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Water Speaks
Youth-Created Water Stories From Across Canada
Inspired by local waterscapes, culture and history, the Water Speaks textile installation series features original artwork by eight artists and represents the winning stories from the Young Water Speaks national youth storytelling project. Winning authors participated in Waterlution’s Young Water Speaks workshops led by Youth Advisory Board volunteers.
Workshops included character creation activities, discussions on where we can draw inspiration from, and how to create different genres. Young Water Speaks connected with over 2500 youth across Canada through these storytelling workshops and special events with diverse storytelling artists such as Kalvonix, Rosemary Hu, Grandmother Kim Wheatley, Allie Rougeot, and many others.
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Bangii Ozhaawashko Zaangwewe-Magooday
The Little Blue Jingle Dress
Written by Annika Finlayson - Ontario
Artwork by Jay Havens jayhavens.me
Robbed by the horrors of Residential school, my mom wore bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, for you
Robbed of the same opportunity to embrace culture, I wore bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, for you
Robbed of the traditional sacred teachings, my sister wore bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, for you
While wearing bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, we remember the representation of connection to nibi it holds
While wearing bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, we listen to the sound of jingles which brings us back to the waves of nibi and we remember, everything isn’t always supposed to be smooth sailing
While wearing bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, we realize there was no coincidence in the design; you intended for the downward placement of jingles to represent our roots
After all, we all came from our mother’s womb, brought into this world, surrounded by nibi
For you, young girls have honored bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, as we are the water carriers, for thirty years and counting
For you, young girls have embraced Anishinabek culture in bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday by dancing with pride around the arbor, for thirty years and counting
For you, young girls connect to and recognize the sacred gift of nibi while wearing bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday, for thirty years and counting
{ Future generations will continue to wear bangii ozhaawashko zaangwewe-magooday to respect and connect to cultural teachings and ceremony the way you wished you could have, as a young girl }
For you, Granny Maria.
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The Water Calls Me
Written by Sienna at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School, Ontario
Artwork by Alexis Harquail
In a village near Lake Erie, there lived an old woman. Every day she gazed at the world from a cliff high above near her home. She wore a ragged blue cloak that rustled in the wind like the dark green leaves of pine trees. Every day, this woman would speak to the valleys down below and ask the spirits for water; her calls were heard from miles away as urgent pleas in the whirling wind.
Not too far from these cliffs, a little girl lived with her family. Her name was Aiyana, She was curious and brave, she had long brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a beige and light blue dress that went to her knees. All that Aiyana needed in her world was for her village to have enough water and fish. This would ensure that she and her family would never need to move elsewhere. Aiyana loved the water; its calming ripples and its buoyancy.
One day, the cloaked woman came to the edge of the cliff and asked for water. She called loudly two times.
Inside her home Aiyana pressed her face against the window curiously. She had always heard these cries. Sometimes she thought that the calls were meant specifically for her to answer. But Aiyana brushed off this thought and pulled on a warm coat. She decided to spend her morning collecting flowers from a nearby field instead.
The tall grass brushed against her dress, as if welcoming her. She let the petals from the flowers tickle her fingers and then she sang. “Hear me water, hear me sing. Bring lots of fish for us to eat.”
All the way at the top of the cliffs, the cloaked woman heard her. A simple song, yet so powerful; she called down to her.
Aiyana sat up suddenly and listened closely to the voice. Driven by curiosity she began to follow it. The cloaked woman watched her from high above as slowly, Aiyana moved towards the cliffs.
Finally, when they met each other, Aiyana felt no fear. “Are you the one who calls?” The cloaked woman acknowledged the question, then explained why she called and asked the valleys for water. Aiyana understood this and nodded her head.
After speaking to her for some time, Aiyana decided that she would like to help. For weeks, she visited the woman and they would sing together. They sang lovely songs to the valleys. Aiyana did this with thoughts of her village and her people in her heart. After several weeks, there was a lot of rain. Water came crashing and gushing through the valleys, and it filled the arroyo.
As the valley flooded, it brought life. Aiyana and the cloaked woman sang one last song in unison, “Water, water, I no longer am empty. You have filled me up with care and purity.” Aiyana hugged her and they both felt happy. The water filled all the coasts and fish splashed through the streams.
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The Girl Who Saved The Water
Story by Alise, grade 5, at Kortright Hills Public School, Ontario
Artwork by Thomas Anderson
In the beautiful waters of Little Whitefish Lake, lives a girl named Ruby. Ruby is a ten year old girl who lives on the lake with her mom, dad, little sister and dog. She is 7 and has lived here for 5 years. She moved here from Mississauga and loves it. She goes to school at Lakefront Public School. She has a 7 year old sister named Alice and a 2 year old German Shepherd named Willow. Ruby loves the lake a lot.
Some of her favourite things to do on the lake are paddle boarding, tubing and going swimming with her dog and sister. Ruby has lots of friends. One Saturday evening, Ruby went out on the paddle board with Willow for a sunset paddle. As they were paddling on the lake, they saw a weird sign on the one property owned by the town. The sign read, “Garbage Dump”. Ruby knew there was a dump just 15 minutes away and thought that it was a weird sign to have on the lake. She paddled into shore and went home. When she was lying in bed, she could not stop thinking about the weird sign and started to worry that they were going to start dumping garbage into the crystal clear lake. Eventually, she fell asleep.
The next day, Ruby had her two best friends Tessa and Ava over to hang out. They went tubing, swimming and jumping off the floating dock. It was another fun day on the lake. On Monday, Ruby had school. When she got home, she was playing in the yard with Willow and Alice when all of a sudden, they heard what sounded like a digger. “That's funny”, said Alice. It sounded like they were doing some construction on the lake. Then the sound stopped and Alice went in to do homework. Ruby decided to investigate. She went paddle boarding to see what was happening. She sat on her paddle board and paddled slowly so she would not be noticed. She was behind an old dead tree and she was listening to a conversation. Ruby heard some construction workers say that they would get the garbage and have a little hidden slide that they would put the garbage into and it would slide the garbage into the lake. Ruby knew it was against the law to do that. She quietly turned around and paddled back home.
As she was sitting on the dock, Ruby was not sure if she should tell her parents. They probably would not believe the town would do something like that. The next day she got to school early to meet her friends. Ruby told her friends the horrible information that she had overheard. Tessa, her best friend said they should take a video of the construction workers saying that stuff and then start a protest to fight against it. Ruby liked the idea except that her parents would find out she was spying on the workers.
Later that afternoon, Ruby could not stop thinking about the lake and the garbage and decided that saving the lake was worth the risk of getting in trouble. She decided to go that evening to take a video of the workers talking about their horrible plot. When Ruby was taking the video, all of a sudden she sneezed. One of the construction workers heard her and looked in Ruby’s direction. Just in time, she hid behind a tree. Suddenly a turtle head popped out of the water. “Oh, it is just a turtle”, said the worker.
When she was in bed that night, she came up with a new plan. After school the next day, Ruby had Tessa and Ava over. She showed them the video and the plan. They worked for hours on posters and things to start a protest.
Ruby was excited because tomorrow was the day to tell the town the truth about the city’s plot. When Ruby woke up, she had breakfast, got dressed and told her parents to meet her at Waterfront Park at 11:00 am and for them to bring everyone they knew. Ruby had a trailer for her paddle board which she filled with signs. She met Tessa and Ava at the park. They then got the signs and started protesting. They said dumping plastic into water is wrong.
At 11:00am, a bunch of people started to show up. The girls showed the video of the construction workers to every person that showed up. Then the mayor of the town arrived and asked, “What is everyone doing here?” An older woman said, “These girls showed us the horrible thing that you are doing!” “What do you mean?” asked the Mayor. The girls showed him the video. “Well, how do you know it is real?” asked the mayor. “It is real, and I have proof. I have a video of Miss Ruby doing that,” said a tiny old woman with grey hair, who was wearing a purple dress and pink glasses. “I can show you the video,” said the older woman. The mayor said, “Show me the video.” “Okay”, said the lady. She showed the mayor a video of Ruby sitting on her paddleboard with a phone, with the construction workers in the background. The woman explained that she was videotaping turtles from her dock when she saw Ruby sneaking around. The mayor looked very embarrassed and finally said, “Well fine. I admit that we were doing something wrong. I will stop construction for the dump.”
Ruby, Tessa and Ava’s parents were so proud of the girls that they went and got ice cream to celebrate. Tessa suggested that the site get turned into a new ice cream shop. They all laughed and went back to Ruby's house to enjoy the beautiful, clean waters of Little Whitefish Lake.
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A Little Lake
Story by Evelyn Bolton, Ontario
Artwork by Jessy Kitchen
She started as a raindrop, that grew into a puddle, and over many years, she became a little lake in a large forest. Just like all lakes, she had a spirit, but the lake was very lonely. There were no other lakes or streams nearby, and the trees only liked to talk to each other.
One day, a little rabbit came to the edge of the lake. The lake was so happy that some of her spirit jumped out of the water to greet the rabbit. Her spirit took the shape of a little girl. The rabbit was so surprised that it jumped up into the air and hopped away. The spirit was sad that the rabbit ran away, but she was soon faced with another problem. She didn’t know how to get back into the lake! So she sat on top of the water and decided to watch the forest.
While she watched she saw many new things that she couldn’t see from inside the lake. She watched as the little lake froze over, as the animals went to sleep through the cold season, and the world turned white once more. She watched as the ice melted and the animals woke up. She saw all of the ways her lake changed from the outside and all of the life around her. It was beautiful, she decided she missed being in her lake a little bit less.
The little spirit of the little lake watched the forest around her and listened to the animals. As the seasons changed, the years passed, the lake grew larger as the spirit looked older. One day, the animals held a very important meeting at the lake. The humans, who lived outside the forest, were getting closer and the forest was getting smaller. Soon there wouldn’t be enough space left for the big animals to hide and live. The bears and deers and all the big animals said goodbye to the small animals. They started their journey deeper into the forest, and farther away from the little lake, to find a new home.
The spirit, who now looked more grown-up, was sad to see her friends go. She was glad that not all the animals decided to leave, but the humans moved closer and the forest got smaller. The lake was now surrounded by tall concrete buildings and smoky air. She soon found her lake filled with garbage. It floated at her shores and piled at the bottom. Most importantly, it was starting to make her and all of the other animals sick. The animals couldn’t drink from her anymore, and she was starting to feel weaker and weaker. Her spirit was starting to fade.
Before she lost all hope, a group of humans started to gather around her. They started to pick up all the garbage and sing to her. As she listened to their words she realized they were celebrating her and thanking her. The lake spirit could feel herself beginning to heal. As she started to heal, she sunk back into the lake, feeling herself reconnecting with the lake again! The little lake spirit, whole once more, thanked the humans and rested for the first time in many, many years. She knew that they would take care of her.
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Marineland
Story and artwork by Azariah at Taylor Creek Public School, Ontario
One day at Marineland, Lot’s of people visited in the hot summer of July to see Sealya the seal.
Sealya came to Marineland 2 years ago. Caught by a couple of fisherman. Ever since then, she was sad but she was trying to be happy.
Two years ago…
The show was starting. “Hey everyone, presenting Sealya the seal!” I can hear and see lot’s of people clapping and screaming “Sealya, Sealya, Sealya.”
Sealya preformed a couple of tricks for the audience. The crowd loves when she jumps out the water.
“Go Sealya.” The crowd screamed. Everyone was happy except for Sealya. The trainier Samantha gave Sealya a treat.
In the night, Sealy realized there was a crack on the glass. Sealya used her tail and slammed it on the glass until it broke open.
Sealy is free in lake Ontario. She is wondering what she should do
Sealya decided to travel all the way to the Arctic Ocean to see her family.
As hours went by, Sealya realized that there was something different about the ocean. There was plastic everywhere!
Shortly after, Sealya finally arrived in the Arctic Ocean.
Sealya looked in every direction but still couldn’t find her family.
“I looked everywhere!” Sealya stopped and thought for a minute. “Wait, there is only one place they can be, that is home.”
Sealya knocked on the door until someone answered the door.
Sealya froze in happiness to see her husband. She swam and gave him a big hug!
“What are you doing here?” said her husband. “I got captured and was stuck in a place called Marineland” Sealya said.
“Well I’m happy that you are here.” Sealya and her husband went inside to see her children.
Right when we opened the door, Sealya saw her two daughters. Shelly and Aqua.
When Sealya saw her two beautiful daughter, she gave them the biggest hug in the world.
Sealya, was telling her family all the adventures she had and all the amazing things that she did
After hearing all of Sealya’s amazing adventures, one of her kids asked if they could go on ad adventure.
Sealya took her time thinking about what her daughter had said. After 5 minutes Sealya said “Yes”.
It took sometime for Sealya to think about an adventure they could go on. But then she remembered the floating garbage in the ocean
We are going to look at the different countrys around the world to see how they take care of the ocean.
First we are going to Canada, that was where I was captured for the past 2 years
They finally reached Canada and there was so much garbage, it was Unbelievable!
Next up was South Africa. There was an enormous amount of litter there.
Fun fact: Every year about 250,000 tonnes get dumped in South Africa
Would you like some biscuits and tea. Now we are in England exploring and doing some sight seeing.
Did you know 2 million piece of litter is dropped in the UK everyday!
“Mommy, there was so much garbage in the ocean” said Aqua.
“ I know but there’s nothing I can do.”
What Are you Gonna do to protect the Ocean and it’s Water!
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Malheur en Rafting
Story by Myles Misskey, 5 e année école Jasper Elementary School, Alberta
Artwork by Helena Vallée Dallaire www.helenavd.com
Il était une fois, un garçon qui faisait du rafting sur la rivière Athabasca à Jasper avec ses amis. Le garçon s’appelait Tobi. Après quelques minutes, Tobi a eu une idée! Il allait mettre sa tête sous l’eau au prochain tournant. Une minute plus tard, ils sont arrivés à un gros tournant. Tobi a mis sa tête sous l’eau puis son dos, ses jambes et ses pieds car le courant l’a entraîné dans l'eau. À ce moment-là, Tobi était complètement sous l’eau. Il pouvait entendre son amie qui criait: -Tobi, où es-tu? Bizarrement, il ne pouvait plus entendre après un moment. Il a regardé devant lui. Il y avait les chutes Athabasca juste en avant. Tobi est tombé dans les chutes Athabasca.
Personne n’a retrouvé le corps de Tobi. Le chef de police a dit à tout le monde que le corps de Tobi avait été mangé par un ours. Pourtant, il y a des personnes qui ont vu le corps de Tobi faire du rafting sur la rivière Athabasca pour trouver ses amis qui l’ont laissé se noyer. Une fois, une personne a dit que Tobi a arrêté le raft et s’est enfui dans la forêt. On raconte aussi que parfois, tu peux entendre crier: - Où sont mes amis? Pourquoi ils m’ont laissé me noyer!
Finalement, certains pensent que Tobi essaie de noyer les personnes qui font du rafting sur la Rivière Athabasca. Alors sois prudent la prochaine fois que tu iras sur cette rivière...
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Crawford The Fish
Story by Rowen at Manachaban Middle School (AB)
Artwork by Tarun Godara
It was a bright summer day on the Churchill River. The surface looked like flashy glass. Moreover, the water was balmy and crystal clear, the fish scales were a shiny reflection from the blazing sun. There was one fish named Crawford, he had dazzling bright pink glowing gills. Crawford was not like the other fish around him, he was bigger and had big gray sharp teeth, like great white shark teeth. He was not the kind of person to hurt anyone he just looked mean.
He was going for his normal morning swim down the river scraping his belly on the sharp rocky river bed. When he came to a stop as he saw something unusual on the shore, he thought to himself; “is it a fisherman or a kayaker?'' No, it was a human holding a weird-shaped tool. Crawford had never seen something like this before. It was a piece of wood that had a stone boomerang at the top. The human was holding the weird tool in his hands while it seemed like the human was hitting one of the mountains on the river shore. As the human kept hitting the mountain, the mountain started grumbling in little pieces. Crawford thought to himself should I ask what this destructive human is doing to our mountain? However a few moments later, Crawford poked his large nose out onto the surface, and he asked the human, “what are you doing?”.
The human looked at Crawford with a weird look and replied mining. Crawford saw one of the pieces of the mountain fall into the water. The piece of rock seemed as if it was releasing a toxin into the river. One fish that was coming upstream went right through the toxin. The fish started coughing and fell to the river bottom. Crawford swam up to the sick fish but it was dead on arrival. The fish was one of the classmates from Crawford’s school. Crawford tried to turn him over and do CPR but there was no use. The fish had already been infected. Crawford's big heart cries with sadness. As he just witnessed the death of one of his friends, Crawford knew what killed his friend. It was one of the pieces of rock from the mountain that was caused by the human.
Crawford's nose broke through the river surface and yelled at the human, “Stop mining, please!” The human looked over at Crawford’s crying red eyes and said “Why?” Crawford responded, “It is very bad for the environment.” The human responded with a nasty tone and replied “I don't care.” Crawford immediately responded, “You should care because you are polluting the water that is killing my friends and these pieces of rock that you have taken from that beautiful mountain on the edge of the Churchill River, are falling into the river and destroying our homes.”
The human looked over the edge of the river bank and down to the bottom of the clear water. He saw the fish that he just killed and he felt so bad. “I am so sorry. I thought that mining was not harming the environment but it is, in a very bad way.” Crawford asked the man, “So you didn't know that you were harming the environment?” The man replied, “no” and said, “again, I am very sorry for what I have done.” The man said to Crawford, “from this day on, I will teach all the humans around me that we need to stop anything that has anything to do with harming the environment. I will teach the other humans that we need to take care of our environment and treat it well, and that we need to respect, protect, and nurture water.” The man said also that he will teach other humans how important it is and that we need to thank the water because we use it everywhere in our everyday lives.
As the day went on Crawford realized how much of a connection he has with the water. He realized that if he did not have water he would die because Crawford is a fish. He also thought that the water provided him with food. As Crawford and the mining man went to bed they both realized what an impact they made today.
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Ekjot Brar's Water Story
Written by Ekjot Brar at Wild Outside Group, Alberta
Artwork by Jessy Kitchen
Young Water Speaks is a national youth storytelling project organized by Waterlution.org.
Inspired by local waterscapes, culture and history, this textile installation series features original artwork by eight artists and represents the winning stories from year 1 of the project.
Winning authors participated in Waterlution’s Young Water Speaks workshops led by Youth Advisory Board volunteers. Workshops included character creation activities, discussions on where we can draw inspiration from, and how to create different genres. Young Water Speaks connected with over 2500 youth across Canada through these storytelling workshops and special events with diverse storytelling artists such as Kalvonix, Rosemary Hu, Grandmother Kim Wheatley, Allie Rougeot, and many others.
The contest is accepting 2nd year entries until March 21st 2022 and you can visit https://waterlution.org/school-programs/ to register your child, class, or youth group for a workshop today!
The goal of this project was to connect youth with water bodies in their areas and across the country in order to promote water stewardship. Story submissions were submitted in all formats: written, song, painting, multimedia and video. The installation provides an opportunity to learn about the importance of local, regional, and national water bodies in Canada from the perspective of the youth storytellers.
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Water Speaks
See the exhibition
Water Speaks is being presented as a live exhibition installed in the gallery and a digital exhibition for viewing online. The Water Speaks Virtual Exhibition Talk streams live on Facebook October 7, 2021 and the video will available to watch after. The gallery is open daily for in-person visits. See PoMoArts.ca for Gallery hours and our Communicable Disease Prevention Plan.