My Watermark is from my home on Wasauksing First Nation, which is an island in Georgian Bay. It is the second largest island on the Georgian Bay.

My connection to water is that I was raised with strong traditional values with water. Water is life. Without water we would not have life. We honour the water in our daily practices. When I go home to my first nation, I do have a cottage that is off the grid. I give respect to the water, for the footprint (impact) that I leave, because I live so close to the water. I try to balance it when I do my ceremony, and I give my offerings to the water. I give thanks, ask for it to give us safety, to look after my people and animals during travelling. I also thank the water for taking care of us and giving us life. At the same time, I also do the connection between the land, water and sky. I do a grandmother ceremony, asking the grandmother moon to take care of the waters, and make sure they are balanced.

For me water is life. Water is a gift. It is what sustains us. If we don’t take care of our mother earth, and our waters, we will pay for it. I do people were paying for it in terms of floods in Detroit, and the lack of ice roads in the first Nations community. Water is the foundation to how we survive. Without clean and healthy water, we will not have healthy people, fish, lands or economy.