Episode 37: Making Relationship with Water

Hi everyone, Dustin here:

 

Every March 22nd, many people around the world recognize the United Nations World Water Day as an opportunity to reflect on our relationship to water. I joined this year to reflect on the value water adds to my own personal and community life, including its important role in local and global ecology. This year I learned from Anishnaabe kwe who took part in a Water Walk through hundreds of kilometres of Saugeen Ojibway territory, making acquaintance with the waters that line the coasts and wind through the rivers.

 

My whole academic life has been shaped by water's influence in the world; it has been at the centre of much of my work for almost nine years now, and has brought me into awareness of a whole world of relationships. As Indigenous peoples continue to assert and embody, water is life. For humans and non-human species, plants and animals, geologic systems and climate stability, water plays a central role of reproduction, sustenance, cleansing, beauty, and inspiration.

 

On Thursday, March 25th, our special guests were three prominent water advocates: Mike Balkwill from Wellington Water Watchers; Lin Grist of the local chapter of the Council of Canadians; and Mike Sullivan of Get Concerned Stratford.

 

We had a broad discussion that touched on things like the moratorium on water bottling permits, the sale of Nestlé Waters Canada facilities, the struggle against MZOs that threaten water systems, the Blue Communities initiative, and Indigenous leadership on water protection. I hope listeners and supporters take this as an opportunity to reflect on what water does for us and how we can make a reciprocal relationship with it in our daily lives and advocacy.

 

This session was co-moderated by Dustin Brown and Tanya Gevaert.

 

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