WHAT WE DO
WALKING WATER is not a demonstration, it is not a march against something, instead it is a celebration of the possibilities we have when we come together.
Walking Water asks us to think together, feel together, work together, resolve together, create together and walk together. Walking Water refuses to be enemies, to judge or to take sides too quickly. Instead it chooses to create space where everyone involved in trying to deal with the situation that has been handed to them can share their vision, their dreams, their story, as well as their pain and grievances. We walk with those in seats of responsibility which ultimately is all of us.
Walking Water is about creating a new narrative, one based on both our common need and respect for water, our common endeavor to create meaning in our relationship with water and this world, and ultimately to live within our means.
Walking Water is about collaboration, common sense, cooperation and courage to think outside of what we know or think we know.
Walking Water is about contributing to a positive model of water usage, water management and complex, all-encompassing thinking and acting in how we relate with water. Walking Water recognizes and honors those that have come before us and those that continue to steward the land and the waters in ways that respect all of life.
OUR INTENTION
Our intention is to contribute to a growing movement that asks each of us to restore our relations – with the waters, the peoples, the lands. It is a call for collaboration, joining together in vision and hope with water.
The current and emerging critical issues of water worldwide and specifically in California will best be resolved through collaborative thinking, organizing and working together. Walking Water will convene and catalyze regional and global partners to highlight, bring awareness to and be part of contributing to possible “solutions” for both the local and global situation of water. Through walks, council and the associated events, Walking Water catalyzes storytelling, knowledge sharing and the discovery of new possible directions and solutions for the future of water.
It is seen as a kind of acupuncture, local actions that ripple through the larger body of the place, the people and perhaps even the country and the world. Created in 2012, Walking Water is a project of Weaving Earth and completed its first walk – a 3 year, 3 phase Pilgrimage from Mono Lake, through Payahuunadü/Owens Valley and into Los Angeles in 2017. Parallel walks took place in many other regions and countries … the journey continues today.
WHY WALKING
“Walking… is how the body measures itself against the earth.” Rebecca Solnit – Wanderlust: A History of Walking.
The act of walking together allows us to embody the experiences of our landscape by slowing down while still moving. By walking together we also get to witness, to listen and embody other’s experiences. Each of us begins to be part of a dynamic relationship between humans and the world around us, we begin to find our place within the circle. It is one way to embody, show and hopefully inspire our deep care, love and attention to water.
The nature of Pilgrimage is simplicity, having minimal ecological impact, and a slower pace allowing us to digest what is happening around us, and move at the speed of trust. We walk as a political prayer. Political in the sense of re-organizing/re-forming what we hold at the center of our lives and Prayer in the sense of allowing us to be guided by something greater than ourselves.
We also acknowledge that walking is not accessible to all people, and we welcome and invite each person who is called to join these prayers for water and resilience to work with us to find a way to engage that meets our needs and abilities.
We are being asked to be creative, to think out the box, to come together in community, to be flexible, to begin acting with alternatives, to challenge and celebrate what has been and ultimately become resilient and accountable.
We invite proposals, questions, ideas and collaboration for places and ways to walk and are ready to consult on those walks we cannot be physically part of.
WHY WATER
Water is a life giving force, a storyteller, a gatherer of people, an inspiration, a teacher and holder of memory.
The way water has become a ‘managed’ resource is an example of a distorted and ruptured relationship to that which gives and sustains life for all beings.
We are facing a water crisis, and we are also facing a human crisis. As human beings and as members of the community of Life, we are inextricably tied to water — without it we die. Water unites us on a deep level, reminding us of our unity and interconnection. We also recognize that issues of water injustice from Payahuunadü to Flint disproportionately impact communities of color. We must attend to and undo the systemic and historic systems that have harmed waters and peoples alike.
Walking Water is and will be such an essential part of my life. I think I still don’t grasp the impact it will have in my life. Right now there is deep gratitude and an inner growing power, an inner wisdom arising. Walking Water is empowering me to stand up and raise my voice. This is what our planet needs.