Environmental Engineering Reference
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oceans, the lakes, and the rivers. The tears that come from our eyes remind
us of our families and our ancestors.
Sometimes it is the sadness or the happiness that comes to us in forms
of songs and spiritual visions. We say that the mountain is sacred because
it contains the sacred spirits of our ancestors. They return to us in forms of
water and to our sacred bathing places where we cleanse our bodies. The
water provides our bodies and our spirits with blessing each day of our life
as it provides life to all of creations. We know that the water that flows from
the sacred mountain will nourish all things that the Creator placed on our
sacred mountain. The water that travels to the ocean will nourish and feed all
of those things that live in the ocean - the fish, the shellfish, etc. It is the
fragrance of the mountain, which guides the salmon back to its place of birth.
We as First Nations have seen water when it was clean and it is sacred to
all of creation. We now see other governments and corporations seeking
ownership to polluted waters and dying oceans/lakes/rivers/streams. If we
are going to save the water and the land, we must change the way we see
things and share the protected water so that all of creation will benefit from
our true discipline, which was given to us by the Creator.
as water. Including a critical discussion of the cultural politics of borders (and border-
making) helps to identify, and thereby address more effectively, the power dynamics
constituted through postcolonial constructions of space and hydrosocial networks.
In the
next chapter,
I explore the performativities of transboundary water
governance through the enactment of the intertribal Canoe Journey.
Notes
1
The proceeding Gatherings in Duncan, BC (2007), Tulalip, WA (2008), Squamish, BC
(2009), and Swinomish, WA (2010) also followed this protocol.
2
Largely comprising tribal chiefs and band leaders and elected officials, such as tribal
chairs.
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