Sister Water-Photo-Poem

Sister Cities Celebrate "Sister Water"

Il Comune di Perugia (the Perugian city goverment) and Instagram are sponsoring   a contest with the theme of "Sister Water". This concept is celebrating the waters of Umbria and Seattle, our Sister Orca statue rising from the water located at the MiniMetro station in Perugia, and our sister relationship that is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

I am presenting a photo and poem here and in my three photo shows in Italy this summer.

I brought three elements together for the project:

1.) The city skyline of Seattle because it indeed is a Sister City to Perugia
2.) The woman's hand is of a friend who is to me like a sister
3.) The water being the element that ties us together for it brings life and cleansing

If you have the Instagram app, I ask you to support me and our city in this effort by following me on Instagram and hitting the "I Like" button for the Sister Water photo. My profile name is Caruanafoto.

Thank you all for your support.

Ian Caruana

Sister Water

Sister Alqwu

Born of “Alqwu” is this place, this space, our home

The clouds in the heavens provide the snows

Collected by our mother earth at her highest points,

Held captive until the land needs its drink

With patience, glaciers satiate our streams

And the oceans welcome their sister waters

Flowing downward from the tallest peaks, feeding the emerald green

It is here our lives are lived on barrowed soil

Older than the histories we know

We were not always the caretakers of this water, this ground

Si’Ahl, our heritage, our namesake

A gift from the Lushootseed language of aboriginal terra firma

A terrain of hills and mountains - of rivers and oceans

Merging as sisters, living in concert with the trees, plants, animals and people

Here we find ourselves, define ourselves, become ourselves

We say our name loud and proud, no need for a whisper

We are Seattle – The Emerald City

Footnotes:

Si’Ahl- the name of Seattle in the Lushootseed language

Alqwu- the word for water in the Lushootseed language of the Duwamish Tribe of the Puget Sound area. The ancestors of the Duwamish Tribe is said to have lived in Puget Sound for nearly 10,000 years ( according to Wikipedia ).