Water Teachings

Grandfather Waterfall Says:

Take care of the water. 

Go and tell the people to care for the water. 

There were turtles here; now there are almost none. Reintroduce turtles here. Bring them here to live again.

Prayers with sage and tobacco and the medicine from here (Sinixt territory).

Pray for the water. 

Pray for the people to wake up and take care of the water. 

Go to all the water, waterfalls, rivers, oceans and streams and pray there. 

Give thanks for the water and pray for the people to come back and to remember water.

Tell everyone! Everywhere you go! Tell them! 

Tell them not just of the power of water, the currents and force of water, but that life is water. 

Carry that stone. 

Hold it every day and remember the water, these waters, where girls were brought to become women and to learn of the water that they carry; that they carry with the planet.

Give thanks to water.

Honour water (rituals), honour songs, honour words and honour ways. 

Drink water, hold water, remember water, remember life. 

Come back here. Don’t forget these waters or any water! 

Pray at the sick water.

Pray where water is well, and for it to stay well.

Logging is destroying the land and harming the water; it must stop. No more extraction. No more taking. 

Offerings now! 

Water is holier than holy. You do not have a word or “phrase” in your language for the holiness that is water.

Hear us! Hear us now! 

Water, water, sacred water.

Transcribed by Rebecca Rogerson

©Rebecca Rogerson, 2025