Dawn Martin-Hill is awarded the 2022 OU International Water Prize!

 

Dawn Martin-Hill gives the Keynote Address
at the 2022 International Water Conference banquet in Oklahoma City, OK

Dawn Martin-Hill is a storyteller, because it is in stories where the truth lies. She tells one story of leading a water ceremony out on the west coast of the U.S. One participant brought a pottery bowl that was engraved with “Water is Life” in many different languages. That bowl is a symbol of Dawn’s lifework – to honor and celebrate the sacramental gift that water is to all peoples using the stories and myths of her culture, the Haudenosaunee peoples of Canada’s Six Nations of the Grand River. The two-row wampum belt is another symbol that expresses a journey of two cultures who travel down the river together, side by side, without trying to steer one another. Surrounded by the Great Lakes, Dawn’s tribal culture is defined and nourished by freshwater. She says that “our entire way of life is governed by water. It is spiritual, it is cultural, it is our identity. When you take that away from us, you are literally taking away our culture.”  

Dr. Martin-Hill receives her award surrounded by the WaTER Center Directors
along with Tana Fitzpatrick, Director of the Native Nations Center at OU.

Traditional indigenous knowledge is relayed through oral tradition, primarily from stories, arts, crafts, and ceremonies, all done in the indigenous language.  Under colonization, the residential schools outlawed the indigenous language, and yet indigenous knowledge about water and ecology is embedded in the native language. When the language is lost, so is the indigenous knowledge.  Thus, Dawn’s integrated teams of elders, youth, biologists, scientists, and engineers present their work in bilingual format.