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 Felicia Marcus and Liz Crosson
“What’s the cost of inaction, and how do we help people afford what we need to invest? How do we convey the preciousness and precariousness of water? How do we get folks to collaborate versus compete?” –Felicia Marcus, Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program
“What can we control right now? We can ensure that we remain focussed on what we know is the most important thing…We all know what needs to be done to build a more resilient water supply, to ensure that our infrastructure is going to be ready for these types of extreme events that are going to happen again.” –Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, LA Metropolitan Water District
We are excited to welcome Felicia Marcus, Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, and Liz Crosson, Sustainability, Resilience and Innovation Officer, LA Metropolitan Water District.
The guests share a conversation that spans decades of experience in environmental advocacy, water policy, nonprofit work, litigation, and public service in LA, California, and in the West. Marcus and Crosson share deeply thoughtful insights about water policy and climate adaptation in the face of extreme, unprecedented events, such as the recent LA fires. They talk about staying the course and remaining diligent to priorities and clear in purpose despite misinformation from the federal government about water management in California.
The guests offer inspiring visions of restoring relationship to water, where water isn’t measured in acre feet or dollars but in the health of rivers, floodplains, and watersheds. Doing the work of collaborating across differences emerges as a guiding light.
About the guests:
Felicia Marcus is the William C. Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Water in the West Program, an attorney, consultant and member of the Water Policy Group. She most recently served as chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, implementing laws regarding drinking water and water quality and state’s water rights, hearing regional board water quality appeals, settling disputes and providing financial assistance to communities to upgrade water infrastructure.
Liz Crosson is the chief sustainability, resilience and innovation officer for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). She is responsible for developing a district-wide sustainability and resiliency strategy that includes efforts to reduce MWD’s carbon footprint and adapt to immediate climate change impacts. Liz develops and pursues strategies, programs, and policies that address energy use, conservation, pollution, environmental justice, and climate resilience. She also drives initiatives to foster innovation.
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/
