Snapshots from the May 2 Water Walk
Reflection by Kasey Kinsella
Carrying handmade Water Flags that read “Mani Biwa” and “Water is Life”, the Spring 2021 Rising Earth Immersion cohort walked for miles through rural NC neighborhoods knocking on doors and spreading awareness about the Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate Extension. We were one of 50+ teams of volunteers participating in the 100-mile, Indigenous-led Water Walk, resisting the MVP Southgate’s threat to devastate major rivers, precious water bodies and sacred Indigenous sites across ancestral Saura, Tutelo, Monacan, Occaneechi and Saponi lands in Virginia and North Carolina.
“My reflection of this water walk has been a reflection indeed
Rippling
I saw myself in the river today
With how we moved
Flowing through each street
Depositing the nutrients of knowledge reflecting care for life
I got to see myself in you and you in me and us in we
getting to see in real time us becoming like water.
Both as a body and as a vessel.
Shaping change with gentle force
transpiring life derived from roots buried in hope and a commitment to be in radically loving relationship with all beings.
Just like water.”
Supporters of all ages and backgrounds were welcomed by the traditional, Indigenous, feminist leadership of Crystal Cavalier-Keck and her husband Jason Crazy Bear Keck. The Water Walk was not only political—with volunteers educating community members about the dangers of the pipeline—but spiritual—through Indigenous-led ceremony and prayer that lifted up compassion, interdependence and collective power.
Can you picture this powerful scene? Blue Water Flags hung all around us as we stood listening at the edge of sacred rivers. Indigenous artists beat their drums in prayer. We heard from inspiring elders like Mary Crowe, who reminded us that we are all worthy, and that when we stand together against pipelines we can win. We circled and swayed in a Round Dance. We sang “Water is Life” with artivists of the Sun Sing Collective. We lifted our fists as Jason shared the Indigenous meaning of a gesture familiar to many of us as the Black Power fist. For Jason and his lineages, the fist is the collective. As part of the whole, individuals are held and nourished. Each finger represents community members, from children to elders. The thumb, which protects the clenched fingers, symbolizes the Creator.
At the end of the day, the sacred river water that had been carried the entire length of the route, was released into the Haw River in song and prayer. The Indigenous leaders could end their ceremonial fasts.
One week later, Crystal and Jason welcomed the Rising Earth participants to their land to connect, help tend their garden and exchange stories. We were again reminded how Indigenous-led movements center care, relationship and spirit.
Do you want to get involved?
Sign and share the No Pipeline Petition.
Tell the Army Corps of Engineers to say no to MVP before May 28. Twice, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has tried to allow Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to rush forward to dig and blast through hundreds of our streams and wetlands. Twice the courts have rejected these attempts. Now MVP has applied to the Corps for a third time. This time the Corps must act responsibly, live up to its legal responsibilities, and deny the permit. Submit your comments to: Adam Fannin at CELRPMVP@usace.army.mil
Some issues you can raise:
MVP's application fails to describe all of the environments to be affected or fully explain potential harms.
The Corps must recognize that the project is not needed, and that it will cause unacceptable increases in greenhouse gas emissions.
Describe your interests in particular waterbodies, how you use and enjoy them, how MVP would damage your interests, and any impacts you've already seen from MVP's pollution.
The NO MVP Water Walk is an Indigenous-led effort to resist an extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline into ancestral Saura, Tutelo, Monacan, Occaneechi and Saponi lands in Virginia and North Carolina. The planned route of the pipeline extension intersects with hundreds of homes, poses serious risks to the water quality of the drinking supply for low-income and/or majority BIPOC communities, and is predicted to affect streams, wetlands, and riparian buffers that contain native and endangered species. You can learn more about the pipeline in this article and by following the primary organizers, 7 Directions of Service, on Facebook and on The Action Network.
The May 2nd NO MVP Water Walk received 20% of ticket sales from Eco-Institute’s Shared Roots program.