After making installations in conversation with the river for nearly three months as part of the Gifts for the River Project, the culminating event for the project was this magical day of gift giving- The Wabanaiisee Singers (Seven singers from seven different nations and seven different tribes) offered the gift of The Water Song to the Chippewa River, placing sacred medicines into birds' nests and carefully sending them out to the river as they sang. It was a day of honoring the water through collaborative gift offering, and through the merging of ceremony, song, art, and community beside and in communion with the Chippewa river.  

Wabanaisee singers feature: Lois Dockery, Anita Hall, Roxanne Sawade, Daisy Kostus, Carol Corbiere, Judy Scheuffele, and Dany Sineway. 

Concept by Denise Whitebread Fanning

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Site Specific Installation by Denise Whitebread Fanning and Adelka Polak

Video shot and edited by Katherine Freer

Produced by Ari Berk, PhD and Ty DeFoe 

To see more images and video from this day, go to https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpzc-ySg4ju/

To see a short film by Katherine Freer about Gifts for the River, go here. 
 

To learn more about Gifts for the River or to submit your own river art or stories to the project, visit www.giftsfortheriver.com