Come June, Lake Superior will be introduced to water samples from all four points of the compass as the result of a native movement to bring attention to water conservation.
The samples are coming from the Gulf of Mexico to the South, Hudson Bay to the North, Pacific Ocean to the West and Atlantic Ocean to the East.
The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting on a group of aboriginal Canadian women who are carrying a copper bucket of water to both protest the water condition in rural Canadian communities and as a spiritual journey.
The coast of Lake Superior. Image via Wikimedia Commons.
The women are carrying the water from the Hudson Bay as they walk south to Lake Superior. The idea is to illustrate how water is connected and vital in each community.
There are buckets coming to Superior from four directions. Another walk is traveling from the Gulf of Mexico, according to this story from Mississippi Public Broadcasting. A bucket is coming from the Atlantic Ocean in the East, as the Bangor Daily News is reporting, and yet another from the Pacific on the West Coast.
The women from all four groups are slated to arrive June 12.
Along with treating the walk as a spiritual journey, the women say they hope to bring awareness to water pollution and to poor drinking water and lack of plumbing in many rural Canadian communities.
The four walks are coordinated through the Mother Earth Water Walk, an annual event sponsored by a group of native women who participate in a yearly walk to promote water health awareness.
Is this an effective way to promote water health awareness? Do the efforts of these women actually result in tangible benefits for the water in the Great Lakes region?
They could start with better management of their own trash and garbage. I have personally witnessed, on several hunting/fishing trips to Manitoba and Ontario, several large (200 + cubic yards) piles of garbage/solid waste (including electronics and appliances) tossed haphazardly into the woods at designated “dumps”, with no accounting for surface water or groundwater impacts and consequential damage to their own local environs. While I do appreciate the attention brought to the Great Lakes, I’d recommend paying some attention to local practices….how’d that saying go?—
oh yeah, “think globally, act locally”….
Good point Susan. That crossed my mind as well.
Although the idea represents a metaphor for connectedness is a good one the actual practice of mixing water may introduce unwanted organisms. Thoughtless movement of species…:)
I would sterilize the water B4 mixing.