Special Panel: Teachings of Water Spirit

“Teachings of Water Spirit ~ A Panel of Elders Honouring Water”

May 6 at 2023 ASWM Conference in Syracuse NY

Sunset over Lake Superior

Three Elders grounded by river and sea, beach, marsh and wetland, woodland and prairie, share their notions of water as spirit. Here, the teachings of the matriarchs they have learned from are entwined within their lives—these three immense elder teachers provide a forthcoming lesson as they come together to share tea and reveal their love of Water through song and story. 

Join Miigam’agan, Esgenoôpetitj, Mi’kma’ki, Wabanaki Nation; Marjorie Beaucage, Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, Michif Homelands; and Douglas Cardinal, Ottawa, Ontario, Algonquin Territory, as they share their thoughts and directives for Water, and for the children yet to come.  

Miigam’agan

Miigam’agan – Mi’kmaq Elder  is a Wabanaki/Mi’kmaw grandmother of the Lobster Clan from Esgenoôpetitj or Burnt Church, NB. She is a mother of three wonderful adults and grandmother to five beautiful grandchildren. Much of her life has been devoted to the revival of Wabanaki culture and the Mi’kmaq language; she dedicates time to promoting an understanding of Indigenous matriarchal systems and the relevance of Mi’kmaq, her ancient language defining matrilineal and matrifocal ways. Miigam’agan shares with learners around the globe, Grandmother Teachings on the stages of life found in human developmental cycles, and the cultural history and ceremonial roles and practices of women and men, as defined by her knowledge of this ancient language and the teachings of her ancestors.  

Marjorie Beaucage

Marjorie Beaucage is a Two-Spirit Michif elder, filmmaker, artist, activist and educator. She is a land and water protector, a carrier of stories, and of ceremony. Born in Vassar, Manitoba, to a large Métis family, Marjorie’s life’s work has been about creating social change, working to give people the tools for creating possibilities and right relations. Whether in the classroom, community, campsite or the arts, Marjorie’s goal has been to pass on the stories, knowledge and skills that will make a difference for the future. For Marjorie, story is always medicine. Marjorie is an water protector, a water walker and an elder guide for the Saskatchewan River Water Walk (2021-2024), and she shares her story of why water needs our protections.

Douglas Cardinal

Douglas Cardinal  is best known as a world-renowned master architect and an Anishinaabe Lodge Keeper and Pipe Carrier who has deep connections with Indigenous peoples around the globe. Born in 1934 in Calgary (Alberta, Canada), his ancestry encompasses Siksika (Blackfoot) and a Scot’s background mixed with French, German, and Algonquin descent. As Cardinal’s Blackfoot father was considered a pagan by the colonial authorities, his mother was forced to send him to the Catholic boarding school of St. Joseph’s Convent so he could be made into ‘a good catholic.’ Under extreme emotional and physical duress, and out of despair, Douglas found solace and inspiration in the arts. He particularly excelled in music (he completed the Piano -Ontario Conservatory of Music training) and drawing. The influence of his mother ensured Douglas Cardinal a place where his natural talents would be recognized and best served in the field of architecture. 

 Dr. Margaret Kress, University of New Brunswick, is the Michif scholar  facilitating the Elder Panel.  Margaret highlights matricultural reclamation found in ecologies, languages, cultural pedagogies and traditional justice. As a Michif scholar, teacher and researcher, she engages with transformative, inclusive and Indigenous knowledge systems, keepers and nations. 

Our thanks to the Worldwide Indigenous Sciences Network for their grant support for this special plenary panel.

Hallie Iglehart Austen 2023 Keynote: “New Myths for Restoring the Waters”

“Reweaving the Web of Life:  New Myths for Restoring the Waters and Ourselves”

Hallie Iglehart Austen

ASWM 2023 Conference May 5-6 2023

We are pleased to offer this important presentation to the general public as well as to our members.

Sunset at Monterey, California

“Reweaving the Web of Life: New Myths for Restoring the Waters and Ourselves” shows the importance of mythology in reestablishing kinship amongst humans and with non-humans for our planet to survive and how, inspired by our actions in this time of the Great Turning, our lives can become the myths for our descendants.

 “The recounting from my book, The Heart of the Goddess, of an Inuit shaman journeying to visit the Sea Goddess Sedna illustrates the direct and powerful way many indigenous cultures use myth to ensure environmental survival and spiritual practices to regain equilibrium. We can use such stories as inspiration to create new myths and new ways of being, not just looking to the past.

 “I weave indigenous wisdom and mythology from around the world with my story of founding in 2010 All One Ocean to highlight the urgency of learning about ocean plastics. My story is a part of our new mythology, one in which we work to decolonize our minds, bodies and souls and take action to reweave the fraying web of life.

 ” I have long imagined that we will each be diligently doing our work in this reweaving, sometimes unaware of one another. My vision is that eventually we will all meet in the center and turn around and see one another and the web of life that has been rewoven. It will look different than it originally did but it will be strong and vibrant— future myths for our descendants looking back at this critical time.”

Hallie Iglehart Austen, by Jude Mooney

Hallie Iglehart Austen has been a community organizer since 1968 and has taught since 1974. She grew up on a farm and has lived close to the earth for most of her life. Her lifelong interest in goddesses began at the age of twelve when she started studying ancient Greek language and mythology at Bryn Mawr School. She is the author of two influential books on women’s spirituality. Womanspirit: A Guide to Women’s Wisdom, describes her journey to discover women’s spiritual heritage and promotes meditation and the creation of a personal mythology. The Heart of the Goddess: Art, Myth and Meditations of the World’s Sacred Feminine, which focuses on multiple images and symbolism of goddesses from world cultures, has been called ” an exultantly female-centric text whose wisdom is universal.” It has recently been published in a new edition by Monkfish Press.

Hallie Iglehart Austen by Jude Mooney

In 2001, driven by her love of marine life, Hallie co-founded Seaflow: Protect Our Living Oceans to educate people about the dangers of active sonars and other ocean noise to whales, dolphins and all sea life. She continued her passion for sustainable living by building two model green homes, one in bamboo. In 2010, she initiated All One Ocean: Cleaning Up the Oceans, One Beach at a Time, to alert people to the hazards of ocean plastics and organize beach cleanups. She also offers her Wisdom Healing Zhineng Qigong classes by donation via Zoom.

2023 Film Discussion: “Give Light: Stories from Indigenous Midwives” (Video)

DISCUSSION of film by Steph Smith: Indigenous midwives from five continents relate their life stories and discuss the joys and challenges of their profession, interwoven with testimony from medical anthropologists, historians and Western midwives and doulas..

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