Water is life: The cosmology of water among the Anishinaabe
We’ve known for a long time that water is alive. Water can hear you. Water can sense what you are saying and what you are feeling.… Give it respect and it can come alive. Like anything. Like a person who is sick…if you give them love, take care of them, they’ll come alive. (Josephine Mandamin)
The Anishinaabe are a collective group of First Nations people that are related culturally and linguistically, who live across Canada and the United States in the Great Lakes region (Hele, 2022). Anishinaabeg groups include the Ojibwe, Chippewa, Odawa, Potawatomi, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Nipissing and Mississauga First Nations (Hele, 2022). These groups reside from the Ottawa River Valley across Northern Ontario and Saskatchewan, to the northeast of North Dakota, and the northern shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie (Hele, 2022).
Anishinaabe worldview
Traditionally, indigenous people have a holistic understanding of the world, and a reciprocal physical and spiritual connection with nature (Reynolds, 2003). The natural world, and water in particular, co-exist with humans and connects them to the rest of Creation (McGregor, 2009). All elements of nature are interconnected and everything has mystical and spiritual power (Reynolds, 2003). Water is a living relation and living entity to the Anishinaabeg, that deserves to be cared for and respected in order to be clean and of use to the people (McGregor, 2009). Water supports various life forms such as people, animals, and plants while other life forms like rain and fish supports water (McGregor, 2009). Water, just as humans have duties to fulfil, has a responsibility to the rest of Creation (McGregor, 2009).
The way of life for the Anishinaabe people is centered on relationships and responsibilities of all beings of Creation (Craft, 2014; McGregor 2009). Rights, obligations, and duties are associated with these relationships, and are practised both individually and collectively (Craft, 2014). Creation stories and Anishinaabe myths are crucial in understanding sacred law also referred to as the initial spiritual instruction (Craft, 2014). These stories narrate and teach the people of the responsibilities towards other spiritual and physical beings, and instructs them on beliefs about the world (Craft, 2014). Each story contains a law or teaching, and is passed down by community Elders by memory and retold orally (Craft, 2014). Moreover, Anishinaabe communities maintain an ongoing relationship between the Dead and the Living or between Ancestors and Descendants (McGregor, 2009).
The significance of water
What binds the various Anishinaabeg groups together are profound cultural characteristics relating to origin stories (Hele, 2022). According to the creation story of the Anishinaabe, long ago the first people on Earth, or the Original People, began to stray from their harmonious and peaceful ways, and started to fight and kill with one another (Ningwakwe Learning Press, 2011). To purify the Earth, Kitchi-Manitou, or the Great Spirit sent a flood to rid the Earth of all people and animals (Ningwakwe Learning Press, 2011). The story continues with one of the surviving animals, a muskrat, diving to the bottom of water and grabbing a handful of dirt which is placed on Turtle’s back to rebuild the Earth (Ningwakwe Learning Press, 2011). In this story, the use and symbolism of water takes a central theme in Anishinaabe culture. Water can destroy and purify, but is also where life originates. Traditional knowledge maintains that human beings are created from the physical world and that they are a part of Mother Earth, by virtue of being her children (Reynolds, 2003). The belief that all aspects of Creation are interwoven, is where the sustainable relationship between humans and the environment originates (McGregor, 2009). So, when water quality and resources are threatened among the Anishinaabe, it is not only an environmental issue, but impacts all aspects of their survival including spiritual, physical, and mental wellbeing (McGregor, 2009).
Another example of the importance of water in stories, can be found in the retelling of Anishinaabe migration (Kozich et al., 2018). According to Kozich et al. (2018), the Anishinaabe were following a prophecy to find manoomin (wild rice), ‘the food that grows on water’, that was historically abundant in the Great Lakes region. Wild rice is still an essential healthy food item, and its annual planting and harvesting remains a sacred tradition across the Great Lakes (Kozich et al., 2018). During traditional harvests, offerings of tobacco are given to the lake or river to pacify water spirits, to be granted calm waters, safe travel, and a bountiful harvest (Nelson, 2014). Mizhi-Bizheu, the ‘Great Lynx’, a water spirit who lives at the bottom of the ocean and all water bodies, is believed to be responsible for drownings and water accidents (Nelson, 2014). Mizhi-Bizheu is often depicted as part serpent, and is a sacred, powerful spirit that needs to be appeased through offerings and ceremonies (Nelson, 2014).
Additionally, Anishinaabe cultural lifeways closely dependent on the resources of the Great Lakes (Kozich et al., 2018). For instance, the seasonal movements of tribes was decided based on the location and availability of numerous fish and plant species across the region (Kozich et al., 2018).
Water and women
Water is considered a precious resource and is often associated with feminine roles and symbolism (Reynolds, 2003). Water is believed to be life itself and is the principal life-giving force, as expressed through the phrase ‘water is life’ (McGregor, 2009). Similarly, women are also the givers of life, and the first environment for new life is in a mother’s womb (Dennis and Bell 2020). Because of this, women have a unique bond to water and throughout their lives, Anishinaabe women have spoken for water (Dennis and Bell 2020). Water is vital to the identities, practices, cultural traditions, and wellness of women’s communities (Dennis and Bell 2020). Water is recognized as the lifeblood that flows through Nookomisoki, or Mother Earth and because the people are a part of Mother Earth, it is also the lifeblood of the Anishinaabe from a physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional perspective (McGregor, 2009; Reynolds, 2003). Earth is regarded as a woman, and water sustains Mother Earth, nourishing her, and purifying her (McGregor, 2009).
Women are ongoing keepers of water and while men would traditionally hunt for game, women would gather water and lead ceremonies to preserve water (Reynolds, 2003). Ceremonies were held to remind the people of their profound relationship with water, and to show respect to the resource (McGregor, 2009). A group of Anishinaabe women, called Akii Kwe, describe how healing ceremonies, naming ceremonies, women’s ceremonies and rites of passage are all carried out with sacred water from their Purification Lodge (McGregor, 2009). Furthermore, a pilgrimage to the water to honour the Spirit of the Water, is carried out at each change of the seasons (McGregor, 2009).
A prominent Anishinaabe elder and water-rights advocate who illustrates this female connection more deeply, is Josephine Henrietta Mandamin (21 February 1942–22 February 2019) (Gallant 2020). Mandamin was born and raised in the Lake Huron area, and was a residential school survivor who was known by her community as ‘Grandmother Water Walker’ and Biidaasige-ba (‘the one who comes with the light’) (Gallant 2020). During a Sun Dance Ceremony in Minnesota in 2000, Mandamin was told by Grand Chief Eddie Benton-Banaise who had a dream that by 2023, water would cost the same as gold as a result of pollution (Gallant 2020). To combat water pollution and to remind people of the Anishinaabe belief that ‘water is life’ and is sacred, Mandamin organized a series of Water Walks from 2003 to 2017 (Gallant 2020). Her activism is an expression of women’s roles as protectors and keepers of water. Even after Mandamin’s passing, her actions continue to inspire other Anishinaabe communities into organizing their own water walks and raise awareness to take care of the water (Johnson, 2017).
The Anishinaabe worldview is based on a holistic understanding of all beings of Creation and their duties to one another. Human beings are tasked with protecting water as told through creation stories, and it is an integral part of Anishinaabe spiritual and physical wellbeing. Women in particular serve as keepers and guardians of water, and are actively trying to remind as many people as possible about the sacred and cultural significance of water.
References
Craft, A. (2014). Anishinaabe nibi inaakonigewin report. Available at SSRN 3433235.
Dennis, Mary, and Finn Bell. 2020. “Indigenous Women, Water Protectors, and Reciprocal
Responsibilities.” Social Work 65.
Gallant, David Joseph. 2020. “Josephine Mandamin.”
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/josephine-mandamin (February 7, 2023).
Hele, K. (2022). Anishinaabe. The Canadian Encyclopedia. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/Anishinaabe
Johnson, Rhiannon. 2017. “‘It’s Really Very Crucial Right Now’: Great Lakes Water Walk
Focuses on Protecting ‘lifeblood’ | CBC News.” CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/great-lake-water-walk-meant-to-spread-awareness-open-to-all-1.4303050 (February 7, 2023).
Kozich, Andrew T., Kathleen E. Halvorsen, and Alex S. Mayer. 2018. “Perspectives on Water
Resources among Anishinaabe and Non-Native Residents of the Great Lakes Region.” Journal of Contemporary Water Research & Education 163(1): 94–108.
McGregor, D. (2009). Honouring our relations: An anishnaabe perspective on environmental
justice. In Speaking for ourselves: environmental justice in Canada (pp. 50–64).
Nelson, M. K. (2014). Rivers of memory, lakes of survival: indigenous water traditions and the
Anishinaabeg nation. In Deep Blue (pp. 85–104). Routledge.
Ningwakwe Learning Press. (2011, May 5). The ojibway creation story [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etn92Ms8plo&feature=youtu.be
Reynolds, G. C. (2003). A Native American water ethic. Transactions, 90, 143–161.
Wikimedia Commons. (2009). Underwater panther.
