I don't even know where to start with this one.
Many of us belong to communities that have traditional ceremonies for the waters. Others of us belong to communities that have recently revived such things. What we have in common is, at regular intervals, we gather together and pray and do ceremony in the ways and languages of our own cultures, of our own ancestors.
Just like with Idle No More, the fact our drinking water is in peril is leading many, previously uninterested people to seek out people and ceremonies so they can participate. In some cases, the people are good and moral and sincerely want to help. But in other cases, like with INM, hard-core exploiters are taking advantage of this urgency to do pay to pray, to colonize the good efforts of respectable people, and even to steal and sell ceremonies from traditional cultures.
I just followed a link in another thread to one of the frauds' Facebook page - Kiesha Crowther - and saw she, like so many other frauds, is putting out press releases and photo montages and trying to use the desperate environmental situation to line her pockets and recruit people to her cult. And she's not the only one. Many of the frauds we discuss here are doing the exact same thing.
And what is really heartbreaking, is I'm seeing some people who really know better agree to collaborate with known frauds on some of these events. I saw someone I thought was a level-headed activist share a poster for the 13 Pay to Pray Old Ladies gig in Sedona, because the 13, and others like them, are using clever marketing that pushes everyone's fear buttons.
The situation with the waters is something to be fearful about, in my opinion, and many of us are working on it. Not only with prayer and ceremony but with political action. The fact that frauds are exploiting people's fears is nothing new. That's how they've always operated. But for some reason I'm finding this situation particularly tragic. Maybe because an Elder I respect had her community's song and ceremony ripped off and sold in an incomplete, mangled version by the 13 Old Ladies, maybe because I'm seeing some friends fall for this. Maybe because those of us who've been doing this for most (or all) of our lives are suddenly shocked to see frauds announcing this and getting support for it. Maybe because it really is a serious situation, deserving of not only ceremony but uncompromising physical intervention.
But... Supporting exploiters will not heal the waters, or the earth.
Allying with exploiters is not the answer. If an exploiter wants to go sacrifice themselves by blockading a pipeline and going to jail if they have to, or put their life on the line to save the people, then maybe I'll reconsider. But that's not what these frauds are doing. They are doing what they always do: selling a brief, feel-good experience so people can feel they've made a difference, when all they've done is contribute to the destruction of culture.
Thank you for listening.
