Kahnekanoron: Water is life
Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka (I love water) Kahnekaronnyon mmhmmm (All types of water) Kahnekanoron mmhmm (Water is precious) Kaynoweyaheya
for as long as my people’s memory stretches back; i, we, us — have always been in relation to these waters and this land our old stories tell of mothers dreaming, visioning and creating new life since Loon saw this Beautiful Flower swimming through currents and Goose saw her whirling through air as Skywoman was falling down and floating up and falling down and floating up and falling down and floating up — ours waters have reflected us
Water and air relations bring Skywoman to Turtles back
Muskrat carries soil to this
Beautiful Flower as she dances and sings our first gardens into existence streams push through layers of dirt as veins embrace waters and soil growing the life blood of Our Mother the Earth as sapling and flint are birthed who create all life on Earth; sapling gathers dirt and water to form our clay bodies he blew in spirit three times connecting all in Creation
Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka (i love water) Kahnekaronnyon mmhmmm (all types of water) Kahnekanoron mmhmm (water is precious) Kaynoweyaheya
mothers’ bodies sustain life and carry unborn babies in wombs as baby see through mother’s eyes and hear through mother’s ears mothers sing and whisper teachings to children in wombs
Skén:nen Ka’shatsténsera Ka’nikonhrí:io Tewahkwihsron tetewatèn:ro
we will try hard to come together in friendship in peace, strength and good mind mothers’ bodies hold worlds together with unbroken links throughout time
grandmother moon pulls tides in and out of shores like grandmother moons pull red waters every new cycle on day of my birth waters broke through my mother’s dam making tidal waves and waterfalls that sent streams down legs soaking the ground letting all my relations know i was falling and floating to this earth too as i cry for my first breath waters flow down faces lips latch on nipples as babies thirst for dripping waters breasts nourish the next generations from our mothers’ bodies flow these relations with life and land balance in our first treaty our mothers — still dreaming, visioning and creating new life
Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka Kahnekaronnyon mmhmmm Kahnekanoron mmhmm Kaynoweyaheya
when the numbered treaties came settled minds turned creation into resources treaties not honoured severed roots from fertile grounds cutting trees down covered land with concrete dug soils and pathways that ripped through naked bodies fracking oil and fractured lives our mothers don’t just go missing if they trespass onto our lands, they trespass on our bodies our profits tell of black serpents spilling black poisons across bare bodies history is written by the victors but our stories speak revolutions of birth and rebirth of creating and recreating our ancestors have already prayed on this resiliency for as long as there has been colonialism on our lands — our ancestors have been resisting you do not desert your mother when she is at harm and hurting defend the sacred
Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka Yonkwanoronhkwa ohneka Kahnekaronnyon mmhmm Kahnekanoron mmhmm Kaynoweyaheya yo hó