Through community conversations, Talking Rivers unites natural and human communities to keep Rivers healthy and flowing, and the watersheds they sustain flourishing.
Our Mission
Our mission is to educate communities across what is now known as New York State about the Rights and Rites of Rivers and their ecosystems, using science, art, and storytelling.
Our People
We are a group of organizers, educators, lawyers, and activists currently acting from the land and waters that form part of the territory of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Those of us who are settlers on this territory acknowledge and honor all the communities that have nurtured this land and water since time immemorial.
Our Strategy
While Rivers and their Watersheds deserve legally enforceable rights (such as the right to flow, regenerate and evolve), natural systems themselves don’t live according to the “western” legal framework. The Rites of all beings are sustained by a web of relationships, and it is time that humans acknowledge their own role as “Citizens” of the Watersheds they inhabit.
By protecting the Rights of Rivers we can guarantee that our natural relations and all the inhabitants of the Watershed are afforded equal protection under "western" law. By honoring the age-old Rites of the more-than-human world we can nurture a reciprocal relationship with all the beings that sustain the interwoven network of life that keeps Rivers flowing and Watersheds flourishing.
We intend to:
Use community conversations, educational events, citizen science, and art to raise awareness about the Rights and Rites of Rivers and promote greater understanding of our roles and responsibilities towards our more-than-human relations.
Create partnerships with local organizations (such as universities, museums, land trusts and local businesses) in both settler and Indigenous communities.
Weave together networks with national and international organizations to create a global supportive community. All water is connected, and the different water protection movements need each other to fight against the current climate and environmental crisis.
Blake and Tzintzun (both they/them) are two environmental storytellers from the Talking Wings Collective, who helped found Talking Rivers. In collaboration with Talking Rivers, they are currently working to create spaces in which humans can unite to protect the land and water they call home. Blake and Tzintzun reside as settlers along the banks of Akwesasne/St. Regis River, their friend and guardian. This River flows through New York's North Country, Haudenosaunee Territory, to meet with Kaniatarowanénhne/St. Lawrence River.
Board
All The Waters Kaniatarowanénhne/St. Laurence River & Adirondacks Watersheds
