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Indigenous Arts & Stories - Kahnekanoron- Water is Life

Kahnekanoron- Water is Life

2017 - Writing Winner

our old stories tell of mothers dreaming, visioning and creating new life

Read K Dawn Martin's Kahnekanoron- Water is Life

K Dawn Martin

Scotland, ON
Six Nations of the Grand River
Age 21

Author's Statement

Water is life. I know this statement has been used a lot over the last year with what is happening with the Dakota Access Pipeline, #NoDAPL and the water protectors. I, myself have not been not been to Standing Rock but I have always felt this deep connection to the natural environment around me.

I wanted to honour our women warriors, our Yethi'nistenha ohwentsiake our Mother the Earth, and water. As a women, I've been taught that we are the water carriers and there is a responsibility in that. We as women have the ability to bring in new life into this world- so does our Mother the Earth. Water truly connects all of creation and what happens to the waters happens to us as a human race.

This piece is meant to be performed and sang. The bolded piece is a song from the Akwasasne Women's singers who I've gotten their permission to use in the poem. The poem is in three parts; water and creation, water and women, and water, treaty making, and where we are today.

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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

 

mother’s 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

 

mother’s 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 water falls

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 mother’s 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

 

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