Water as a relative

Water is life. Water is sacred. Water is a relative. Water speaks to us in an ancient language. These truths are deeply understood for many Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island and around Mother Earth [1–3]. Samqwan, Water, is a gift from Creator. All beings, including Land and Humans, are in relationship with Samqwan and we are accountable to protect and steward Samqwan as kin [3,4].

Samqwan is the Lnuisimk word for Water used by the Mi’kmaq people. Qa’ is the Hul’qumi’num word for Water used by the Quw’utsun people. The co-authors are First Nations from opposite coasts of Turtle Island. Dr. Ford is Mi’kmaq from the east coast and Dr. Waters is Hul’qumi’num from the west coast. Both authors have received similar teachings of the beloved relationship with Samqwan/Qa’ from their respective cultures, traditions, and languages.

Water and colonialism

From first European contact, exploitation, and colonialism of Samqwan began on Turtle Island. Settler colonial states, driven by economic interests, extraction and expansion, appropriated Indigenous Lands and Waters, leading to disruptions in traditional systems of Water stewardship. This process often led to the containment and contamination of local Water sources, disregarding the sustainable practices that Indigenous communities had long employed. Colonialism has resulted in some First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities across Turtle Island (“Canada”) being without access, or with precarious access to, safe drinking water [5].

Samqwan is used as a tool of colonialism through the disruption of traditional ways of living and ceremonial practices of Indigenous peoples to suppress Indigenous identity, community, culture, and spirit. Many have lost the knowledge of how to listen to, honor, and respect Samqwan.

We see the mirroring of the spirit of Samqwan in our Two-Spirit, Indigiqueer, and Indigenous LGBTQIA+ kin. Samqwan is fluid, dynamic, adaptable, and ever changing just as our queer Indigenous kin are when they challenge the cis-heteropatriarchy in subverting rigid ideas of sex, sexuality, and gender [6]. The reconnection of Two-Spirit people to their traditional and spiritual roles subverts the settler colonial sex and gender binaries that are enforced upon Indigenous peoples through colonialism.

We must learn from Samqwan to be fluid and adaptable, gently wearing away at the colonial structures that bind us to return to healing the Lands and Waters of our territories. When observing the extreme weather events, industrial pollution, and extreme droughts one must realize Samqwan is in danger. Indigenous peoples and Indigenous knowledge are critical for healing the relationship with Samqwan.

Water and the practice of public health

We are Indigenous people who are respectively training to be, and practicing, as public health and preventive medicine specialists in what is now colonially referred to as British Columbia. Public health is defined as “The organized activity of society to promote, protect, improve, and when necessary, restore the health of individuals, specified groups, or the entire population. It is a combination of sciences, skills, and values that function through collective societal activities and involve programs, services, and institutions aimed at protecting and improving the health of all the people” [7] p. 14. From a western perspective, the practice of public health has viewed Samqwan from a risk-based lens. Tools to manage this risk include legislation, such as the Drinking Water Protection Act and the Water Sustainability Act, and frameworks such as The Multi-Barrier Approach to Safe Drinking Water [8]. While this framework includes source water protection, Health Canada’s use of the word barrier and associated focus on barriers and treatments situates drinking water as a commodity that is also a risk to health, suggesting that barriers are needed to keep humans safe from Samqwan. This framing does not fully honor the widely held Indigenous worldview of Samqwan as a relative, with whom Indigenous peoples have an intimate relationship, inclusive of respect, honor, care and protection.

However, in British Columbia, this practice is beginning to shift. Many health authorities and public health institutions are developing portfolios addressing health of Land and Water which incorporate teachings of Msit no’kmaq in their frameworks of One Health [9]. Msit no’kmaq is the Lnuisimk phrase used by the Mi’kmaq people that roughly translates to All my relations. In Hul’qumi’num, the phrase used by the Quw’utsun people of similar meaning is Nuts’amat: we are one (a complete set). Msit no’kmaq represents the traditional Indigenous philosophy of interconnectedness of all things, the understanding that everything in Mother Earth/the universe is interconnected [10].

Additionally, BC’s Office of the Provincial Health Officer now has a Deputy Provincial Health Officer for Planetary and Water Health. The work of this role will be interdisciplinary and crosscutting across the public sector, while embracing Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing), to protect Samqwan. Mi'kmaw Elder Dr. Albert Marshall defines Etuaptmumk (Two-Eyed Seeing) as “learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing, and from the other eye with the strengths of Western knowledges and ways of knowing, and to using both these eyes together, for the benefit of all” [11] p. 335. A grounding in Indigenous knowledge will help to reduce harmful impacts to our Land and Water relatives and help prepare for, adapt to, and mitigate the impacts of climate change. These actions taken by the public health community in British Columbia demonstrate a commitment to improving the community’s relationship with Samqwan.

Protecting watersheds through Indigenous co-governance

Dr. Waters has the honor, privilege and challenge of being a member at large at the Cowichan Watershed Board (CWB). Development of the CWB flowed from crisis management following the 2007 summer drought, during which stakeholders recognized the need for a more formal and proactive approach to watershed management. “Leadership and coordinated decision making” [12] p. 4 are foundational to the CWB purpose and structure, and Cowichan Tribes and the Cowichan Valley Regional District participate as equal partners and co-chairs. This partnership advances watershed health and recognizes the region’s commitment to Indigenous rights and reconciliation.

Complex management has hampered the governance of watersheds: the legislative authority and responsibility for Water is “spread among federal, provincial and local governments and agencies as well as unextinguished Indigenous rights” [12] p. 4. The CWB does not hold “statutory decision-making powers” but “it is anticipated that the CWB model may evolve to accept a form of delegated authority to make local [W]ater management decisions” [12] p. 4. Nutsumaat kws yaay’us tthqa’, an ancient Cowichan Tribes principle was adopted as a central tenant to guide CWB work: “we come together as a whole to work together to be stronger as partners for the watershed” [12] p. 8.

Conclusion

We must learn from Samqwan and be gently eroding of the colonial systems that have harmed Samqwan and related ecosystems. To return to being in good relation with Samqwan, we, as a society, have to be in good relation with each other and bring Indigenous knowledge and science together with Western knowledge and science with Etuaptmumk. Both knowledge systems have great strengths to bring together including the knowledge of ecosystems derived from countless generations of experience from local Indigenous communities and knowledge keepers. We envision embracing Indigenous Co-Governance models to protect Samqwan and all our relatives in the watershed.