Conclusion and reflections - Governing Transboundary Waters: Canada, the United States, and Indigenous Communities - page 184

• foresight

• flexibility

• commitment to diversity

• collective conscience - unifying principle of water.

Lessons from the intertribal Canoe Journey show that a “good neighbor” is one
that “pulls together” for the common cause. The participants pulling in unison
highlight how crucial communication, equality of actors, and clear vision is to
achieving shared goals. The Journey itself recognizes the importance of knowledge
of place, respect for waters, and inter-generational education - investing in youth
and respecting elders.
In addition, many of the cases show how important diverse ways of seeing (and
knowing) are in the management of shared waters. For example, using water probes
and GPS units in the Canoe Journeys of the Yukon and the coastal Pacific brings
together different technologies and ways of knowing. This “hybrid space” between
traditional practice and modern technologies brings people together for a common
cause - one that is linked to knowing, protecting, and respecting our shared waters.
This type of sustained action is critical for ongoing collaboration.
The Grandmother Water Walkers showed that importance of reverence for
water. By honoring water - and not taking water for granted - you become
cognizant of how daily actions impact a lifesource. A key lesson from the Water
Walkers is that you do what you can. For some, this means raising awareness. For
others it means scientific inquiry or technical innovations. One lesson from the
walk is that each person should be part of the solution in a way that is meaningful to him
or her .
Another significant aspect of the Water Walk and the sharing of the Water
Song is the contribution to building a collective conscience. Water is a great unifier.
Celebrating and honoring the importance of water through song collective action
are ways that Indigenous communities are contributing to a paradigm shift, which
helps people to understand - more viscerally - that our universal reliance on water
makes us more similar than different, and that protecting your upstream neighbor
is protecting yourself. Water helps to blur the false dichotomy of “us” and “them”;
and contributes to a collective understanding of greater purpose and understanding.
To make a good “upstream neighbor” you cooperate in times of both non-
crisis and crisis. One of the key points raised by people operating within a state-
run transboundary organization is that the motivation to support transboundary
institutions is highest in times of crisis. However, as shown by the Indigenous-led
transboundary institutions, the wider goals of self-determination and self-governance
(in addition to ecosystem protection) provide an impetus for ongoing participation
in times of “non-crisis”.
The case of Luna provides a more nuanced set of reflections on the very nature
of borders; how governance is even more difficult when the being itself is contested.
Governing across political jurisdictions certainly raises a set of key challenges.
However, it is also important to analyze governance challenges between worldviews.
The different interpretations of Luna/ Tsu-xiit are a telling example of widening