FLOW AND GROW will explore the role of water from the global to the local with Bob McDonald of Quirks & Quarks fame on CBC Radio leading the opening module with Chief Aaron Sam of the Lower Nicola Indian Band on the theme Science & Spirit – An Inclusive Journey. In the closing module, their reflections on the day will be the springboard to a town-hall sharing and learning session on “where we go from here”.

Bob McDonald:

Loved by audiences across Canada for making complex scientific issues understandable, meaningful, and fun, Bob McDonald is in high demand. A fixture in radio and television broadcasting for more than 30 years, he is currently the host of Quirks & Quarks–the award-winning science program that is heard by 500,000 people each week. Bob McDonald has authored four bestselling science books.

“A global perspective reminds us of the limited availability of fresh water on the planet, a vital life sustaining resource that demands a raised level of consciousness and commitment,” says Bob McDonald.

Chief Aaron Sam:

Passionate about protecting and taking care of wild salmon, Aaron Sam has been a practicing lawyer for almost 10 years. As elected Chief, he continues to advocate for sustainable use of lands and waters, for the present and future generations.

“The call for an inter-cultural and inter-generational approach to water security issues has never been more timely or pressing than now,” states Aaron Sam.

Sense of Place:

“The concept for FLOW AND GROW is both visionary and practical, so constructed to identify solutions regarding water security through a process of consensus, commitment and collaboration,” explains Eric Bonham, facilitator for Module A. He developed the theme for the module and and connected the dots between Bob McDonald and Aaron Sam.

“Simply put, the unifying theme is ‘sense of place’. Whether discussing the economy or ecological challenges, the workshop findings will be of equal importance and applicability to other areas within the province and beyond.”

Four Modules:

“FLOW AND GROW is structured as four modules and is cascading – from high-level visioning to ground-level applications. Each module has a learning objective. Adaptation to a changing climate is a thread that runs through all the modules,” adds Kim Stephens, Partnership Executive Director.

“Climate change, water security, population demand and food security issues will be discussed in grounded terms by a team of 11 expert inter-disciplinary presenters. Their objective is to seed a conversation that will ripple through time. Team members will share and reflect on their perspectives of what a balance of the economy, ecology and settlement in the Okanagan Valley (and beyond) might look like.”

Download  Flow and Grow for program details.

Spirit & Science – An Inclusive Journey

“The duo of Bob McDonald and Chief Aaron Sam allows FLOW AND GROW to explore and build on the concept of ‘Blue Ecology’, a way of thinking introduced by Michael D. Blackstock in 2001. In a series of articles published in the BC Journal of Ecosystems and Management, his call for action was to re-examine climate change from a ‘water first’ angle,” continues Kim Stephens.

Blue Ecology:

“This concept emerged from interweaving two ways of knowing: 1) a First Nations spiritual and traditional ecological perspective; and 2) a Western science secular and ecological perspective. Michael Blackstock wrote that ‘Blue Ecology is a means to focus, with new watery eyes, on the arrived crisis of climate change’.”

“He saw as essential the acknowledgement of water’s central functional and spiritual roles in our world, and urged us to apply both respect and science-based understanding as we develop collaborative climate change mitigation strategies and instill this respect and understanding in younger generations.”

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