Film preview of Water Wonders: Learning about water, culture, colonialism and connections

By Kristy Franks, PhD Candidate, Concordia University

December 4, 2020

If you would like to follow the project and be notified of the upcoming film launch, please stay tuned to this blog as we’ll update it with the full-length film link once launched. We also invite you to follow our news by liking our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/Water-Wonders-Australia-Trip-2019-535233890348289

Upcoming film launch

Water Wonders is honoured to share with the CRP community that our research-based documentary film will soon be released!

The 25-minute film features my doctoral work with a group of Cree youth from Eeyou Istchee (James Bay, Northern Quebec) and partners from South Australia. Together, via participatory methods, our learning adventures have been inspired by water, and in trying to understand how different groups can contribute to intercultural and intersectoral water cooperation in more informed ways.

The Water Wonders project is a way to connect the research process with real world experiences and aims to benefit those involved. I am honoured to have been working with Northern partners from the Cree Nation of Wemindji since 2014, and with Southern partners from Adnyamathanha, Kaurna, and Ngarrindjeri communities in Australia since 2018. I strive for the work to be applicable, relevant, and reciprocal. I squirm at the idea of my doctoral work remaining limited to exclusive interviews and academic articles (although yes the articles will happen too!).

When feeling the many ‘water problems’ and ‘people problems’ tied in with this work, I often think of the long-standing advice common to several cultures, including many Indigenous cultures, to go to the water for guidance. Leading academics have acknowledged the potential of coming together to learn from and care for water as ‘a social opportunity’ (Davidson et al., 2015) that can inspire regenerative social transformations (MacLeod, 2018).

Considering that we could likely address many of the problems through regenerative social transformations, part of this work turns to water to build bridges between cultures. With the research processes we have thus formed many collaborations. Our most impactful partnerships were international, first inspired by a conversation while canoeing a few years earlier. What better place to have big ideas and talk about water than while paddling on the water?!

The splashing story behind it

Flashback to my Master’s work while paddling with youth on Wemindji’s annual canoe expedition… Two youth from another canoe told me that they would love to learn about water in a place that has significantly less water. They recognized that North America/Turtle Island has an abundance of water and that this must play a role in shaping our relationship with it. They wondered how the human relationship with water might be different in climates that are significantly drier, like in desert areas. They also asked if the relationships people have with other people might be influenced by the water around them. We were inspired by our shared research interests because I too had pondered similar ‘water wonders’. So we began to secure funding and build meaningful partnerships with interested people in Australia.

In the literal words of Wemindji’s Youth Centre Manager, we set out to “make it happen”. We organized a trip for a nine youth from Wemindji, a chaperone, and me to travel to the other side of the planet - to Australia - for three weeks in November 2019. Our objective was to learn about water and culture with research partners from Adnyamathanha, Kaurna, and Ngarrindjeri communities in South Australia, along with representatives from the Native Waters Network and Water Research Australia. I am nostalgic thinking back that it was this time last year. It was so hot… I laugh now remembering how our sweat reminded us about the water flowing through our own bodies.

Let’s make a film!

Wanting to share our experiences and learnings with more people, we decided to video-document our water-related experiences and make a documentary film. The idea has now evolved into producing two films, however I’ll focus on just one here.

CRP-affiliated contacts introduced me to the documentary film company River Voices Productions, which became a great match for our water-related work. Professional film-maker Jeremy Williams joined our team and guided us in a process of collaborative, intercultural documentary film-making.

Considering that film can be viewed as a natural evolution from oral tradition and storytelling (Bertrand, 2019; Knopf, 2008), it seemed a relevant way to gather and share knowledge pertinent to our work and the communities involved. Additionally, with video becoming increasingly common among social media and educational approaches, it seemed fitting as a means of working with youth. So a professional film-maker joined us in Wemindji in Summer 2019, then in Australia in November 2019, and then again in Wemindji in February 2020 for editing.

Creative methods

Our goal has been to learn with each other and from each other about water and about film as a tool to share knowledge. Thus, Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology has guided our work. We recognize that PAR “brings together action and reflection, theory and practice, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern…[it is] co-creating of knowing with, not about, people” (Bradbury, 2015, p. 1).

The pressing concerns most central to our research are the threats faced by water, and the threats faced by many people in relation to water, notably Indigenous communities on both sides of the planet. Thus, our actions and reflections, and theory and practice, have been inspired by learning about water protection and related intercultural and intersectoral relations.

Specifically, we have been employing participatory video methods (Lunch & Lunch, 2006) also referred to as videovoice (Warren et al., 2013). These involve elements of visual methods (Heath & Walker, 2011; Rose, 2014), participant observation (Zieman, 2012) and observant participation (Moeran, 2009). We see that much of the work is inspired by principles by Indigenous methodologies (Cole, 2006; Kovach, 2010; Wilson, 2008) and that some of our activities resonate with arts-based methodologies (Leavy, 2009).

Diving into the Findings

Through our research in Wemindji and Australia we have learned from a diversity of perspectives and knowledge systems, as seen in the film. The experiences and reflections include knowledge from: interviews, conversations with Elders, water monitoring activities, water policies and related colonial politics, water ceremonies, water dances, connecting with waters in and around us, and activities like scuba diving, surfing and canoeing. We reflect on differences between the two countries, like how dissimilar the physical geographies are in terms of freshwater availability, and also on the similarities of social geographies like colonial policies and impacts.

Elders from both geographical locations reminded us that water is the lifeblood that flows through all of us, and around the planet. Through ceremony we felt the cleansing and healing traits of water. Politically we learned that in addition to people, water has been colonized in many ways. We saw capitalism as an active driver in such systemic social and environmental structures. We saw glimpses into how natural waterways have been changed by human-built infrastructures. We visited a desalination plant to learn about how seawater is modified to be potable. We heard community leaders advocate for government representatives to sit down with Indigenous groups to talk about how to better co-create plans for caring for water and human well-being, especially for those who are systemically marginalized. Above all, we witnessed and were a part of touching relationships that were brought together by, and for, the essential being that connects all life - water.

Making Ripples: Knowledge Mobilization

Workshops from the Summer 2020 CRP Retreat (in partnership with CESI) inspired me to see different layers and impacts of our work’s methods. We now thus have a secondary focus on learning about how PAR and arts-based methodologies like film can contribute to knowledge mobilization. We recognize that “Knowledge mobilization supports research collaborations between university and community partners which can maximize the impacts of research beyond the academy” (Phipps et al., 2016, abstract). With this video work, we hope to contribute to meaningful ripples of mobilizing knowledge among different cultures and different sectors of society.

Riding the rapids: Adaptations

With multiple partners, and with recent COVID-19 realities, we encountered challenges and had to revise our plans many times. Most notably, we had to adapt our editing and film consultation process, which we had intended to do in person with partners in their communities.

We began editing in Wemindji in February 2020 as planned, just prior to the pandemic becoming widespread. With the film-maker, the group of Cree youth who went to Australia and I met up in person at the Wemindji Youth Centre where we created the first draft of the film. It was motivating to reconnect two months after having shared the research ‘field’ experience in Australia to reflect on how we were going to share our learnings.

Then I went to Australia in March 2020 with the intention of meeting up again with everyone we had worked with and interviewed there. We planned to watch the film draft together with each partner, to elaborate on its content and messaging, and most importantly to involve their input into building upon the draft. When the pandemic cut that visit short by two months we began the consultation process via virtual means with countless emails, texts, Messenger notes, and Zoom calls.

Now, despite the pandemic-related delays, we are almost ready to launch the film. (Drumroll please…) We hope that as ‘they’ say (reference for ‘they’ is unknown…), good things take time.

The experience of learning together and adapting in several ways has taught me significant lessons about the realities of participatory research and the need for flexibility, time, and creativity. We are fortunate that we have had the privileges and means to be able to adapt.

Furthermore, we have realized that although our interactions have not played out as expected in this particular phase of the project, our relationships are strong enough to hold us together in the modified process. I think this evolution has made our partnerships more resilient and has given us the opportunity to practice working at a distance. As water care is a global concern requiring international cooperation, working at a distance is becoming increasingly common. It may be a gift for all of us to practice this now so that we can be more future-ready in the arenas of intercultural and intersectoral water-related work.

Thank you to all those involved (too many to list in this blog, but the credits are in the film), Meegwetch, Chinaaskuumitinawaau, Nukan, An-unungi adi nakartya nina, 🌊🌊🌊

Special thanks to:

Supervisors:

Dr. Monica Mulrennan, Dr. Deborah McGregor, Dr. Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques, and Dr. Melissa Nursey-Bray

Funders:

Cree Nation of Wemindji Band Council

Wemindji Youth Department and Youth Council

Cree Nation Justice Funds, Youth Engagement Funds

World Wildlife Fund, Loblaw Water Fund

Quebec Secretariat for Youth

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Northern Scientific Training Program, Canadian Polar Commission

Michael Smooth Foreign Studies Subsidy Program

Mitacs Globalink Award

Concordia University’s Experiential Learning Grant

References

Bertrand, K. (2019). Canadian Indigenous Cinema. In The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Cinema. Oxford University Press.

Bradbury, H. (Ed.). (2015). The Sage handbook of action research. Sage.

Cole, P. (2006). Coyote and Raven go canoeing: Coming home to the village. Montréal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press (Native and Northern Series).

Davidson, S. L., Linton, J., & Mabee, W. E. (2015). Water as a Social Opportunity. McGill-Queen's Press-MQU.

Heath, S., & Walker, C. (Eds.). (2011). Innovations in youth research. Basingstoke, GB: Palgrave Macmillan.

Knopf, K. (2008). Oral Tradition as Reflected in Film. In Decolonizing the Lens of Power: Indigenous films in North America. Brill Rodopi, 83-169.

Kovach, M. (2010). Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations, and Contexts. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Leavy, P. (2009). Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice. The Guilford Press. New York, NY.

Lunch, N., & Lunch, C. (2006). Insights into participatory video: A handbook for the field. InsightShare.

MacLeod, J. (2018). Hydrologies of Transformation: Capitalism, Hegemony, and the Meanings of Water. Institute for the Humanities. YouTube Video. Accessed September 23, 2018 from, https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hydrologies+of+transformation

Moeran, B. (2009). From participant observation to observant participation. In Ybema, S., Yanow, D., Wels, H., & Kamsteeg, F. H. (Eds.). (2009). Organizational Ethnography: Studying the Complexity of Everyday Life. London, UK: Sage, 139-155

Phipps, D.; Cummins, J.; Pepler, D. J.; Craig, W.; and Cardinal, S. (2016) "The Co-produced Pathway to Impact Describes Knowledge Mobilization Processes," Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship, 9(1), Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/jces/vol9/iss1/5

Rose, G. (2014). On the relation between ’visual research methods’ and contemporary visual culture. Sociological Review, 62(1), 24-46.

Warren, C. M., Knight, R., Holl, J. L., & Gupta, R. S. (2014). Using videovoice methods to enhance community outreach and engagement for the National Children’s Study. Health promotion practice, 15(3), 383-394.

Wilson, S. (2008). Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Winnipeg, MB: Fernwood Publishing.

Zieman, G. A. (2012). Chapter 3: Participant observation. In Klein, S. (Eds). Action research method. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 49-67.