Talking Water
Talking Water is an offering by Walking Water ...
Walking Water, born from a vision received in Payahuunadü - "the place where the water flows" on the ancestral homelands of the Paiute-Shoshone people - is a project and a prayer that centers water as teacher, guide, and sacred source.
We began as a three-year pilgrimage along the natural and human-made waterways between Mono Lake and Los Angeles, CA, partnering with local and global communities to collectively bear witness to the situation of water in our world. Following the path of water from source to end-user, we witnessed histories and current realities of destruction, violence, harm and extraction. Alongside the stories of grief, we celebrated those of beauty and resilience - possibilities for the healing and regeneration of waters, landscapes, and communities.
We continue to listen to the guidance and orientation of water, for how Walking Water might serve as one tributary within a global and intergenerational movement to restore relations with waters, lands and peoples. We move with the question: what world is possible if human beings devote themselves - personally, politically, spiritually - to that which gives life? We understand how essential it is for us to recognize and honor the leadership of Indigenous peoples and communities of color who have been protecting the waters and the lands from extraction and exploitation for hundreds of years -whose life ways, languages and cultures offer profound teachings for how to grow into right relationship.
A commitment to healing waters asks each of us to find our role in movements that struggle to dismantle oppressive systems that commodify waters, lands and peoples in pursuit of power and profit. And as we carry the dream of justice for waters and peoples alike, we strive to uplift and support those individuals and communities who are "acupuncture points" of healing and possibility, actively living towards that more beautiful and liberated world.
For more info go to: https://walking-water.org
To support the work of Walking Water go to: https://walking-water.org/donate/
Walking Water is a fiscally sponsored project of Weaving Earth
Banner photo by Teena Pugliese
Talking Water
Water Learning Series: Los Angeles - Session Three with LA Waterkeeper
“Water is one of the biggest drivers in California of climate change…because our water comes from very far away. In LA, we import our water hundreds of miles–over mountains, over deserts, over farmland from the Colorado River, from the Owens Valley, from the Sacramento River. That treatment and conveyance of water over hundreds of miles is the number one non-utility energy use in the entire state of California.” –Kelly Shannon McNeill, Associate Director, LA Waterkeeper
Welcome to the year-long Water Learning Series: Los Angeles, where we will host 11 conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story.
This month’s conversation features LA Waterkeeper, an organization that serves to partner with and also hold accountable municipalities, agencies, and decision makers implementing and investing in LA’s water infrastructure.
The guests from LA Waterkeeper, Kelly Shannon McNeill (Associate Director) and Ben Harris (Staff Attorney), share inspiring stories about relentless advocacy for pollution prevention, healthy habitats, and systems change for the future of LA. The conversation features an in-depth discussion about how importing and treating the water in LA drives climate change in California. The guests present an urgent case for local water for a climate resilient future for LA. The guests also take a deep dive into the history and evolution of the LA River. From the river’s pre-colonial form as a year-long meandering waterway that flooded seasonally in the LA Basin, to its transformation into a concrete superhighway engineered to direct water as quickly as possible out of LA and into the Pacific Ocean, the LA River can be seen from a variety of perspectives. The guests share a vision of an ecologically restored LA River, providing intersectional and multi-use solutions for climate mitigation, equitable access to nature, and increased quality of life.
Kelly Shannon McNeill, Associate Director
As a Southern California native who learned to swim before she could walk and an all-around earth lover, Kelly is deeply invested in preserving our precious habitats, recreation areas and supporting LA’s path to a more sustainable future.With more than 10 years of experience building partnerships that put people and our planet on the path towards success, Kelly was a fellow of the Moving Worlds Institute in 2017, where she learned to apply Human Centered Design in a global development context while working in East Africa. She has since worked as a philanthropy consultant to corporations and high-profile individuals, helped build multi-stakeholder initiatives in collaboration with UN Habitat, and served as a strategy advisor to social entrepreneurs.Kelly holds a BA in International Relations – Economic Development from University of California – San Diego.
Ben Harris, Staff Attorney
From an early age, Ben knew he wanted to dedicate his career toward protecting marine habitats from environmental harm and improving access to clean water bodies for all California residents.Prior to joining LA Waterkeeper, Ben spent two years as a fellow at the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at UCLA School of Law, where he represented clients in their pursuit of environmental advocacy and co-taught the environmental law clinic. After law school, he worked as a litigator in private practice but left to clerk for the Honorable Stephen V. Wilson in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.Ben received his undergraduate degree in Marine Biology from UCLA. He returned to obtain a J.D. from UCLA School of Law, where he served as the Executive Editor for the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy.
Hosted by: Kate Bunney
Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol M
