Report: Water with heads, hands & heart

5 November 2024

Photo of people doing a nature walk, courtesy of Water Sensitive Cambridge
Courtesy of Water Sensitive Cambridge, originally shared on LinkedIn

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.