In the Name of the Mother Gathering

In the year of some of the worst droughts and toxic spillage in recorded history, the appointed United Nations World Water Day symbolizes a desperately needed global call to action. Coinciding with both the Spring Equinox (March 20) and World Water Day (March 22), The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers came together from Africa, South America, and North America to lead the first international women’s gathering, In The Name Of The Mother, on March 20-23 in Yavapai County, Arizona.

The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers is a global alliance of indigenous female leaders and tribal elders representing First Nations from around the world, formed to raise awareness through ceremonial gatherings about critical environmental and humanitarian issues.

The gathering, In The Name Of The Mother, brought together hundreds of women from around the world with the focused intention of learning to remember how to live and interact as a global village in balance with the natural world. The collective teachings and messages of the Grandmothers Council calls for all peoples to understand the endemic disconnection we have created with Nature, and the importance of reviving indigenous wisdom ways to preserve life and balance for future generations to come.

In The Name Of The Mother took place at Montezuma Well; a site considered sacred by Arizona’s own Yavapai-Apache nation, and which filters over 1.4 million gallons of water every day through its limestone basin, creating a home to endemic species found nowhere else in the world. This 4-day eco-centric event is encouraging an alliance of women to step up for a much needed shift in core cultural ways, and is offering a rich experience to inspire and educate this movement forward.

“Through these moments of giving reverence to water, the women will challenge our current way of thinking about the water and environment,” says Mona Polacca (Hopi/Havasupai/Tewa), one of the Grandmother’s Council Elders. “Women will encourage a shift in values to find a different, healthier way to view our relationship with the waters and Mother Earth. We need to recognize that regardless of its utilitarian or commercial worth, water has a social, cultural, medical, religious, and spiritual value.”