KENORA – On Friday April 10, the Grassy Narrows Women’s Drum Group will be hosting an Anishinaabe Water Ceremony starting at 1pm on the CN Rail Main Line near Mile 106 and Highway 671 between Grassy Narrows First Nation and Kenora, Ontario in Treaty #3, at a location where the railway tracks run along the southern edges of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Grassy Narrows) Traditional Territory.
Recent events have created an escalated awareness of increasing threats to waters from transported tarsands bitumen (and the explosive chemicals they are mixed with). Derailments and pipeline spills have and will continue to do permanent damage to lakes and rivers if action is not taken to protect our future generations from water pollution.
Friday’s Ceremony is being held in solidarity with people impacted by recent disastrous derailments near Mattagami First Nation (Gogoma, Ont) and elsewhere, as well as in solidarity with the “Act on Climate” March taking place in Quebec City this weekend.
Grassy Narrows Youth Group members as well as Elders and community memberswill also be in attendance on Friday, in part to make connections between the need to protect the waters for future generations and the tragic legacy of mercury poisoning and the ongoing struggle against Ontario’s plans for widespread industrial clearcutting in their Traditional Territory. Youth and other community members will be present with banners and placards, drumming and singing, and taking part in the Ceremony.
