My name is Christi Belcourt. I’m a Métis artist. I live and work in Ontario, Canada, but my people come from the community called Manitou Sakhahigan, which means Spirit Lake. It was called Spirit Lake because of the belief of the spirits that live in that lake, of the powers of that lake, of the need to respect these places as our spiritual places, the need to respect and approach all water as life-giving. This is a philosophy, a belief system, a worldview that is held not only by Métis people, of course, but by Indigenous people throughout the world. And I think that this is something that we carry within us. It is the idea that water is life, water holds life, water gives life, that we must think of water as a life support system for all living species, for life itself on this planet.

I think in some countries now, they’re starting to move towards the idea of giving status, protected living status to rivers and lakes, to recognize bodies of water as being alive, as containing and having the same rights as human rights. This is a way to think about moving forward and also to change our attitudes about water. For too long, people have considered water to be a garbage bin, to be a place where we, to put it crudely and bluntly, a place where we shit and we piss, and we dump our toxic waste, and we detonate nuclear bombs. And we put our nuclear power plants right beside important bodies of water, threatening them as if there was never to be nuclear meltdowns, which there have been.

When we think of water, we have to think of the baby fish, the baby birds, the baby animals. We have to think of all the species of plants that will not be born until 500 years, 700 years, 8,000 years from now, long after we are gone off of this earth. Who is looking out for those future generations of not just humans? We have clean water plants that we can filter water through if we need to, but what about all the other species? Will the baby birds have clean water to be drinking when they’re born? Will the animals have clean water? Will fish have clean water? The sturgeon? All of that. We are heading towards not good times for the future generations because of the carelessness with which we treat water and the planet.

Many Indigenous people have stood up for their waters and are continuing to stand up and fight for their waters, much to their own risk of life and liberty. They are risking everything to stand up for their waters and they have been for a very long time, since the beginning. This is something that the world could use and do well to listen to. It is the philosophy and the ideas and the heart of Indigenous people who have carried this knowledge of how to care for the earth, with us passed down through generations since time immemorial.

My artwork is a reflection of my belief system that everything is sacred on this earth, that my government is the earth itself. The earth is my church, it’s my sanctuary, it’s my place of worship. The earth is the place where I go to restore myself, where I give my offerings, where I ask that life continues, where I ask that the earth continue to nourish everybody on this planet, that the plants continue to produce the food that we need.

I ask the plants and the seeds to continue to be strong and to continue to thrive. I ask that we as human beings respect every living thing as a life giver for us, that we learn how to walk softly on this earth. And that’s what my artwork is about. It’s about respecting everything and respecting not just human life, but all life.

Website: http://christibelcourt.com/