Thread by @realSaraBeck

I’ve been working to indigenize my course at @ubccivil on Water and Sanitation in Low Resource Contexts with help from UBC and with humility as a White American visitor. I wanted to share some of the resources I’ve been using in case it can be useful for others.

On the first day of class, we watch a video with a welcome message from Musqueam Elder, Larry Grant: indigenous.ubc.ca/indigenous-eng…

and a video from Linc Kesler, professor in First Nations and Indigenous Studies, explaining why we do land acknowledgments: indigenous.ubc.ca/indigenous-eng…

We create our own Land *and Water* Acknowledgment. It’s a water class after all...

I introduce the Two-Eyed Seeing philosophy to situate our learning in place:

We watch a video about the Fraser River, tə stɑl̓əw̓, and discuss what it represents to the Musqueam people:

Many of the themes in the video match our students' motivations for pursuing their careers, which we discussed with a Padlet exercise: water quality, depletion and protection of resources, pollution/contaminants, economic impacts, water scarcity, privilege, livelihood, etc.

"We do not own the Water. The Water Owns Itself.” –Lee Maracle

We read @MaracleLee 's essay, The Water Owns Itself, in Downstream about the Salish Sea (Pacific Ocean) and Snauq'w (False Creek), and discuss whether water is a resource, a commodity or something that owns itself.

In our lecture on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, we discuss the Indigenous Message on Water, from the Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace in 2014
waterandpeace.wordpress.com/from-the-elder…

We read an essay from the Indigenous Message on Water and discuss which specific Sustainable Development Goals #SDGs are also addressed in the essays: sdgs.un.org/goals

We start a lecture with a Water Prayer (Aks Gyigyiinwaxł) by Dr. Mique’l Dangeli and Nick Dangeli from Metlakatla, Alaska:

We watch this video from Human Rights Watch @hrw Rights Watch on Canada’s Water Crisis: Indigenous Families at Risk

We read recent news articles on lack of access to clean drinking water in First Nations:

theguardian.com/environment/20…

theguardian.com/world/2021/apr…

We go through the Government of Canada’s website on ending long-term drinking water advisories:
sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1506514143…

We discuss the progress on lifting those long-term drinking water advisories and do an in-class exercise to look up the progress in a specific Nation or community:

We find the Protocol for Centralised Drinking Water Systems in First Nations Communities and discuss the multi-barrier approach to drinking water protection:

sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1100100034…

As a side-note, I just learned that they're repealing the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act:
sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1330528512…

We read this article by Marvin DeVries and @MadjidMohseni on Creating an Effective National Strategy on First Nations Water Issues: watercanada.net/feature/creati…

We discuss this Arsenault 2018 paper on Shifting the Framework of Canadian Water Governance through Indigenous Research Methods:

“One cannot understand First Nations law unless there is an appreciation of how each story correlates with other stories.”
mdpi.com/2073-4441/10/1…

We start the lecture on chemical contaminants with this poem from Rita Wong’s, @rrrwong, Undercurrent called Body Burden

We discuss the different types of drinking water advisories and which ones address microbial vs chemical contaminants:
sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1538160229…

In our lecture on inorganic contaminants, we discuss lead levels in First Nations schools: aptnnews.ca/national-news/…

and the First Nations Health Authority guidance, which suggests flushing the line before drinking when there’s a concern about lead contamination: fnha.ca/Documents/FNHA…

We read the Lane 2020 paper from @DalWaterProf 's group on inorganic contaminants in Canadian First Nation community water systems and complete an assignment comparing lead, arsenic and manganese concentrations in the communities studied: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33095196/

For the lecture on filtration and disinfection we read the Rita Wong @rrrwong poem called The Wonders of Being Several.

We start our lecture on rainwater harvesting with a Thomas Merton quote:

and another Rita Wong poem called Flush

And we start our Sanitation modules with a North Shore Sewage story, also from @rrrwong 's Undercurrent:

@threadreaderapp unroll

Oh! We also have a homework assignment about this @UNC_Water_Inst Water and Health conference plenary talk on why WASH Inequalities Endure in High Income Countries, including Canada, US, Australia and Slovakia.

... and an assignment to watch this news segment and look up water advisories for Neskantaga First Nation:

globalnews.ca/video/7651906/…

With that, I think I'm done. :) Thanks again for reading and look forward to your suggestions!