A full-day workshop to renew our relationship with the watershed in which we live, on a path towards reconciled relationships with Indigenous Peoples.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED. Registration is $15 and includes transportation from Halifax, if indicated.
Wherever we live in creation we are part of a watershed, an interdependent eco-system nested in a larger eco-system, which is also a watershed. We all have a relationship with the bodies of water that sustain our lives and we too are living parts of a watershed. Water is the ultimate connector, connecting us to all other living things, to the ancestors who have lived on the land before us, and to the generations who will live on the land after us.
In Canada, our watersheds continue to be threatened by mining, fracking, oil exploration, pipeline development, agriculture, water bottling, and more. The impacts of colonialism and industrialization have alienated us from our watersheds by teaching us to create territories that ignore watershed boundaries and to make commodities of natural resources.
These impacts have also damaged the relationship between non-Indigenous and Indigenous Peoples, the original protectors of the watershed. In Canada, peace and friendship treaties between First Nations and the Crown reflect Indigenous Elders’ vision for a shared life of mutuality, respect and sharing. National Indigenous Anglican Bishop Mark MacDonald reminds us that the through the treaties we made relatives of one another. Settler violations of those treaties have broken this relational connection.
To repair these relationships, we need to start listening; listening to the voices of Indigenous peoples who affirm the interconnectedness of the watersheds in which we live. Indigenous peoples continue to offer gracious welcome to settlers and seek partnership in a just transformation of the land. For those of us whose relational connection to the watershed has been compromised, we need to go back in to the watershed and stimulate learning, affection, and ultimately a commitment to protect our water. As Denise M. Nadeau says, “If people feel a relational connection to the watershed in which they live, it is easier for them to act in an embodied way upon their responsibilities.” We need to inhabit our corner of creation in a respected and related manner, reaching out to build and renew relations of ecological integrity and justice across our global common home. This is our responsibility.
This is reconciliation in the watershed.
Workshop Objectives
By the end of the Reconciliation in the Watershed workshop participants will be able to:
-Identify their watershed and the major issues related to its protection;
-Make connections between local ecological issues and Indigenous rights;
-Identify ways to renew their relationship with their immediate watershed and practice reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples on a daily basis; and
-Make connections between local watershed issues and larger Canadian and global struggles for justice.
This program is organized in partnership with KAIROS Canada and Dorene Bernard of the Treaty Camp to protect the Shubenacadie River.