WATER: THE GREAT TEACHER OF PEACE DURING THE G8
by Kate Heming
My name is Kate Heming. I am a writer, event organizer and first-time filmmaker from Huntsville, Ontario. For over twelve months, I’ve been directly involved in the coming of age story that is Huntsville, working under the vision of long-time resident and director Brenda Darling.
This film has been a labour of love. Unsuccessful in our attempts to secure funding, we were fortunate to have many friends from whom we’ve begged, borrowed (and stopped just short of stealing) cameras for the past year. With over 100 hours of footage, our project – tentatively titled Hello World, This is Huntsville – tells the experience of the G8 coming to a small town of 18,500 in Northern Ontario through the eyes of the local residents.
“We have filmed dozens of ‘locals’, both high profile and reclusive, who will tell our collective story of the year of the G8,” explains Darling. “They are students, politicians, construction workers, merchants, business owners, social assistance recipients, campaigners, spiritual leaders and several special non-residents such as David Suzuki, Ella Kokotsis (U of T G8/20 Research Group), Maude Barlow, Tony Clement and the military.”
Fear was a prevalent emotion expressed by local residents as the G8 Summit approached. Fear of violence, fear of protestors, fear of damage to property, fear of the police: fear of the unexpected. There was awe and amazement as the bull-dozers crashed through the forests, paving over fields to make room for military tents as infrastructure spending flooded the streets: Huntsville was getting a first-world make-over, whether we wanted it or not. We filmed it all.
I grew up here, went to high school here – I had never been to a major protest and did not know what to expect from the thousands of protestors we were told would descend upon our downtown. Honestly, there’s only one major street. The whole thing seemed impossible. At some point, a wall seemed to go up in people’s minds, surrounding their hearts: we were sufficiently scared and told to stay home. Residents in this town weren’t going to rock the boat. Apathy settled comfortably over fear, and the town of Huntsville got very, very quiet.
Yet, an underground movement had begun. “Two years ago, 2008, we began to call the community together in response to the news of the G8 coming to Huntsville,” explains Jessica Reaske, Elder of the Huntsville Dare’ Community. “In April of 2009, Diane Longboat of Grand River Territory came to hold ceremony with us in preparation for this, and identified the water underneath our meeting place at Shifting Earth Gallery in Emsdale, Ontario as having healing properties. Last summer we held concentrated Dream Councils with some of the more forthcoming of our Dare’ members to ask what our role with the coming G8 was to be. The spirits spoke strongly through the core community dreams – our focus was to be healing and water.”
Four women Elders – Laura Heming, Sally Ferguson, Jessica Reaske and Evelyn Wolff – committed to meeting weekly for prayer and guidance until the time of the G8. I often met with them then, filming and dreaming. “Kate’s presence was always with us,” says Jessica, a key character in the film. “And her other activities fed our common purpose. We are seeking to understand the water spirits, asking to be shown what is wanted, how we can be and send healing into our own hearts and minds such that healing will come into the hearts and minds of everyone, in order to remember our original relationship to life.”
I began to have dreams of a Water Festival. A celebration of water, an education outreach tool that would utilize the media platform provided to us by the coming G8 to bring awareness of the world water crisis, while at the same time impact our local community directly, and inspire them to become better stewards of the water we live with and near.
Guided by the education I’d received working on the film “Water On The Table” by Liz Marshall (www.wateronthetable.com), the core issue quickly became the fight to make water a human right. Generously, Liz agreed to screen her film in Huntsville on the eve of the G8. The Dare’ community decided that a Water Ceremony was the correct medium of expression. I went to the town and secured park permits for the week of the G8. Huntsville Water Fest was born.
Under the observant eye of our cameras, Huntsville Water Fest took place on Sunday, June 20th, the first day on the week of the G8. It included a water ceremony, water song, a choreographed flashmob called the Huntsville G8 Dance for Water, and merchant booths selling sustainable products. There was a specific intention to create a positive environment for the G8 leaders. Whether their meeting was productive or not wasn’t the concern – for the residents of Huntsville: the focus was to create a peaceful environment for protestors to be heard, police to protect and serve, and the world leaders to do their business and be done. It was an effort to learn from water and manifest peace.
News began to filter in from the city. “Toronto hosts thousands of protestors for the G20. Chief of Police Bill Blair, claiming intentions to facilitate lawful, peaceful protest, institutes controversial Public Works Protection Act.” Under the breath comments were muttered, “Well, at least we’re not hosting the G20…”
The G8 began on Thursday, June 24th. Our cameras documented streets and surrounding forests filled with thousands of OPP, military, dozens of media…and no one else. No protestors. Beautiful weather and soft active citizens, rushing around getting ready our grassroots music festival Girl 8, featuring local artists and organized by Ruth Cassie as a part of the Huntsville Water Fest. The cops, not having anything else to do and generally relaxed after days of manning the quiet streets, expressed their excitement to attend. “Hey Kate!” (By now they knew me by name, as I’d been running up and down the one and only street a million times setting up tables and banners about water and attempting to catch any and all action with my camera.) “We’re so excited about Girl 8!” They said, “We can’t wait to attend. Whoa – you need any help?”
That evening, the doc, “Water On The Table”, screened from 6-8pm. It shook apathy from our fingertips; it moved us to action. A desire to stand up on behalf of water hummed in the theatre itself.
The next morning at 8AM, 2 dozen people gathered in the main park with homemade placards that read “Canada! Designate Water a Human Right!” Head of G8 Security Calum Rankin went out of his way to stop traffic, facilitating our last-minute protest with a cop car entourage, helping us every step of the way. We marched down the main street in Huntsville, chanting “WATER IS A HUMAN RIGHT, NOT A COMMODITY”, circling the downtown core and returning to pause by the river. Our camera was not alone in documenting the voice of the local residents. The media, thirsty for any story – especially of protest, – surrounded us. “Who are you?” They asked. “The community of Huntsville!” we replied. This seemed an insufficient answer. We weren’t angry enough, organized enough. It was too organic, too peaceful. But that was who we were: water. Peaceful resisters. We made international news and the issue was at the forefront of the story – it was the biggest G8 story that day.
The next day Brenda and I departed for Toronto, following the protests of the G20 through the eyes of local 19 year old activist Jesse Cole. This was his first major protest experience, and the stark contrast between the G8 and the G20 was over-whelming. It seemed we’d left a utopia of discussion and peace and entered into a dense energy of violence and abuse of power. Helpful, friendly police were nowhere to be found – instead we were threatened by guns with rubber bullets, stopped and searched repeatedly, corralled with other peaceful protestors and detained at Queen and Spadina in the rain for hours.
As the sky burst and torrential rainfall pummelled down, a fellow detainee noticed my Huntsville “WATER” Fest button. Grinning she said, “Well, you got what you asked for.” “What?” I asked, totally over-whelmed and distracted by my fear of being arrested. “Water – if you asked for water, you got it. Be careful what you wish for!” I laughed and nodded. “You know, it’s funny,” she continued. “The rain has washed all my anger away. I was so angry, but now, I’m just ready to go home.”
Water: the great teacher.
“I believe that water could become nature’s gift to us, to teach us how to live in peace with one another, and in harmony with the Earth, if we only have the wisdom to listen.”
- Maude Barlow, Chairperson Council of Canadians, from the film Water On The Table.
Huntsville experienced that truth.
