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 Konda Mason
“When will we become aware? What will it take? I believe the upside of the challenges we are facing right now is that it’s forcing us to say, ‘That is not the story.’ If ‘that’ is not the story, then what is? Who am I in the story, and who are we?” –Konda Mason
We are honored to have Konda Mason join us for the first Talking Water conversation of 2025. Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, eco-spiritual thought leader, and justice advocate working at the intersection of social and financial justice and planetary healing.
Konda offers a conversation full of insights into becoming conscious of our connections to the land and awakening to our true nature. Konda tells the story of finding home and her calling on a former cotton plantation in Louisiana. She shares how the plantation has become a place of transforming the wounds of slavery through regenerative agriculture and practices of reparative genealogy.
The circle widens to include other community voices — sharing stories about farming in the South, offering first-hand accounts of transformational genealogy work, and deep bows of appreciation for Konda’s work that touches so many.
About Konda Mason:
Konda Mason is a social entrepreneur, eco-spiritual thought leader, and justice advocate working at the intersection of social and financial justice and planetary healing. She is passionate about reversing the harm the extractive economy has had on all living systems. She foresees a world that is environmentally regenerative, spiritually fulfilling, socially just, and economically equitable. Konda is the President/Founder of Jubilee Justice, working to bring climate-resilient farming and economic equity to Black farmers in the rural South. Along with Mark Watson, Konda is the Co-founder of Potlikker Capital, a social justice charitable loan fund designed to deploy “reparative” capital to farmers of color and she is the Strategic Director of RUNWAY, a financial innovation firm committed to dismantling systemic barriers and reimagining financial policies and practices—all in the name of Black Liberation. Konda is on the Spirit Rock teachers' council and teaches mindfulness retreats throughout the country. She sits on the Board of Directors of Krista Tippett’s The OnBeing Project, RSF Social Finance, Soul Fire Farm Institute, and Clayborn Temple in Memphis, TN. Konda lives in Louisiana along the banks of the bayou.
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/
