Submitted by Simone Castello on Tue, 05/11/2024 - 10:33
Last month, Dr Anastasia Badder collaborated with Water Sensitive Cambridge CIC on the first of two community-oriented events exploring the value of water. This activity was funded by a grant from CRASSH.
Dozens of Cambridge residents gathered for a day of rethinking our relations with water. This collaboration builds on previous CIP fieldwork conducted for the project Water Efficiency in Faith & Diverse Communities, which explored religious and spiritual relations with water in and around Cambridge, resulting in the report Water and/in Religious Relations and subsequent conference Being with Water Otherwise. Now, in collaboration with Water Sensitive Cambridge and with support from CRASSH, we are thinking further about other-than-commodity relations with water.
Partners at Water Sensitive Cambridge provided the following reflection on the day. Dear community: Water with heads, hands and heart was held at the Cambridge United Football Club community rooms on 23rd October. In a full-day event exploring a better relationship with water, how may we reach for one that's more reciprocal, restorative, and right? We shared a few ideas:
- In an insightful talk, anthropologist Dr Anastasia Badder shared her research on faith & water in local religious communities;
- SuDS designer and WaterSenCam co-founder Yair Perry showed how making places for water with rain gardens can green our streets, restore groundwater, & add flood resilience in a changing climate;
- Dr Anna McIvor led a workshop with a water-centred Council of All Beings - gratitude for even for mosquito and sphagnum moss as they have a position on the web of reciprocity as life creates conditions for more life;
- Ecologist Kevin Hand turned attention to Coldham's Brook, the often overlooked and marginalised chalk stream by Abbey Stadium;
- A viewing of the lyrical Waterlight, a film featuring the River Mel, the poetry of the late Clare Crossman, and a loving and caring community.
It was a privilege to co-create the day with Clara Todd, James Murray-White, Meg Clarke, and our academic partners CRASSH and the Cambridge Interfaith Programme. Look out for a counterweight event in the Spring in a central Cambridge location.
Photo courtesy of Water Sensitive Cambridge, originally posted on LinkedIn.