ROW: Reflections on Water Forum & Discussion
Environmental Art Exhibit and Local Action with Global Perspective
Oct 20, 2009
An important environmental art exhibition at Touchstones Museum show, ROW: Reflections on Water, curated by Deborah Thompson, brought together diverse voices for a public discussion forum and expert panel in Nelson, BC, Canada, the central point in what could be the most serious ecological disaster to face the Pacific Northwest, the end of water in the Columbia-Kootenay water basin.
The panel included:
- Robert Sandford, a hydrologist with years of scientific expertise under his belt. He is the Canadian Chair of the United Nations International Decade "Water for Life", which "aims to advance long-term water quality and availability issues in response to climate change in this country and abroad."
- Julie Castonguay, a stewardship forester and photographer, explained the processes which led to her installation, "Glacier Creek, NOW!"
- Eileen Delahunty-Pearkes, author of The Geography of Memory, described the last half-century of history with regards to the Columbia River, especially as it pertained to the Sinixt people.
Global Water Scarcity and Food Shortages the Most Pressing Issues of Our Age
"There was a time when Canadians would never conceive of running out of water. Now global food and water security is the most pressing issue of our age." Bob Sandford was the first to speak. "How long the world will rely on us to help with water scarcity and food shortages before people clamour to come here will depend on our ability to meet these challenges. We have about a 10-year grace period to get our water management houses in order."
Among other things, he is also an advisor with the Rosenburg International Forum on Water Policy, was part of the Pugwash Freshwater Expert Roundtable Global Issues Project, is the Director of the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative which disseminates scientific research on Rocky Mountain River Systems, and advises the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy on water issues.
Of ROW, Sandford said, “Artists are the main and most trusted sources of perceptual leadership. People tend to trust art because artists speak from the heart, whereas spin doctors try to shape the dialogue for singular interests. Art is one of the few antidotes to counter spin because artists risk everything to speak truth to power.”
"Free-Flowing Water, the Blood Circulating in Our Veins"
Julie Castonguay has been a stewardship forester for twenty years. In 2002, she took a sabbatical to study photography with the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design, graduating with her BFA. Her art work is grounded in a sound scientific overview of nature.
"As an artists, I use photography as a medium to express perspective, to explore my relationship with nature," Castonguay wrote in her artist's statement. "The exploration and investigation of the natural environment has been at the foundation of my career as a professional forester since the late 1980s. The details of nature's cycles, rhythms, patterns and textures have been my main focus. By documenting these intricacies, I seek to reveal how nature's larger splendour is echoed in its tiny details."
Castonguay's work "Glacier Creek, NOW!" is an indictment against the short-sighted aims of development, especially development that is done in the name of green technology. The Glacier Howser creek is one of the last untouched watersheds and creeks in the Kootenay region. It empties into Duncan Reservoir, the artificial lake created by Duncan Dam.
Plans for an Independent Power Project, or hydro-electric dam, would divert 80% of the flow some seven kilometers from the bed, essentially turning it into a dry stream. Both Sandford and Castonguay spoke of the necessity of keeping aside water for the exclusive usage of nature, especially in a region which is the most heavily dammed watershed in the world. Nature purifies water on its own, but when we divert the water for our own purposes, whether for electricity or agriculture, it cannot replenish itself.
Castonguay is inspired and hopeful by the role of art in its impact upon the eco-system. She described some of the eco-art movements that included groups which take over abandoned properties and facilities in crowded urban areas, planting seedlings and seeds in order to speed the recovery of nature along.
Things That Are Lost
Eileen Delahunty-Pearkes, author of The Geography of Memory, was not originally slated to speak at the ROW: Reflections on Water forum. She stepped in when Columbia Basin Trust science representative, Kindy Gosal, bowed out. Delahunty-Pearkes' work looks at the history of the Columbia River in Canada and, in particular, the Columbia River Treaty, which included the dispossession of the Sinixt Band of their property on the Arrow Lakes. her research was a vital element to the evening's presentations.
No resident of the Columbia-Kootenay region, Sinixt or otherwise, was ever consulted during the Treaty Negotiations which resulted in contruction of the Duncan, Mica, or High Arrow dams in Canada, or the Libby dam on the Kootenay River in Montana, even though the construction expropriated the property, livelihoods and homes of 2,500 people.
The Sinixt people were affected when the surveyors struck the international border arbitrarily at the 49th parallel, right through their lands. It was common for members of the tribe to spend their summers fishing for salmon on the river south of the border. Not only were they cut off from their friends and relatives in Canada, but they were forced onto the Colville Confederated Tribal Reservation. The Sinixt north of the border were forced into an inhospitable area in the Arrow Lakes region.
The last person in that reservation died in 1956, and the Canadian Department of Indian Affairs quickly stepped in to declare the tribe extinct, and has continued to refuse acknowledgment and reinstatement of their status to returning band members. The case is now before the courts.
The Columbia River Treaty is up for renegotiation in 2014 - 2024. Art exhibitions like ROW: Reflections on Water educate area residents on the issues which continue to affect them.
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