Water, Women and a Path to Indigenization
‘If the power of the Celtic woman is the power of place speaking, then this is the gift that we can offer to our world, the contribution that we can make to the healing of our Wasteland… Be the power of the land speaking. Pass the gift on. Pass it on, and in this way we, like our female ancestors from long ago, like the goddesses of Sovereignty in our native mythology, become guardians and protectors of the land. By taking up these ancient roles, we begin to restore life to the Wasteland. Refuse the continuing destruction, because what hurts the Earth hurts us. Because we are the whole Earth. We are the Voices of the Wells; we are the power of the land, speaking. Use your voice. Speak.’ - Author, Sharon Blackie
Pathways.
Indigenization is achieved through multiple pathways. One part is action. Taking steps to restore one’s relationship with the land, the water and your ancestral traditions. One part is education. Women of the Water has curated a curriculum of texts, articles, teachings, and pedagogy to give a frame of context for colonization and the generational trauma we have inherited. This can shed light on the direction we need to go - to learn and unlearn who we are, where we come from and our ‘belonging’ in the new story we are writing together.
Indigenization through Relationship and Reciprocity
For many people today who have been displaced from the land and culture of their ancestors and raised in a westernized societal framework, it is a strange and mysterious quest to restore a true indigenous mindset and way of walking in the world. Did my ancestors once walk harmoniously with the land? Am I helpless and hopelessly stuck with a permanent status of colonizer? Of refugee? Of immigrant or descendant of immigrants? Of slavery & descendant of slaves? Of ‘other’ displaced and brutalized by the legacy of colonization and stolen land? Am I locked in to the identity I have been raised with? Is there a way to restore authentic connection to my ancestral practices? What is Rematriation? And is it enough? Or must I consider Repatriation and Land Back?
These are some of the questions many are and all of us must ask if we are to forge the path for a just future.
How can I begin to restore an authentic connection to my ancestral practices? Explore your relationships…
Relationship to time (knowing your ancestral methods of timekeeping)
Relationship to the land (working in the earth — farming, agriculture, husbandry)
Relationship to the landscape (knowing your land and water)
Relationship to sacred sites (knowing the history of the land and how to tend the sacred or thin places)
Relationship to ancestors (knowing the stories of the ancestors, creating a relationship with them spiritually, through the land, restoring rituals, etc.)
Relationship to original language
Relationship to original crafts, skills, survival techniques (boats, baskets, blankets, etc.)
Relationship to music (singing the songs of the ancestors and the land)
Relationship to our physical bodies (how do we work, how do we listen, how do we perceive)