This post is a way to document many months of collaborative work for an in-person gathering on the banks of the Grand River near Paris Ontario. Through the leadership of Waasekom Niin and ongoing support by a small team (Laura Hamilton, Gus Ganley, Lindsay Swan, Elle Thoni, Michelle Woodhouse, Laura Gilbert, Todd Hoskins, Jessica Keeshig Martin, Danielle Boissoneau, Paul Baines and others) we spent months meeting online to design a weekend that was spirit centred, Indigenous led, and ally supported.
Being Salmon, Being Human : from enlightenment to enlivenment
Converting wild salmon into a commodity is a global fairytale that strips us of ancient and ancestral relations with the gift-giving earth. Weaving storytelling and music, this Norwegian-based performance activates our senses and asks for a critical restoration and re-storying of what it means to be a human living within a larger body. Great Lakes Commons was able to help bring this tour to the region through our trusted community of water protectors who model and crave a more animated and reciprocol relationship with the living waters.
Unpacking Whiteness, Settler Colonialism, and Working Towards Acting in Better Allyship
Great Lakes Commons (GLC) is hosting a Living Great Lakes gathering at the Five Oaks Retreat Centre near Paris, Ontario, this October (11-13).
For white accomplices planning to or thinking about attending the gathering, GLC is organizing a two-hour online meet-up in September to unpack whiteness, settler colonialism, and the commons so as to teach each other how best to show up for this vital work on behalf of our human and nonhuman family.
Relationship Status: Water Friendship workshop
On July 18th, GLC Education & Outreach Coordinator Paul Baines gave a workshop in Cambridge Ontario about our relationship with water. Based on the 2017 Water Friendship pilot project, this event was part of the Common Waters project. Common Waters is a community project that examines our relationship with water and provides a platform for us to discuss some of the most pressing issues of our time. It started with three reflections about how we think: We can not solve a problem with same kind of thinking that created it / We count and name what matters to us / If all you have is a hammer, then nails are what you go looking for.
Honouring the Lands & Waters
You may have noticed more and more events and organizations are creating and announcing 'land acknowledgements' to name the Indigenous / traditional territories their work is performed on. While the content and expectation of these statements is evolving, how can our water-based project initiate honouring the lands and waters?
Foxconn's water diversion and discharge is important, because...
Stories and Sovereignty: Winter Tales of Water and Love
The Indigenous Environmental Justice Project (York) and Great Lakes Waterworks/Water Allies (New College/University of Toronto) are pleased to announce a joint winter event series. In these events, we draw on stories as a way of thinking forward on questions of water and water governance, love and sovereignty. In Anishinaabek teachings, winter has traditionally been, and remains, a time for story-telling, reflection, restoration, and envisioning, towards the moment when the sap (sugar water) flows, and the ice breaks in the spring.