Research

People and water are diversely connected: our wellbeing is intertwined.

We invite you to learn more about the power of water and waterbodies to connect and inspire currents of living well together on this blue planet.

Thinking of water as the ultimate connector

 The Splash Project moves from a deep curiosity to understand better how waterbodies or water may either enable or impede individuals and groups from engaging and benefitting from day-to-day experiences and processes that maintain human and non-human wellbeing. Our research explorations with water aim to find new edges that move us beyond standardized and measurable flows or qualities of water but also towards highlighting and attending to peoples’ ambitions, senses of belonging, place-based relationships, and shifting meanings and identities of themselves. Within these exploratory streams, we more fully consider what we think we know as water, while focusing on relationships, emotional-affective elements, and senses of inclusion and exclusion across diverse sites.

 Water or H2o?

Water is essential to all life. We all know it, and we are very comfortable with it: Two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen atom create a water molecule, commonly known as H2O. Yet to call something as diverse as water by this elemental name–H2O–denies the intricate interweaving of life and cultures of water throughout existence. Facing the increasing realities of climate change and other anthropogenic impacts that instigate the global water crisis, it is vital to consider past and current streams of human/non–human experiences with water more wholly. This multiparter project (2018–2023) reimagines H2O beyond material dimensions, to attend to water more fully on its whole to include elements such as culture, identity, belonging, sacredness, emotions, psychology, the senses, and agency.We refer to these complementary components of H2O as the non–material dimensions. Through employing participatory and decolonizing research approaches with creative arts–based engagements such as community–led storytelling and filmmaking, we seek to reveal these affective–emotive elements of water within diverse water experiences to generate new learnings for management and policy initiatives to address water insecurity.

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the water serpent spoke, are we listening?

Upon entering a Cenote, a large underground water–filled cave, one must ask permission from Tsukán, the snake guardian of these sacred waters. This age–old tradition remains a day–to–day practice for the Yucatan Peninsula’s ONLY water source. Yet, increasing water security risks across the region illustrate a societal divide between the values and meanings held for water. The consequences are not trivial, placing these cultural waterways’ health, well–being, and futures for dependent human and non–human communities at risk. In response, amplifying traditional water knowledge through community–led storytelling initiatives may encourage more sustainable water management initiatives. In a project commencing in Summer 2022, partners are at the heart and center, expressing what matters most to them and guiding the design, direction, and storied outputs. The goal of this project aims to reconnect and revitalize traditional (water, ‘ja,’ ‘agua’) knowledge (Maya) with new generations of urban and rural youth through a series of interactive community–led storytelling (film) workshops, the co–production of a documentary series and public exhibitions following. Doing so, this project’s scope and results contribute to elevating community voices, particularly Indigenous and rural community leaders, women’s, and children’s voices, establishing communities of resilience, and translating and integrating the resultant storied outputs into more accessible, equitable, and sustainable practices for water security risks.

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The Splash Projects Publications (peer-reviewed)

Beyond material dimensions of water insecurity: gendered subjectivities, sense of community and political possibilities from a relational perspective (2024).

Access rights, capacities and benefits in small-scale fisheries: Insights from the Pacific Coast of Canada (2019)

Exposing the myths of household water insecurity in the global north: A critical review (2019)