Acknowledging my Place

This water acknowledgement is a work in progress. It is meant to celebrate the water that has been such an integral part of defining my place in the world. I post it here and invite anyone who shares a relationship with these waters to share their experiences with me or direct me to learn more about these places and the people that have known them.

I was born on a small island surrounded by the Mediterranean sea in the village of Argaki where thirteen generations of my family had tended the land. For the longest time I thought Argaki was named for a slow moving stream that brings water to the village and the surrounding farmland. But I recently found out that the romantic stream I had envisioned in my head was nothing more than a ditch that channeled water during the spring run-off. Humble beginnings to be sure.

My travels have taken me from that ditch across Okeanos, the ocean that surrounds Gaia like a great stream, to Niagara Falls, the Neck, that connects the Head (Lake Erie) with the Body (Lake Ontario) for the Haudenosaunee, the Attiwonderonk and the Mississaugas of the Credit River.

From there I travelled to Peterborough where the Otonabee, the river that beats like a heart, sang to me as it wound its way across the campus at Trent University just as it has for the Mississaugas of Curve Lake and the Anishnaabeg Nation for countless years.

The waters of Halls Lake in the Algonquin Highlands offer me a place to connect with my creativity and much of my writing is done on those shores. The story of that place is hidden from me for now, but I will continue to ask questions about how the lake is connected to the Ojibwe Nation and the Huron/Wendat Nation.

I join you from Ajax, Ontario, that for generations has been home to the Mississaugas of Scugog Island and the treaty territory of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nations. From where I sit, just metres away from the shores of Lake Ontario I reflect on the water that has always been such an integral means of defining my place in the world.

It is known by many different names in many different places but wherever it goes and by whatever name it is called water is always brimming with life, sustaining the Chippewas of Georgina Island, the Mississaugas of Scugog Island, the Huron/Wendat Nation, the Ojibwe Nation, the Anishnaabeg Nation, the Mississaugas of Curve Lake and the Credit River, the Attiwonderonk, the Haudenosaunee, my villagers in Cyprus. Thank you for letting me travel these waters together with you.