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
with We the People of Detroit
“When you know the historical legacy of systemic racism that’s still baked into housing policies, insurance policies, red-lining, things of that nature, then you have to understand that the fight we’re fighting in Detroit is connected to a global fight. It’s about fighting for national change. It’s about fighting for systemic change, and it’s about fighting for a global resource that we must all have access to.” –Monica Lewis-Patrick, President & CEO, We the People of Detroit
We the People of Detroit calls the Talking Water community into a spirited and in-depth conversation about water equity in Detroit, connecting their water warrior work to the global movement for safe, clean, and affordable water as an essential human right. Founders of We the People of Detroit, Monica Lewis-Patrick, President & CEO; Debra A. Taylor, Chief Financial Officer; and Cecily McClellan, Director of Water Work/Relief, provide a comprehensive backstory about the Water and Sewerage Department of Detroit shutting off water to nearly 150,000 households since 2014 and the health crisis that has drawn international criticism and continues to plague residents. Baked into the story of the water shut-offs is the account of the City of Detroit’s bankruptcy and the private companies that privatized essential services without voter approval to the detriment of Detroit’s historic residents. Lewis-Patrick, Taylor, and McClellan share their extensive knowledge of Detroit’s inequitable water policies that target predominantly low-income Black and Brown citizens through the research of the We the People of Detroit Community Research Collective (CRC), a collaborative of community activists, academics, researchers, and designers who created a visual map of the socio-economic implications of Detroit’s austerity policies enacted before, during, after the city’s bankruptcy.
The guests share their inspired resolve in founding We the People of Detroit in 2008 as an unwavering commitment to support the Black community when Detroit went into emergency management, the public safety net began to disappear, and the economy was in free fall. We the People of Detroit work has been a stalwart foundation, informing, educating, and empowering Detroit residents and providing opportunities for youth leaders on imperative issues surrounding civil rights, land, water, education, and the democratic process.
Hosted by: Kate Bunney
Produced & Edited by: Anne Carol Mitchell
Intro music by: Mamuse 'River Run Free' - featuring Walter Strauss
If you feel inspired by Talking Water please consider a donation - our work relies on the community. You can donate here. https://walking-water.org/donate/
For more info go to Walking Water website. https://walking-water.org/
