Lake to Lake 2025 – September 01st to 22nd
KOOTZABBAA TO PATSIATA – postponed

Dear Friends,

We are now less than 2 months away from the Lake to Lake walk ….

During this last year, we have been deep in preparations – organizing both the logistical details as well as attending to the larger vision and the spiritual and political values that inform and guide us. Amidst it all we are feeling the incredible upheavals and challenges of these times: the threat of public lands being sold off, the attacks on targeted communities being legitimized by the US government, access to sacred lands given readily to mining companies, the protections of and for water gradually being repealed, funding for essential projects drying up. It is heartbreaking to face such truth, incomprehensible that this is really happening to our communities, lands and waters. So many are in fear, grieving for the losses and instability we experience everyday. Can any of us rest when our neighbors and loved ones are under such attack simply because of where they were born or what gender they claim? We stand with all beings who are the victims of federal and state sanctioned atrocities – be that to humans, lands or waters.

With all these present-day conditions we have questioned whether the Lake to Lake walk will happen… Some walkers have had to decline the invitation because they feel unsafe entering this country, funding sources we have previously relied on are no more, the physical capabilities of the team are definitely not what they were 10 years ago. And, when financial resources are increasingly limited everywhere, we have asked ourselves if it is right to direct these resources to the walk. We are continually listening and responding to whether what we are doing is relevant and essential in these times.

At the core of the walk and the work of Walking Water is relationships – how do we each restore our own relationship with water? How do we restore our relationship with life? How do we hold both the grief and loss together with the beauty of this world? How do we find respite, refuge, sanctuary of belonging amidst collapse? Where do we take our confusion and rage for the horrors being committed in our collective name? Who are our unwavering allies and guides in these times?

When I ask this question for myself, it is water that I continually turn to. When we began Walking Water, I made a promise, a commitment to water – that I would live my life in a way where I can be a friend of and to water, a companion, a voice and protector. The deeper I have travelled into that relationship and commitment, I experience a level of reciprocity which is beyond words. It is an embodied sense of going back to a place of ultimate reverence and surrender to that which is greater than me. A consistent and deepening understanding and revelation as to how water is ultimately protecting me. Water as protector – it is that revelation that continually brings tears. And, that gift strengthens my own commitments to water as life.

We continue to plan for and organize the walk, while holding and incorporating the challenges.The path we will walk in September, from Kootzabbaa/Mono Lake to Patsiata/Owens Lake is roughly the same we walked 10 years ago. It is the same path the ancestors, Nüümmü/Newe and Kootzaduka’a peoples, of the land walked. July 11th marks the annual day of acknowledgement for the Indigenous peoples who were forced marched out of the valley in 1863. When we walk that same path, we are aware that we activate both the Indigenous wisdom and also the trauma those ancestors experienced. When we walk in over 100-degrees heat, we hold close the reality that when those ancestors were forced to march – they did so in high-summer heats, and without water or protection.

A walk like this changes us, it breaks us, cracks us open to let the light in, it brings us humbly to our right size, it reveals to us what we deeply love. It is that place of love, guided by water, where we can begin to learn what it truly means to be in reciprocity with life. Through reciprocity, the word ‘resilience’ takes on a whole new meaning.

We walk with three main focuses: Service and Prayer, Coalition Building with All Beings, and Imagination. These are like three threads inter-woven into a braid of wholeness. These intentions feel essential for the times ahead and will be informed by those who have come before us. We have invited people to walk who we believe carry one or many of these threads – local Indigenous leaders, co-creators of food sovereignty programs, artists, policy makers, international water activists, musicians and community members. We are grateful to those who have felt the calling to walk with water.

It goes without saying that while Walking Water is coordinating this walk, it is only possible with the many many hands and hearts that have supported us since our inception, 13 years ago. Some of those people are: Kathy Bancroft, Charlotte Lange, Teri Red Owl, Kyndall Noah, Alan Bacock, Andy Lipkis and the ARLA team, Friends of the Inyo, and many others … Krystyna Jurzykowski and Justine Epstein as the Stellars … Orland Bishop as Guardian … and Gigi Coyle – Co-founder, Guardian, mentor and friend.

We also give gratitude to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for giving permits to walk the land. While our call is for the sacred sites of Payahuunadü to be returned to the Indigenous peoples, we acknowledge the act of collaboration offered by LADWP and hope that this is one step in the longer arc of restoring relationships and healing.

Walking Water has always walked a fine line in relation to funding, resources and community abundance. Our approach is one of listening and trust – seeing money as another element of relationship, and one of the organizing forces that supports manifestation and flow. We have received donations of food, equipment, media support, time and finances. We have raised (or received pledges) of $75,000 and are dedicated to raise the remaining $20,000 by September.

Throughout the walk we have organized a number of ways you – our extended community – can be involved: panel discussions, opening and closing ceremonies, a youth walk … Please see below for more details and ways to sign up. We know we will each find the ways we can be a living part of this journey.

Amidst our preparations, we return to our tears … witnessing what is happening to communities we work with, the waters we walk with … the living wild beings we love and respect … And, we know, slowing down, reconnecting with life and moving together with community, being guided by water is a way we can further contribute to the values in our hearts …

With care

Kate with Krystyna and Justine