Renewed attention on long-standing water-related disparities faced by Indigenous communities in Canada makes the release this week of a podcast on water dialogues particularly timely.
“The podcast explores Indigenous perspectives around
water and how we can use these diverse Indigenous knowledge systems together
with Western scientific approaches to address the many water issues we face in
Canada today, within Indigenous communities and beyond,” says Lindsay Day, an
MSc Candidate in the Department of Population Medicine. She put together
the podcast as part of her MSc research with advisors Sherilee Harper, in the
Ontario Veterinary College’s Department of Population Medicine, and Ashlee Cunsolo,
in the Departments of Nursing and Indigenous Studies at Cape Breton
University.
The podcast builds on a larger one-year Canadian Water Network funded Knowledge Integration project that sought to identify, evaluate, and communicate promising research and management practices that have included, or attempted to include Indigenous and Western knowledges or methodologies in water research and management in Canada.
“Water Dialogues explores our conversations around the need for, and our struggle towards, using our diverse knowledge systems together to address the complex and increasingly critical water issues we face today,” says Day. She put the podcast together from recordings taken during the second of two national Water Gatherings that brought together more than 30 First Nations, Inuit, Metis and other Canadian researchers and knowledge holders from various parts of the country to the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Ottawa to share their stories and experiences with water and provide input.
An initial Water Gathering in June 2014 focused on sharing cultural experiences and knowledge to identify shared concerns and inform the direction of the project, while the second gathering in June 2015 provided a chance to share and discuss research results and recommendations tailored to three specific audiences - policy makers, researchers and funders.
Day met Harper and Cunsolo at the 2014 Global Development Symposium at the UofG. The community-based and community-led approach to their work with Indigenous communities resonated with her and her undergrad degree in sociology and anthropology at McGill University. “Water is central to everything, our health, the health of our environment,” she adds.
There are concerns that Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing are not being considered and implemented through current responses to water issues in the Northern portions of the country, says Day.
The podcast aims to bring the water resource discussion to a broader, public audience who might not have exposure to these different ways of thinking about and relating to water, and does so through the voices, stories and experience of those who participated in the Water Gathering, adds Day. She also hopes it will underscore the range of resources “we can draw on to formulate solutions going forward.”
The narrative audio-documentary approach lent itself to the complex water issue. The podcast and stories introduce this issue to people in a way that is accessible and engaging, adds Day. “There is a certain intimacy when you are hearing someone’s voice telling their own story.”