We are Water Protectors
By: Carole Lindstrom
Ages: 5-9

"Water is the first medicine [...] It is an element that connects all of us, and all the other living creatures on our planet." So when our water is threatened, one who takes a stand to protect it becomes a water protector. Ojibwe author Carole Lindstrom and Tlingit/Haida illustrator Michaela Goade were inspired by the many Indigenous-led movements to protect this precious resource for this Caldecott Medal-winning book, but they also remind readers that this issue is goes beyond a single community, country, or race: "we are all related," they point out, and if we take action, we can all be water protectors.

Be the Change

Reflect on your own relationship with water. Try out some of these ideas to teach kids how to save water this week. If you want more insights on learning from indigenous wisdom-keepers, read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.