The Kickapoo Earth Day Committee invites you to come out to the Gays Mills Community Building, Saturday, May 28 at 7:00pm to a wild sourced feast prepared by Carrie Kneidler and Bjorn Bergman. There is no charge for the meal and you bring your own utensils and a dish to pass. This is our community’s way to support and welcome the Mother Earth Water Walk to the Driftless Area.
Spring is a time of growth and renewal and to honor that a small group of Indigenous women, elders and youth gathered at sunrise on April 20 in Gulfport, Mississippi and began walking more than 1430 miles north to Lake Superior in Wisconsin. Carrying a copper vessel of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico, they have been walking forty miles a day over a six week period to reach their destination.
On June 12, at the Bad River Reservation near Ashland, Wisconsin, they will meet other groups carrying water from the Atlantic, Hudson Bay and the Pacific – representing all four directions of Turtle Island, as Indigenous people call North America. When they get there they will meet with the three other teams, mix the water together and pour it into the lake to symbolically cleanse.
On May 28, three Native American women will take turns carrying a copper water vessel and an Eagle Feather Staff as they walk along Wisconsin State Highway 61 on their way from Fennimore to Readstown. Sharon Day says they are on what is called a water walk. “We, Anishinabequay, are undertaking this endeavor because it is our responsibility to care for our water. We hope to educate our communities about the damage we are doing to our Mother Earth, to the water, and ultimately to the plants and animals. Water is essential to Life.”
The women raised some money before the water walk , and they have been relying on the good nature of strangers for help along the way. . You will have a chance to participate in a free will offering to help them on their way. The Kickapoo Earth Day committee will host them to a feast and lodging over night in Gays Mills.
There will be entertainment provided by local talent of poetry and music. There will be remarks from the Water Walkers and answering of questions. The audience will be encouraged to interact with walkers. Also, the walkers will be asking people to join them on their walk from Readstown to Sparta, the next day, May 29, Sunday. Both men and women are welcome to help carry the water. Women are asked to wear skirts.
They travel with a van and walk on and off on the 40 mile per day trip. You can do the same with your own vehicle and participate as much or as little as you wish, joining at any point along the way and dropping out again, as you wish. Women and girls are asked to wear skirts.
59 year old Sharon Day says she chose to walk from the Gulf because the Mississippi River has special meaning. “I live a block from the Mississippi in St. Paul and I have had water ceremonies at the head waters where the water is so pure and clean you can drink it. But when it gets to St Paul, nobody would drink it,” Day said.
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