Sacred Water Walk Photos on Display at UUFDC Gallery

“Sacred Water Walk” by Meredith Watts.

The gallery at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Door County (UUFDC) is featuring photographs from the Sacred Water Walk of the Ojibwe. The exhibit is part of the UUFDC Racial Justice Action Team’s yearlong focus on Native American cultures.

Jeff Pearcy and Meredith Watts photographed the last two days of a water walk that Ojibwe elder Josephine Mandamin organized – the sixth of seven such walks by Native American women and men to honor water as a sacred element at a time when it’s being threatened. This walk began in Matane, Quebec, and ended on Madeline Island near the Red Cliff Reservation in Wisconsin. It followed the route that elders believe the Anishinaabe people took from east to west in prehistoric times.

Pearcy is the organizing photographer of “For Good” Photography in Milwaukee and has more than 30 years of experience as a photojournalist. His work on contemporary Cuba appeared in the UUFDC gallery in 2017. Watts is a retired UW-Milwaukee social scientist who now works as a photographer. Recently, his photos were on display in the Museum of Wisconsin Art and the Walker’s Point Center for the Arts.The gallery, 10341 Hwy 42 in north Ephraim, is free and open to the public Tuesday-Friday, 1-4 pm; and Sunday, 11 am – 12 pm.