The Just Waters team at the Centre for Human Rights Research (CHRR) will organize the Miskwaagamiiwi-ziibi Water Walk on Sept. 23, bringing “Indigenous, settler and immigrant communities” together to pray for the healing of the Red River.
The walk will be led by Grandmother Lucy Ducharme of the Three Fires Midewiwin and Minweyweywiigaan Lodge, whose teachings from Bawdwaywidun-ibun of Three Fires Midewiwin will guide the way.
Ramona Milliea, a Just Waters knowledge carrier, described the walk’s purpose as an act of care for the water.
“We walk for the water to help her heal,” Milliea said. “As we feed her spirit, we make food offerings to her, we pray for her healing and sing to lift her spirit.”
The event follows a year of teachings the Just Waters team received about relationships with water.
“The Just Waters team [has] heard teachings about how to build a respectful, responsible, reciprocal relationship with water,” Milliea said.
Those teachings included understanding water as something that gives life and recognizing responsibilities toward it. Milliea said the team discussed being mindful of handling water in a sacred way and teaching children not to throw garbage into the water or waste it. The teachings also emphasized reciprocity.
“We talked about our responsibilities to ensure we have clean drinking water not only for our own use but all of creation so that all of life will continue to grow,” Milliea said.
The Water Walk will bring those teachings to the Red River, which flows through Treaty One Territory and Winnipeg.
Milliea said the river faces pollution concerns, including sewage and agricultural runoff entering the water. She said the walk will be an opportunity to remember what the team has learned and “pray and ask for healing of Red River.”
The event will also coincide with Grassy Narrows’ River Run Rally 2026 — Walk for Mercury Justice. Sarah Deckert, Just Waters project and knowledge mobilization coordinator, said the walk’s intentions will extend beyond the Red River.
“We walk not only for the healing of the Red River, Miskwaagamiiwi-ziibi, but for all waters, including the English-Wabigoon River, which a pulp and paper mill contaminated by dumping mercury into the water,” Deckert said.
The Water Walk will also highlight Winnipeg’s relationship with its waterways.
Adele Perry, a U of M professor of history and women’s and gender studies, said Indigenous knowledge offers another way of understanding that relationship.
“The Water Walk draws attention to the water that all of us in Winnipeg live with,” Perry said.
Perry said Anishinaabe women’s knowledge shows water as “a living thing that people need to be in good relationship [with].”
She also pointed to untreated sewage entering rivers and affecting Indigenous communities farther north, as well as Winnipeg’s reliance on Shoal Lake in Treaty Three for drinking water.
“These are histories and the ongoing [presence] of colonialism and environmental racism,” Perry said.
Organizers hope participants will leave the walk with a different relationship to water.
Deckert said the event is an opportunity for communities to come together while following the leadership of Anishinaabe women and learning from their knowledge of the waters and lands.
“I hope that participants will develop a deeper love for and relationship with the Red River,” Deckert said.
The event has received interest from educators and community members. Deckert said teachers have expressed excitement about bringing students to participate in Anishinaabe ceremony.
Majestic Moerland, a Just Waters student research assistant and U of M environmental studies student, said the response has been “enthusiastic and supportive.”
“Anytime I bring up Miskwaagamiiwi-ziibi in conversation, people are wanting to learn more on what Water Walks are and how to become engaged with ceremony,” Moerland said.
The organizers hope that the relationship will continue after the event.
Moerland said she would like the Water Walk to lead to more gatherings involving “Nibi” (water) and encourage people to recognize their personal relationship with it.
