Interested in partnering with National Tribal Water Center on a Water is Life project in your community? Check out this Recruitment Flyer for more information on potential partnerships or contact us at (907) 720-3749 or [email protected]!
From ceremony to subsistence to recreation, water is part of our tradition. Celebrating our water culture can help bring our community together and create a space where we may all reflect on the importance of our connection to water. A celebration of water also creates a positive avenue through which to educate and engage others in conversations about water.
Three communities have partnered with the National Tribal Water Center to celebrate local water cultures through art. As part of this project called Water is Life, communities come together with an artist to discuss their cultural ties to water and come up with a vision representing this connection. In the past the project has incorporated an entire week of water events such as Water BINGO, a water themed film festival and art activities for young people. The week culminates in feast or potluck and “reveal” of a large scale mural created from the community’s vision.
The photo below left shows the mural created by native artist Andrew Morrison in collaboration with Brad shields and the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana. The two chiefs honored in this mural represent the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Chiefs that settled the land where the current reservation is located. The springs in the center of the mural reflect the Tribes’ sacred springs located on the reservation.
The photo below right shows a mural, also created by Andrew Morrison, in collaboration with the Inupiaq people of Deering, Alaska. The mural honors a late elder from the village and features the caribou, the bluffs and the ice floes along the shoreline that all connect with the community’s subsistence practices.
Three communities have partnered with the National Tribal Water Center to celebrate local water cultures through art. As part of this project called Water is Life, communities come together with an artist to discuss their cultural ties to water and come up with a vision representing this connection. In the past the project has incorporated an entire week of water events such as Water BINGO, a water themed film festival and art activities for young people. The week culminates in feast or potluck and “reveal” of a large scale mural created from the community’s vision.
The photo below left shows the mural created by native artist Andrew Morrison in collaboration with Brad shields and the Fort Belknap Indian Community in Montana. The two chiefs honored in this mural represent the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine Chiefs that settled the land where the current reservation is located. The springs in the center of the mural reflect the Tribes’ sacred springs located on the reservation.
The photo below right shows a mural, also created by Andrew Morrison, in collaboration with the Inupiaq people of Deering, Alaska. The mural honors a late elder from the village and features the caribou, the bluffs and the ice floes along the shoreline that all connect with the community’s subsistence practices.
The photo below left shows the children of Russian Mission, AK working on a painting of the fish that are typically caught in the Yukon River beside their village as part of the Water Week activities associated with the Water is Life project. The photo below right shows the Deering youth painting ocean waves on their water tank that lies just a hundred feet or so from the Kotzebue Sound.
Check out the following resources if you'd like to continue learning more about Water is Life and the mural creation process:
- Ft. Belknap Water is Life Project - a presentation on the Water is Life project carried out in Ft. Belknap, Montana.
- Water is Life Project Overview - an overview presentation on the Water is Life project full of color photos.
- Water is Life Overview Flyer- a printable flyer with more information on the Water is Life project
- Water is Life Recruitment Flyer - a printable flyer for anyone interested in partnering with the National Tribal Water Center in carrying out a Water is Life project in their own community