Image courtesy Nibi Walks
Sunday, April 10 – 9 a.m. sharp
St. Croix Boom Site, Stillwater, MN (map)
An Ojibway Elder named Sharon Day will host a Water Ceremony on the banks of the St. Croix on Sunday morning. Day is a member of Nibi Walks, an organization of indigenous women who walk from source to mouth of rivers around Minnesota – starting with the entire Mississippi three years ago.
The Water Ceremony is a key part of the “Indigenous-led, extended ceremonies to pray for the water. Every step is taken in prayer and gratitude for water, our life-giving force.”
At the source of a river, the women collect a copper pail full of clear, fresh water, then carry it by hand to where the river empties into the sea or another body of water. Their 2013 Mississippi River walk traveled 1,754 miles from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, befouled by contamination from 1.2 million-square miles of America. Sixty-four days after setting out, they poured the pail into the polluted Gulf.
Day told the Women’s Press they gave “the Mississippi River a drink of herself.”
Women in attendance are asked to wear skirts. Attendees are invited to bring something to share and sit and visit at the site after the ceremony. If it’s too cold to be comfortable, the group will reconvene at The Main Café in downtown Stillwater.
Thanks to Julie Kilpatrick for alerting St. Croix 360 to this event.
A girl examining new life at the Boom Site, Thursday, April 7, 2016.