Walking Water
In collaboration with Chelsea Call , Walking Water was an experiential day-long community procession walking the length of the Santa Fe River within city limits (approximately 12 miles).
Together in community, we attempt to not just understand our watershed through maps and numbers, but with a felt sense with our bodies.
At one point in the not too distant past, every living being - plant, animal, and human - knew exactly where their water came from.
Now, amid fears of a changing climate, we turn on the tap and hope the water continues to flow.
We walk the river to remember the source of all life that we depend on. When we learn to belong to a place, we become invested in tending to it.
Prior to the procession community members were invited to create cyanotype fabric pieces containing their hopes and prayers for the river at the Santa Fe Watershed’s Love Your Watershed event. We then wove these fabrics into adornment, wearing them on the day of the event with the intent of carrying prayers downstream.
In addition to the fabric, people were invited to bring water from their homes to offer into a ceramic vessel we created from locally harvested clay, which was then carried downstream and broken at the end of the walk, offering the water and prayers back to the watershed.
The website housed a live GPS map for community members to join us at any of the six waypoints. These served as meeting places where people were invited to say their prayers for the river out loud, or internally, as they offered water into the collective vessel.
This project was a recipient of the Art is the Solution: Water & Displacement grant from the Santa Fe Arts Commission.
