On the banks of nx̌ʷaqʷaʔstn, a prayer ceremony marks World Water Day

Standing by the banks of the nx̌ʷaqʷaʔstn (Mission Creek), Xwayluxalqs holds her rattle between drum songs as she invites people to pray for the waters of her homeland.

“People call it a resource,” Xwayluxalqs (Fox Dress) said. “It’s not a resource — it’s our life. It’s Mother Earth’s lifeblood.”

The syilx knowledge holder — also known as Tricia Manuel — led a water ceremony in kiʔláwnaʔ (Male Grizzly Bear, or the City of Kelowna) in syilx homelands on Friday, a day ahead of World Water Day.

On the warm spring morning, dozens of participants huddled close in a wooded area tucked away beneath a walking path, as curious joggers and dog walkers passed them from above.

Xwayluxalqs reminded the sqilx’w (Indigenous) and non-Indigenous community members attending that everyone in the Okanagan Valley has a responsibility to maintain the health of siwɬkʷ (water).

The knowledge holder has been conducting water ceremonies across her nation for three decades. The event on March 21, organized by the Okanagan Nation Alliance (ONA), highlighted the need for water to be collectively valued by everyone.

“It’s a living, breathing part of our lives,” Xwayluxalqs said. “Take care of it.”

She encouraged participants to shift their relationship to water, by viewing it as a relation and not a resource. 

They were also reminded that their perspective and treatment of water must be holistic — one that considers the impacts that clean waterways can have on the health of the ecosystem and tmixʷ (all living things).

As Xwayluxalqs led the half-hour ceremony, she shared a syilx prophecy: One day, there will come a time when there’s no more water, and people will go to war with one another over it.

“I firmly believe that time is coming soon,” she said. “We need everyone to be aware and to pray — fill your hearts and minds with gratitude for the water, so that it can continue growing.”

She also spoke of the collective power that comes from uniting in prayer, particularly to bring good health to the water.

“Ask that it be clean and clear for all of life, for all of time,” she said. “With everyone here today, we can collectively put our minds and our hearts together and pray for this water in a good way.” 

Numerous threats to syilx Okanagan waterways

A number of threats to local waterways have percolating over recent years, and many continue to harm the health of kɬúsx̌nítkʷ (Okanagan Lake), into which nx̌ʷaqʷaʔstn flows.

Biologists continue to raise fears of recreational boaters introducing invasive aquatic species to the lake. Researchers also already found small amounts of microplastics in the body of water in 2021. And the lake’s natural shoreline continues to be lost to residential and commercial developments, impacting aquatic habitats. 

Water sports — particularly wake-boating, with its turbulent waves and downward-pointing vertical jets — have also been stirring up contaminated sediments from the lake bottom, scientists say, which can release harmful toxins that harm both water quality and habitat for aquatic life. 

“When I see all those boats on there, my heart hurts,” Xwayluxalqs said. “I get scared.”

Despite the efforts of ONA, salmon continue to struggle to return to a lake and its surrounding watershed, which was once on their regular migration route — until they were blocked by dams, industrial agriculture and climate change. 

More frequent droughts have also hurt waterways in the region, especially in summertime.

“Our water is facing such impacts and challenges — it’s only getting more and more complex with climate change and continued growth in this area and pressures,” said qʷəqʷim̓cxn Tessa Terbasket, a syilx Nation member and the lead for ONA’s water strategy. 

“What can we do for our relationship and our responsibility to the water? Not only for us, but for all that live here — the fish, the bugs, the plants, even the earth and the soil. It’s all so important.”

Xwayluxalqs spoke of the lake’s sacred water being, nx̌ax̌aitkʷ (culturally appropriated and known to settlers as “Ogopogo”). In her ceremonies, she asks nx̌ax̌aitkʷ to keep the water clean and clear for all of life.

“He’s charged with his responsibility,” she said. “His gift, his way of being, his purpose is to take care of the water. Not just this lake, but all the lakes in our nation.”

She said seeking cleaner, healthier waterways is a “continuous prayer” for not just her nation, but all residents of the Okanagan’s semi-arid ecosystem.

“Everyone in this valley relies on this water,” she said.

Land and water ecosystems ‘functionally disconnected’

Terbasket said, prior to settler colonialism, nx̌ʷaqʷaʔstn and its surrounding watershed were important places for harvesting, habitation and gatherings across the territory.

“Members from all of our communities would come here to fish,” said Terbasket. The ancient uses of local waterways flowed into their place names.

In the nsyilxcen language, nx̌ʷaqʷaʔstn means a place where arrowheads were made, she explained.

The creek remains a crucial habitat for salmon to spawn. Today, community efforts continue to restore the creek to its former healthy biological state. 

But according to ONA fisheries biologist Natasha Lukey, today’s waterway is “a sick channel.” Not only was the naturally winding creek straightened in the 20th century, but its span narrowed by three-quarters; it was originally at least 120 metres wide, she said.

And the creek is also less than 60 per cent of its former length, she said.

“The floodplains — the land that the water used to talk to — is functionally disconnected,” Lukey explained, and such connections are essential to salmon and other fish swimming in its waters.

“The conversation between land and water is vital to how a creek system runs.”

The efforts to restore syilx waterways by ONA’s fisheries department can be best summarized by the dream of the late Okanagan Indian Band Chief Albert Saddleman in the 1990s, she said: put back the river; put back its fish; put back the people.

“That is what we’re trying to do,” Lukey explained.

For Terbasket, any decisions affecting water — from watershed planning to restoration initiatives — must be made in collaboration with communities of the syilx Nation. 

“It’s our Elders’ knowledge, our syilx knowledge — our captikʷł, our natural laws — that really tell us the way forward in how we need to find the solutions and uphold our responsibility to the water moving forward,” she said.

Terbasket thanked Xwayluxalqs for being leading traditional ceremonies like the one on Friday. Without that spiritual work, she said, none of the nation’s technical and scientific restoration efforts could be successful.

“We owe so much to our ceremonial holders,” Terbasket said.

‘Be clean and clear like the water‘

At the end of Friday’s ceremony, Xwayluxalqs passed a bag of tobacco around the gathered group, inviting participants to offer the sacred medicine to the creek’s moving waters. 

She encouraged attendees to introduce themselves to the waters, to touch and thank them, and to ask if they could channel the water’s strength as they move forward in their lives.

“We want to be fluid like the water,” she said. “We want to think good things. Be clean and clear like the water — that’s going to be your prayer today.”

Shortly after she shared her closing words, a pəql̓qin (bald eagle) circled above the group. Participants made their way down to the creek’s rock-and-grass-lined shores to offer their respects and prayers. 

Some attendees filled jars they’d brought with creekwater. Xwayluxalqs encouraged them to label their jar with the creek’s name once they got home to remember where the waters came from.

“Say your prayers to it, say thank you to it everyday, as a reminder of your responsibility for this water system,” she said. “Go home, tell your family, tell your friends — pray for the water.”