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 Eight with Friends of the LA River & Heal the Bay
“The river is the reason why LA was able to be here in the first place. It’s the origin story of Los Angeles. It’s the mother of Los Angeles in many ways.” –Candice Dickens-Russell, President & CEO of Friends of the LA River
Welcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have been hosting conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story.
We are joined in Session Eight by two organizations that are instrumental in community advocacy around water and the protection of water in Los Angeles County. We welcome Candice Dickens-Russell, President and CEO, from Friends of the LA River (FOLAR), and Kayleigh Wade, Senior Manager of Outreach, from Heal the Bay. Candice and Kayleigh offer an uplifting conversation about advocating for clean safe water, empowering Los Angeles residents through outreach and education, and reimagining a greener and wilder LA River for a climate resilient and more equitable future.
Candice and Kayleigh share the exciting and paradigm-shifting work of Friends of the LA River and Heal the Bay. Candice talks about FOLAR’s mission which centers the River as the origin of Los Angeles, works for safe and strategic concrete removal, and the greening of river spaces. FOLAR’s public advocacy and award-winning environmental education program create equitable places for Angelinos to feel a sense of belonging and ownership of the LA River. Though Heal the Bay is most well-known for massive coastal clean-up days, Kayleigh talks about work that is even more far-reaching. They discuss Heal the Bay’s ‘watershed approach,’ which means looking at all the places in LA County that water travels on its way to the sea. Both guests share the imperative for placing environmental justice at the forefront of their missions and share solution-based approaches to a water sufficient LA, citing tangible ways to move away from water importation and developing a vision of water as a relative to be taken care of and cherished.
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/
