Convening for Action in British Columbia

banner

Tag:

water reconciliation

    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Blue Ecology offers HOPE and removes the FEAR” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in September 2023


    Michael Blackstock believes that a message of hope is paramount in these times of droughts, forest fires and floods. “Rather than looking through a cumulative effects lens, I also see the concept of ‘cumulative healing’ landing as a way to give back to water and land. Rather than wondering how much more can we take or impact land before we need to stop, instead we should ask how much longer should we let the water and land heal, before we ask for more,” states Michael Blackstock.

    Read Article

    INTERWEAVING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & WESTERN SCIENCE: “In British Columbia, hydrometric records are fairly limited in time and geographic coverage. From a hydrology perspective, then, interweaving science and a rich oral history would turn a comparatively short period of data collection into thousands of years of knowledge. This might profoundly change how we view extreme changes in the water cycle and the consequences in BC,” stated Kim Stephens, Partnership for Water Sustainability (February 2022)


    “If Thomas Bayes (1702-1761) was alive today, I have no doubt that he would say, oral history extends the period of period and our understanding of what the data mean. Bayesian statistics offers a framework for combining different kinds of information and making best use of what is available. Four decades ago, a municipality brought public works staff back from retirement so that I could interview them and compile the oral history of strategic culvert installations. These ‘data inputs’ made it possible to generate flood frequency curves,” stated Kim Stephens.

    Read Article

    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Oral history extends the period of record and our understanding of what the data mean” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in February 2022


    “Interweaving means bring together two different ways of knowing into one new concept that weaves the strengths of both ways of knowing, rather than criticizing one or the other; or trying to make them compete. It is a more collaborative way of knowing. There is a sense of humility that comes with interweaving and acknowledging that Western science is not the only way of knowing. There are other ways of knowing. And so, the humility part is interweaving the strengths of those other ways,” stated Michael Blackstock.

    Read Article

    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Blue Ecology is the Pathway to Reach Water Reconciliation” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in January 2022


    “Our children’s children will be faced with daunting, complex, and urgent environmental problems. We owe them hope. Curiosity about other cultures draws us into a better understanding, and allows us to contrast and compare two worlds. The product of curiosity is an analysis whereby comparison and contrast enable the interweaving process. This is about creating a new form of knowledge through collaboration by interweaving useful threads from each way of knowing into a more robust way,” stated Michael Blackstock.

    Read Article

    DOWNLOAD A COPY OF: “Living Water Smart in British Columbia: Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar on Creating a Climate for Change” – released by the Partnership for Water Sustainability in October 2021


    “Are you prepared and willing to change your definition of water in science? And if you are, what would the change in definition look like? This is what reconciliation really gets down to when we are talking about interweaving Indigenous knowledge and Western science. No longer is it ceremonial. Is Western science prepared, for example, to add the moon to the hydrologic cycle? From the Indigenous perspective, we believe it should be there,” stated Michael Blackstock.

    Read Article