Mother of Waters, a permanent mural at the Foss Waterway Seaport Maritime Museum in Tacoma, WA.
Who is the Mother of Waters?
In this case, she is the mountain that births the waters in the Puyallup watershed. Her hair, floating upward with raindrops at the tips, is in the shape of the disk-shaped lenticular cloud that first hovers over the mountain when rain is on the way. Melting from her snowpack flow rivers that wind down her mountainous sides into our plains, valleys, and forests, curving and bringing life to everything they touch. Along the way, these rivers birth salmon into the ocean, where they'll live full lives and come back up the river toward the mountain again when they reach the end of their cycle.
This mural is a love letter to our local mountain and her watershed, and a reminder of how connected we all are to her and to each other. She reminds us that she is not just a faraway backdrop in our lives - but rather our literal mother. That we are mostly made up of the water she births, and that even the air we breathe has vapor that is a part of this ancient cycle.
This mural is inspired by the indigenous nations that have lived around the mountain since Time Immemorial, each with their own relationship with her and words to describe her, and it is my hope that those who see and feel touched by this connection will better understand the importance of respecting and supporting indigenous sovereignty.
This mural is also inspired by traditional stories around the world that recognize the sacredness of water and the role of mountains and rivers in birthing it into watersheds. This was at first my attempt to create my own concept of the Latvian māte, or animistic mothers that birth the natural world around us, including Upes māte and Ūdens māte (Mother of Rivers and Mother of Waters). It is also inspired by animistic water mothers such as Chalchiuhtlicue, Oshun, Mami Wata, Yemọja, Umm-Al-Maa, Saraswati, Damona, and more.
Understanding our waters and watershed through a lens of personhood helps us feel closer to the concept, and can help heal the dissociation we've cultivated between ourselves and nature. Standing in front of this mural, you will notice that the rivers end at the floor you stand on. This means that you, dear viewer, are the ocean, looking back at the mountain that made you, and that makes your presence a part of the mural, too.
Photo Credit: Arthur Lopez
