Spirituality of Water in Timor-Leste
Kade Collins – Undergraduate - UNR
In Timor-Leste, there is a spiritual relationship with water, connecting cultural practices, cultural history, and relationships with ancestors to springs and groundwater. Without an understanding of this spirituality and its cultural significance, outsiders may negatively interfere with the nation's water management, disrespect these values, and disrupt the local communities that uphold these values. Although this presentation focuses on Timor-Leste, spiritual hydrosocial relationships are useful examples of how varying cultures attach values pertaining to water and apply them. To help individuals develop an understanding of water values, this presentation discusses Timorese spiritual aspects of their hydrosocial relationships, the history of these spiritualities, and cultural interpretations of water's agency.
Canadian Anishinaabe Women's Water Knowledge, Roles, and Responsibilities
Zulie Hernandez – Undergraduate - UNR
Indigenous people living among Canada’s Great Lakes have a long-standing history with the water bodies surrounding them, especially Anishinaabe women, who have generations of knowledge and practices associated with these lakes. Anishinaabe women elders connect with nibi (water) in a spiritual and holistic sense, recognizing many connections to and with water. This paper focuses on Anishinaabe women with these special connections to water, who are considered to be “bringers of life,” just as water is also a life-giver. Anishinaabe women have crucial roles in water safety, spiritual ceremonies, and traditional affairs related to the water. Women’s responsibilities also extend to keeping drinking water safe, as well as the singing of water songs during childbirth, bathing newborns, and bathing the recently deceased. Discussion of water policies or governance among the Anishinaabe cannot rely solely on village leaders since they may lack this sort of knowledge about water as they do not typically have these responsibilities. Anishinaabe grandmothers Josephine Mandamin and Irene Peters have been essential in helping raise awareness of issues facing the Great Lakes through their Spirit Walks that help people participate in gaining knowledge and pay their respects to the Great Lakes. Anishinaabe women elders can detect water degradation earlier than some forms of scientific studies; this, along with generational knowledge of the surrounding water bodies, could be useful when creating legislation and helping assess disasters.
Structural Violence, Water Pollution, and Corporate Mining at the Ok Tedi Mine
Kylie Papson – Graduate – UNR
Mining corporations have long operated under Western traditions of natural resource extraction, emphasizing profit and economic progress over regional equity and environmental health. The Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea is no exception, which faced worldwide scrutiny over environmental damage caused from the mine, including pollution of the Fly River system, a watershed that is invaluable to many local indigenous communities. The pollution of this river has led to widespread ecological damage, which continues to impact traditional fishing and agricultural practices, as well as affect the wellbeing of the communities who rely on the river. This study examines the Ok Tedi mine as an example of long-term environmental violence against local communities, bridging theories of structural violence by Seth Holmes and applying them to the case of the Ok Tedi mine. Understanding the implications of corporate mining on surrounding communities and impacts to their water systems offers a critical examination of the physical and sociological capitalist structures that continue to perpetuate violence against minorities, including indigenous peoples, across the globe.
