07/03/2026
Is a River Alive? 💧
Recently, many of us will have celebrated Canada the Nation on Canada Day. Celebrations are always an invitation for gratitude and reflection on the origins of such pride; many themes of our Canadian identity are drawn from and inspired by the natural forces of this incredible land, her abundant gifts, and sublime, powerful landscapes. May the land and our relationship to it, in both lived experience and imagination, unite us in our rich diversity as Canadians and with a duty to always protect the sacred and connecting being of water.
Here in the Greater Tkaranto Bioregion we are deeply entwined with rivers and lakes, held in the web of watery connection they thread the landscape with. Feeling curious about your relationship to the land? The Rights of Nature movement is a great place to continue that exploration, as are the waters both close to your home and out in the 'wilderness' of this incredible place, our home, Canada.
In 2021, the Magpie River was granted legal personhood to protect its pristine waters. The documentary considers the impact of this decision and how it could ensure the Magpie's mighty waters continue to flow freely for the people and wildlife that depend on them. Do check out the Nature of Things Documentary about it on The Nature of Things.
The wonderful book by Nature writer Robert Macfarlane explores the titular question in his most recent release, in which he travels to several river systems, in various states of thriving and threat, in Ecuador, India, Canada, and his native England. We as a family went to see him speak last year on the tour for this book that BookLore Orangeville facilitated, and it was very meaningful to be saturated in expansive flowing ideas about our relationship to nature. I thought a lot about the small rivulet of Cold Creek that runs through Mount Wolfe Farm and feeds the beautiful Humber as it braids through Bolton and beyond to Lake Ontario; when I drive to Sorauren Market every Monday, I wave to the water as I pass alongside that graceful white bridge that spans the humber’s mouth, feeling how we both flow from these hills to parts further afield and then home, cyclically, again and again. I highly recommend giving Is a River Alive? a read, and/or listening to the CBC Ideas Podcast What Does it Mean For A River To Be ‘Alive’? about the book, and the explorations of what it means to be in relationship to rivers.
