Annual nationwide walk focuses on clean water
Posted 08 May 2011, by Doug Harlow, Morning Sentinal, onlinesentinel.com
ATHENS — Communities along U.S. Route 2 from Bangor and on back roads through Hartland, Athens, Solon, Embden and New Portland are on the route of the annual Mother Earth Water Walk this year, an event that aims to draw attention to the importance of clean water.
The walk, which will finish in Wisconsin in June with a gathering of other water walkers from around North America, is coordinated on the East Coast by members of the Wabanaki Nation of Maine and Canada, which includes the Abenaki, Penobscot, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy and Micmac tribes.
Walkers from the east, carrying water from the Atlantic, were scheduled to leave Machias on Saturday following a tribal ceremony at the Picture Rock petroglyphs in Machiasport. Walkers will enter Canada from Coburn Gore sometime next week.
In all, the walkers are expected to journey more than 10,400,000 steps, according to a news release from the Beehive Collective in Machias, which offered to act as a staging area to begin the walk.
“They will be collecting a copper bucket of ocean water from the Bay of Machias … and walking this water, rich with meaning and healing energy, across the state, over through eastern Canada, and all the way to Lake Superior,” Kehben Grier of Beehive Collective said in an email. “This walk is only one of the legs of walks coming from all four directions of North America.”
Grier said the water will be “ceremoniously united” in Lake Superior, part of the Great Lakes, the largest fresh water system on Earth.
The walk in Maine will be hosted along the way by Indian and non-Indian people alike, she said. The event will be done relay-style, with accompanying motor vehicles for support along the way so people who are only able to do short distances are able to participate, Grier said.
A team of volunteers will help with everyday necessities, including food preparation, refreshment breaks, camp setups and other chores.
Water also will be gathered from the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay and carried by hand to Lake Superior. The western and southern legs of the walk have already begun, according to a published report.
The first annual Women’s Water Walk took place April 2003, according to the project’s website.
“Several women from different clans came together to raise awareness that our clean and clear water is being polluted by chemicals, vehicle emissions, motor boats, sewage disposal, agricultural pollution, leaking landfill sites, and residential usage is taking a toll on our water quality,” according to the website. “Water is precious and sacred … it is one of the basic elements needed for all life to exist.”
Michael Vernon of Brighton Plantation, who is assisting the group through central Maine, said he expects the walkers to arrive in the Athens area sometime next week.
“We want to make sure we give them a decent welcome and give them all the logistical support we can and hopefully have some folks join with them as they go by,” Vernon said.
Grier said she is also seeking rest stops for the walkers along the way and asked that anyone wishing help with that should contact her at 669-4117 or kehbenbee@gmail.com or at www.motherearthwaterwalk.com.
dharlow@centralmaine.com
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/annual-nationwide-walk-focuses-on-clean-water_2011-05-07.html
