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Blue Ecology

    RAISING WATER BALANCE AWARENESS: “Community-based science should be used to inform science models and planning. The Salt Spring Island Water Preservation Society is making a successful step in that direction,” states Dr. John Millson


    “The Salt Spring Island Freshwater Catalogue Project that I am leading is providing field data for ground-truthing, as I call it, for some of the community-based science work that we are doing to support the work by the Islands Trust and Capital Regional District. The data can help us understand water quantity variability and water balance for an island. It all hangs together and dovetails nicely in a multi-threaded, decision-making process. Water quantity is such a big deal. Why is that? Well, islands only have rainwater for water supply,” stated John Millson.

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    WATERSHED MOMENTS 2023: “My experience with elected representatives is that it always comes down to the people and how they get along. And how they act, and how they lead. Staff can only carry things so far,” stated Brian Carruthers, former Chief Administrative Officer with the Cowichan Valley Regional District (January 2023)


    “The question was, and still is, how do we rekindle that energy and fire in the belly? How do we rekindle that support for this important work amongst our elected officials? How do we bring the Cowichan Tribes, Cowichan Watershed Board and CVRD, as well as the other groups back together again? You need to have that political will to say, this is important. Only when someone who is elected takes the lead, and is the champion, does something happen. With a new Board, I believe there is a real opportunity to strike early and bring CVRD and Cowichan Tribes together to re-start the water conversation,” stated Brian Carruthers.

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    REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR WATERSHED MOMENTS 2023: “A Pathway to Water Reconciliation and Resilience at the Local Scale”- register now for the Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar on February 23, 2023


    “From 7PM until 9PM on February 23rd, the team of Michael Blackstock, Brian Carruthers and Richard Boase will seed the idea that hope lies within the sphere of local government, whether that be non-Indigenous or Indigenous That is the scale where actions do matter. In an interactive online broadcast via YouTube, Richard will moderate a free-flowing conversation between Michael and Brian. The goal is that this dynamic trio will light a spark with their enthusiasm and leave the audience with hope,” states Paul Chapman, Chair of the Watershed Moments Symposia Series.

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    BLUE ECOLOGY IS A PATHWAY TO WATER RECONCILIATION: A panel comprising Michael Blackstock, Brian Carruthers and Richard Boase is primed to deliver the virtual seminar in a free-flowing format broadcast live via YouTube on February 23, 2023


    Richard Boase will moderate a conversation between Michael Blackstock, creator of the Blue Ecology methodologhy, and Brian Carruthers, a respected and long-time Chief Administrative Officer in local government. Richard Boase brings passion, enthusiasm and a sense of humour to the moderator role. “In a preview story about the seminar, the Partnership has published reflections by Michael Blackstock and Brian Carruthers. These were recorded during a ‘proof of concept’ conversation and foreshadow the chemistry and candour that the audience can expect from a free-flowing conversation,” stated Richard Boase

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    BLUE ECOLOGY IS A PATHWAY TO WATER RECONCILIATION: “Blue Ecology will help remove some of the fear on the part of local government. Then, together, we can move towards the hope spectrum more easily and creatively,” says Michael Blackstock, independent Indigenous scholar and creator of the Blue Ecology methodology


    “My hope lies in local government because local people understand their local area. And at the local scale, we are able to self-organize better on specific execution of executable tasks. I have lived in many communities throughout BC and have learned that those towns each have their own culture. So, local knowledge is important, whether it is Indigenous or non-Indigenous. With the Blue Ecology bridging seminar, my hope lies in Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities working together, with a foundation that was designed to be jointly respectful of each other’s way of thinking,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    BLUE ECOLOGY 101, A PATHWAY TO WATER RECONCILIATION: “Watershed Moments 2023, the Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar, is designed to inform local government elected representatives about Blue Ecology, which is about interweaving Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing,” stated Kim Stephens, Co-Chair of the Watershed Moments Symposia Series


    “Are you wondering what local government councillors and directors will learn by attending the Blue Ecology seminar on February 23rd? And are you curious as to how this learning might inform local decision processes for interweaving Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives? Communities have a once in a generation opportunity to get our relationships with both right, and then start back down the river of time – this time together. Blue Ecology is a water-first approach to interweaving Indigenous and Western perspectives. Oral history, land and water stewardship, and inter-generational baton. These are foundational pieces for water reconciliation,” stated Kim Stephens.

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    ORAL HISTORY EXTENDS THE PERIOD OF RECORD AND OUR UNDERSTANDING: “Blue Ecology is an ecological philosophy, which emerged from interweaving First Nations and Western thought. It is meant to be a companion because it augments existing Western science hydrology rather than displacing this knowledge.” – Michael Blackstock


    “In my mind, traditional knowledge and western science are just different ways of recording, or documenting, and communicating the same information. I believe there is an analogy between Indigenous oral history, and a statistical approach called Bayesian analysis,” stated Neil Goeller. “We are lucky when we have 60 years of reliable records, possibly extending out to 100-plus years. When I reflect on the short-term context for hydrometric data collection in BC, there is no doubt in my mind that Indigenous knowledge would expand our horizon and help us make sense of the numbers in a larger context.”

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    BLUE ECOLOGY IS A CALL FOR AN ATTITUDE CHANGE: “We need to teach children and, for that matter, learn ourselves how to respect and celebrate water’s role in our world. Hydrologists are encouraged to embrace the companion Blue Ecology water cycle that is meant to enhance Western science’s hydrological cycle by providing a holistic cultural context,” stated Michael Blackstock, Independent Indigenous Scholar (January 2022)


    “I view Western science and Indigenous ways of knowing as sovereign entities. A great deal of energy goes into rationalizing, promoting, and protecting an epistemology. However, now we need to acknowledge that we don’t have all the answers. We can build a collaborative epistemological framework if we transcend sovereign contemporary narrative’s boundaries, and literally mine each epistemology for gems that can be interwoven in a collaborative manner. Curiosity about other cultures draws us into a better understanding,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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    POSTPONED TO JANUARY 20, 2022: rescheduled date for Blue Ecology Virtual Seminar on “Creating a Climate for Change”


    “In terms of looking for that hopeful path, we have turned from ‘climate change’ to ‘climate for change’ – meaning that all these stressors are making people recognize that we have to do things differently. The door has been kicked open by flood, heat, wind and waves so that the question is being asked: how do we do better? We have this opportunity right now, because the ground has shifted, to bring people to a hopeful path,” stated Paul Chapman when he announced postponement of the Blue Ecology Seminar after Michael Blackstock underwent emergency surgery only days before the original November 18, 2021 seminar date..

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    WATER RECONCILIATION IS ABOUT INTERWEAVING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE & WESTERN SCIENCE: “Interweaving is not integration, just as equality is not about assimilation and creativity is not empirical. Interweaving is collaborative and incremental rather than a revolutionary process,” stated Michael Blackstock, Independent Indigenous Scholar and founder of the Blue Ecology Institute (October 2021)


    “Blue Ecology is meant to be a companion because it augments existing Western science hydrology rather than displacing this knowledge. Collaborators identify packets of knowledge that would benefit from the interweaving process. My question for the Western science world is this: Are you prepared and willing to change your definition of water in science? This is what reconciliation really gets down to when we are talking about interweaving Indigenous knowledge and Western science,” stated Michael Blackstock.

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