Vancouver Sun publishes 10-part series on “Water: Life blood of BC” – part 3 describes why First Nations peoples have deep ties to water

 

Note to Reader:

Climate change threatens to make this summer’s drought look minor. In September 2015, the Vancouver Sun newspaper is publishing a 10-part series of articles about “Water: Life blood of BC”. The series theme is how BC uses water and what the future has in store for our waterways. Published on September 15, the third installment explains  why water makes a powerful metaphor for First Nations’ imagining of their relationship to the land.

A Series of Court Rulings Has Given Aboriginal Peoples Prior Rights Over Waterways

In the third installment, writer Stephen Hume describes how and why BC’s First Nations have deep ties to streams, lakes and coasts. Not only relying on water bodies for sustenance, many First Nations take their names from water. Hume observes that:

Stephen-Hume_Vancouver Sun_120p“The reason water is so deeply embedded in First Nations culture is because the elements, not lines on maps, are what genuinely endure, however much we seek to commodify and own them as economic abstractions.”

He also states that water is rapidly emerging as an as-yet-poorly defined legal and political issue that promises to affect future negotiation of treaties, land claims and aboriginal rights.

Blue Ecology

Blue Ecology is a water first ecological philosophy which emerged from interweaving First Nations and Western Science perspectives. Water has a spirit and a central functional role in human society  and in the ecosystem.

Kim A Stephens_2008_120p“The UBC workshop provided a timely opportunity to introduce a pan-Canadian audience to the work of Michael Blackstock, in particular his paper on Blue Ecology and climate change,” stated Kim Stephens, Executive Director of the Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC, when he delivered the keynote presentation in 2008 at a workshop organized by the Program on Water Governance at the University of BC.

“When I read the paper, it really resonated with me. A key message is the need to focus attention on the spiritual role of water in our world.”

“Michael Blackstock urges us to apply both respect and science-based understanding as we develop collaborative climate change mitigation strategies and instil this respect and understanding in younger generations.”

To Learn More:

To read the third installment in the 10-part series, click on First Nations treasure historic ties to water.

To read the complete story about the 2008 workshop, click on Program on Water Governance Workshop Series: Sustainable Water Infrastructure Management in Canada.

To download a copy of the 2008 article by Michael Blackstock, click on Blue ecology and cllimate change.