ANISHINABEK NATION HEAD OFFICE (March 22, 2019) — Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Glen Hare wants to bring attention to the United Nations theme for this year’s World Water Day: Leave no one behind – whoever you are, wherever you are, water is your human right.
“Right now, there are over 50 Boil Water Advisories in Ontario – the majority being in First Nations,” said Grand Council Chief Hare. “This is not acceptable. Everyone has the right to clean drinking water. We are facing discrimination when it comes to clean drinking water.”
The Anishinabek Nation lost an advocate for the water last month.
“Grandmother Josephine Mandamin taught us our responsibilities to the water. She taught us that water is life,” said Hare. “She walked around the Great Lakes to bring awareness to the quality of our water.”
“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.
There’s been a place where I put tobacco in the water, where the water is so still. It was dead.
I prayed for it. I put my tobacco In the water and my tobacco started floating around.
The water came alive. It heard my prayers.
It heard the song. So I know it listens, and it can come alive if you pay attention to it.
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. They’ll feel better.
It’s the same with our Mother, the Earth, and the water. Give it love.”
– The late Grandmother Josephine Mandamin
The Anishinabek Nation is the political advocate for 40 member communities across Ontario, representing approximately 65,000 people. The Anishinabek Nation is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.
