...continued from Part 1

Shifting science

Martindale says the Xwulqw’selu Connections project also creates space to change the way scientific research like water monitoring and modeling is done — with community and land-based learning at the heart of it. She says she’s excited to see how the boundaries of academic research can be pushed further to include community science and knowledge.

Right now, citizen science often gets disregarded by decision makers, Disney says, because “it wasn’t carried out by some expert with some letters on the end of their name.”

But this is slowly changing, with projects like Xwulqw’selu Connections showing the value of citizen science. It can help fill gaps in knowledge, she says, and generate trust between communities, scientists and decision-makers. Technology like smartphones and accompanying apps like Anecdata make this work accessible to everyone. The cost of equipment, such as the pens used to monitor water temperature and conductivity in the Xwulqw’selu Connections project, has lowered significantly, making it easier for communities to access them.

“Anyone here can be as good or better at collecting data than myself,” Disney says.

The data from the Xwulqw’selu Connections project is considered open data — available for anyone to analyze and use — and Disney says the project team is striving to create a tool that can be transferred to other regions in B.C., Canada and beyond.

Looking ahead

“It’s really important that we’re taking Cowichan futures into account,” Martindale says, as she looks ahead to outcomes of the project. “But everything we do is for the community, settlers as well, because everybody should be included in this way of moving forward.”

In my conversations with Martindale, Disney and Shepherd, it’s clear they’ve left a lot of space for inquiry and change as the project moves forward. They have a set of questions they’d like to answer, but they also include new questions that emerge along the way and adjust their scope to find answers. Just as the Xwulqw’selu Sta’lo’ changes over time, so too does the Xwulqw’selu Connections project.

“I keep wanting to come back to these pieces about collective capacity to reflect and act together,” Shepherd says. “If we are showing up as volunteers monitoring, we’re shifting our own vibration with each other and what we’re putting into the water. That gets carried downstream, through the forest and with all the other people we are connecting with.”

With the effects of climate change already visible on the river, Shepherd acknowledges people may feel grief. But she says it’s important to hold space for that grief to move through us, rather then allow the fear associated with it to take hold. She says this can help build personal capacities and resilience so we are ready to adapt and support each other.

“I think one of the greatest gifts that we can offer in this project is to help people create that sense of readiness,” Shepherd says. “And the ability to change for what’s already here, and what’s coming.”

https://thediscourse.ca/cowichan-valley/xwulqwselu-connections-koksilah-river-water