Outreach group hosts land-based education session focusing on the role of water

On Saturday, Echo Valley Beach hosted several people looking to learn more about the role water plays in the lives of everyone. (Hallee Mandryk / CTV News)

The shoreline of Echo Valley Beach hosted several people looking to learn more about the role water plays in the lives of everyone.

"We all drink from the same river. And it's one of the series of decolonization events that our group has coordinated with the generosity of elders and knowledge keepers who teach us and lead us in a good way," said Amanda Dodge, a member of the KAIROS Prairies North Decolonization group.

According to Dodge, KIAROS is an ecumenical group that's open to people who are interested in doing peace and justice work in their communities.

"We think it's important to settlers, to be educating ourselves, to be opening our minds and hearts to the shifts that need to happen, to decolonize our ways of being and ways of seeing the world. Our group wants to be a tangible part of right relations between settler and Indigenous peoples in this land," Dodge said.

This particular event was one of several land-based education programs the organization has put on.

"We're learning about the importance of water. It's vital in this. Who are survival and how it's threatened and how we can be better stewarding it, and also thinking about the sacredness of water, and a spiritual relationship between us in the water and the created world," Dodge said.

The group has a strong focus on truth and reconciliation, particularly when it comes to bringing back Indigenous ways of knowing.

"We've been learning from the elders and knowledge keepers who are teaching us about how interconnected the natural world is and that the land, the trees, the water, we're all kin to one another and we're all connected." Dodge said.