Theory of Water
with Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
Hosted by David McGuffin
In Person Streaming Non-Fict HistoryNo writer in recent memory has more thoroughly rearranged my moral compass than Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and no book brought me more solace than Theory of Water... A book of immense regenerative power, by one of the few truly incendiary, indispensable writers working today."
Acclaimed Nishnaabeg writer Leanne Betasamosake Simpson takes a revolutionary look at that most elemental force, water, and suggests a powerful path for the future.
For years, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson took solace in skiing—in all kinds of weather across all forms of terrain, often following the trail beside a beloved creek near her home. Recently, as she skied this path and meditated on our world’s uncertainty, environmental devastation, rising authoritarianism and ongoing social injustice, her mind turned to the water in the creek, the ice beneath her feet, and an elemental question: What might it mean to truly listen to water? To know water? To exist with and alongside water? So began her quest to discover, understand and trace the historical and cultural interactions of Indigenous peoples with water in all its forms. Soon she began to see how a “Theory of Water” might lead to a radical rethinking of relationships between beings and forces in the world today.

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