Untapping Watershed Mind

In this dialogic paper, Wong and Christian ask how cultural perspectives shape our views of and interactions with water—be it as a commodity, a resource, the embodiment of spirit, a reminder of how all life on the planet is interrelated, and more. Considering what is both spatially and temporally downstream in a time of global warming, they undertake a listening to local, diasporic and indigenous perspectives on water that guide them toward a stronger respect for the watershed in which they live. Integrating essay, biotext and poetic fragments, the authors explore water’s path—a gift from the sky that trickles, dissolves into, and invigorates complex ecoystems and human infrastructures before it arrives through the tap. Doug Thorpe and Marianne Sawicki have suggested that, historically, the invention of piping secularized water because it was seen as coming from Rome, and no longer from the heavens. One could argue that tapping and piping have reduced water into a mere utility—a resource to be exploited, rather than a living force in and of itself. As an antidote, the authors suggest that we might undo the effects of water as tool, object or instrument, by attending to the rhythm of natural cycles, and to the flows, streams, and interdependences that constitute the living, dynamic ecology in which we live. “Watershed mind” perceives how we are situated and embodied within micro and macro flows, moving at rates that range from the barely perceptible to the suddenly extreme.

Keeping in mind that Vancouver was once home to approximately 57 salmon streams, Wong and Christian more specifically propose to observe and meditate upon where these streams once ran. Through this process of exploration, water is no longer taken for granted as a utilitarian convenience, but comes to be perceived with reverence, as it steadily connects one to the planet’s larger rhythms, cycles, and patterns. Their chapter documents and writes through stream walks, visits to Metro Vancouver’s local watersheds. They also engage thinkers such as Jeanette Armstrong and Michael Blackstock, who share indigenous perspective on water that both precede and exceed colonization, as well as Doug Thorpe and Basia Irland, who offer poetic and creative insights into how water can be respected in and of itself, while resisting its appropriation and commodification by global capital. While the text begins with the embodied experience of the stream walks and watershed tours, the authors remain open to the words flowing in unexpected, serendipitous, intuitive, and poetic directions, since—as Wong phrases it— “water has a syntax I am still learning.”