Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
For 10 days every summer, a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people launch their canoes each morning after a Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address and continue on their journey down the Grand River in southern Ontario. The annual Two Row on the Grand is not just any paddling trip — it's an enactment of the Two Row Wampum treaty, an agreement made more than 400 years ago between the Haudenosaunee people and Dutch settlers.
