Through my friend, Paul Moshimer, I met Grandmother Nancy
Andry about four years ago. Grandmother
Nancy became one of my dearest friends, a member of our family, and she has
introduced me to other Grandmothers and Native American Elders who have shared
wisdom, laughter and wonderful times together.
Grandma Nancy has traveled around the US and Canada for the last 15
years, teaching women to sing an Algonquin Water Song as her teachers,
Grandfather William Commanda and Grandmother Louise Wawatie instructed her to
do.
The first night that I met her, Grandma taught me the song,
which is sung like a lullaby by women to heal the water and to heal ourselves.
Women are the life givers, like Mother Earth, and Native Americans believe that
women are the Water Protectors and men are the Fire Protectors. There are many
wonderful Water Songs from indigenous tribes, but this one is very simple to
learn. You can sing it every day in the shower or watering your plants.
At a retreat that Grandmother Nancy held for a group of
young, hopeful, talented women in March 2017, they urged her to record a video
of the song so that women would be able to remember the Algonquin lyrics and
the song would spread faster around the world.
Grandma discussed it with the
Native Elders in Canada, who agreed the waters are so endangered that it was
time to spread the song as fast as possible. She received permission from the
family of the woman who wrote the song, Irene Wawatie Jerome, and from
Grandfather William’s daughter. We
decided to make a video and start a concentrated effort to teach women around
the world how to sing the Water Song.
The Grandmothers had shown
me a kinder, better way to be a leader. The model is a circle, not a pyramid
with one person at the top. I had been
searching for ways to encourage my own daughter, who was in her final year of
college and about to embark on her career, how to be a strong woman and a
leader without resorting to the cut-throat competition and hard practices that
defined success when I was starting out in the film business many years
ago. I realized that things weren’t
really better for women now than they were back then when I helped some of my
friends found an organization called New York Women in Film and Television. So
I called on a few of those creative, experienced professionals to join me, and
we recruited younger women who were starting their careers to participate.
The female crew of the video included women from Chile,
Cameroon, and Mexico. We asked our friends and families to donate to finance
the video and received fiscal sponsorship from the Utah Film Center so the
contributions could be tax deductible.
As much as possible, everyone’s time and all the production expenses
were donated too.
We filmed the video at the end of August on my property and
at a nearby horse farm. Fifty women, ages 8 to 80, came from all Four
Directions to participate. There were
women from Japan, South America, Canada, Africa, and Native American
reservations. Two other Grandmothers –
Grandmother Margaret Behan, who is Cheyenne and was one of the original 13 Indigenous
Grandmothers, and Grandmother Clara Soaring Hawk, who is a Rammapough-Lenape
Clan leader and activist trying to stop a pipeline scheduled to go under the
Hudson River, joined Grandmother Nancy
to teach us the song. We also were
honored to have Jun-San Yasuda, a Buddhist nun who has been a Water Protector
and activist for peace and anti-nuclear activities for over 45 years. There was a ceremony with everyone to set
the intention of what we were hoping to achieve and then we recorded the song
in my family room, which had been temporarily turned into a recording studio.
For the next two days, we filmed the video which was
directed by my dear friend, Nicole Betancourt, whose mother has been one of my
closest friends for 40 years. It was an
amazing experience to have some of my best pals, Cherie Fortis, Susan Lazarus,
Jackie Sussman, my daughter, my husband, talented singer and activist Bethany
Yarrow and so many friends and neighbors joining together, working long and
hard to create something so beautiful and full of heart. Spirits and ancestors were called upon to
guide us, and their presence was strong.
Now, nine months later, Sing the Water Song is ready to
travel around the world. We were fortunate to be able to premiere the video at
Al Gore and his daughter, Karenna’s Center for Earth Ethics annual conference,
“On Faith and Water”. When we began the
project, they were both very helpful in explaining the crucial need for people to move
out of their heads and into their hearts to save Mother Earth and our waters.
In just two weeks, the video has been enthusiastically
viewed over 36,000 times on Vimeo and YouTube, with positive responses from
Native Americans and Water Protectors all around the world. We are hoping that women will record
themselves singing it and post it as well on Instagram. Our next phase of an impact campaign is
beginning as we spread the video at events, in classrooms and festivals. Our website will have updated information and
a blog to let everyone know the progress of the song, and we are making a
documentary film to show its journey.
Every morning, after I feed the horses, I go up on the hill
above the barn in the cedar grove and sing the Water Song. It only takes a minute, turning East, North,
West and South as I repeat the verse. The practice connects me to nature all
around me, helps me find my voice and gives me strength to face whatever is
ahead of me each day. Now, more than ever, the waters need our help. Helping to heal the waters is helping to heal
ourselves.
Here are the links to Sing the Water Song:
YouTube:
Website:
