Vol. 4 No. 1 (2025): Women and Water: The Flow of Matriculture
Research Articles

Yanawana Pedagogies: Learning with Coahuiltecan Water Teachings

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  • Marissa Aki'Nene Muñoz,
  • Pablo Montes,
  • Marleen Villanueva
Marissa Aki'Nene Muñoz
University of Texas at San Antonio
Pablo Montes
Texas Christian University
Marleen Villanueva
Texas Christian University
A stream of water flows through and around gaps made by three stones; the one on the right is covered with moss.

Published 2025-03-30

Keywords

  • Indigenous Knowledge,
  • intergenerational learning,
  • Yanawana,
  • Coahuiltecan,
  • Water

Copyright (c) 2025 Marissa Aki'Nene Muñoz, Pablo Montes, Marleen Villanueva (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Yanawana Pedagogies: Learning with Coahuiltecan Water Teachings. (2025). Matrix: A Journal for Matricultural Studies, 4(1), 10-29. https://doi.org/10.60676/1m64xf83

Abstract

In honor of the place where we were visiting, Marleen woke early in the morning to collect Water from the nearby Great Lake, and we lovingly created a makeshift altar of fresh flowers and rebozos. We opened the circle with a public song about sacred Water, then moved on to introductions: “Please share your name, pronouns, and which Waters hold you as your home.”

Some folks chose lakes, oceans, rivers, some shared a name in English, some named their home Waters by their ancestral languages. As a collective, we took in a deep breath, and dropped down into our bodies, and into relational ways of knowing and being in community. We were ready to begin.

As Indigenous educators, we are responsible and response-able (Kuokkanen, 2007) to our home communities, to our human and more-than-human kin (Nxumalo & Villanueva, 2020) and to each other to follow cultural protocols that prepare us for our work. In this paper, we reflect on our learning journeys, discussing our roles as Water protectors, mothers, community organizers, and scholars, and offer three examples of ongoing Water work.

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