Native American visitors ready for trip to Sperrins

AN anti-goldmining campaign group will be welcoming indigenous Native American visitors to the Sperrins next month.

It follows up on a visit in 2018 by Chas Jewett, a Lakota Sioux leader from the Standing Rock campaign, who came to Tyrone to find out about the campaign here against goldmining.

Save Our Sperrins say this ‘Making Relatives’ event will build on the “friendship and solidarity forged in 2018”.

The Native Americans are coming to undertake a Water Walk of the Foyle from its source to the sea.

Tribal elder, Sharon Day, is leading the walk.

She said, “The Nibi Water Walks are based in Ojibwe Ceremonial Water Teachings. The reason we walk is to honour the rivers and all water and to speak to the water spirits so that there will be healthy rivers, lakes and oceans for our ancestors in the generations to come.”

The group will collect a container of water from the source and carry it on foot all the way before returning it to the river just as it enters the sea. The group arrive at An Creagán on July 22 and hope to meet as many people as possible during their stay. A CrowdFunder has been set up to help cover the cost of the visit.

The visit and the WaterWalk is being organised in collaboration between Save Our Sperrins, CAMIO (Cooperate Against Mining in Omagh) and other groups throughout the Sperrins, Derry, Inishowen, Leitrim, Connemara, Cavan, Monaghan, Clare, the CAIM network and Friends of the Earth.

The WaterWalk begins on July 26 and finishes in Greencastle, Co Donegal on July 29.