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 Eleven with Tina Calderon, Teri Red Owl & Kyndall Noah
“I really believe that the more people that come together, that are thinking this way, and that are working on solutions, that's what it’s going to take to get us to reimagining what our future is going to be and what LA looks like in the future–they don’t have to rely on our water, on Colorado River water, on water in Northern California. We can look at meeting our needs locally.” –Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nüümü from Payahuunadü), Executive Director Owens Valley Indian Water Commission
Welcome to the Water Learning Series: Los Angeles. Throughout 2024, we have hosted conversations with organizations, community projects, tribal organizations, activists, organizers, and leaders from LA and places impacted by LA’s water story. Over the course of this year, our conversations have dove deeply into the complicated elements of the water story, breaking down the complexity to reveal a map of relationships. This is our last session in the series.
In this session, we once again welcome Indigenous voices to the forefront, speaking to the future of LA’s water story. We are joined by Tina Calderon (Gabrielino Tongva, Chumash, and Yoeme), Teri Red Owl (Bishop Paiute Tribe Nüümü from Payahuunadü), and Kyndall Noah (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), who were also guests from Session One. We are grateful for completing this series with the insight and presence of these important voices.
Session 11 focuses on the future of Los Angeles and water. The guests speak about what it would take for Los Angeles to be an example of water justice and equity, talking about the necessity for honoring and protecting water as a relative–a free-flowing force of life benefitting the people, lands, plants, and animals. At the heart of coming into right relationship with water and land is the restoration and respect for the sovereignty of tribes as the original stewards of the lands. The guests share the importance of Indigenous voices in creating a future of sustainability in water management.
The guests also offer their experiences and thoughts about the power of building mutually beneficial coalitions. They reflect on how collaborators can support in ways that are reciprocal and cooperative, being committed to working for the benefit of all parties. The guests speak of the importance of not only having a seat at the table, but being at the center of it, as well as what it means to create their own table when necessary.
The circle of conversation widens to include voices from the Walking Water community, inviting the guests to offer stories of courage and resilience. Other community voices from tribal organizing in Payahuunadü and sustainability and equity from the Los Angeles DWP join the discussion, bringing hope to LA’s water story.
Thank you for joining us in this series. We invite you to be part of the ongoing work re-imagining LA’s water story. See the links below to learn more.
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/
