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Session Detail (plenary)
Plenary keynote: Emalani Case
Falling through earth: protecting the movements of water
Emalani Case
Victoria University of Wellington
It can take decades for a single raindrop to fall through earth, to filer through soil and rock, to get to an aquifer. The water in aquifers, or underground collections of water, is therefore aged. In fact, it’s ancient as it cycles through earth and sky over generations. Pacific peoples have long been active in protecting the ancient freshness that feeds them from below the surface. They have been safeguarding the natural movements of rain to ground to underground, knowing that our futures, and the futures of those to come, are determined by what’s beneath our feet. Recent events have enabled us to see this protection in movement and activsm. The controversies surrounding the US Navy’s contamination of groundwater on the island of O‘ahu, for instance, have reminded us of the need to protect our groundwater by resisting the threats that lay above it. The water crisis in Banaba, similarly, has reminded us of the need to find solutions, to repair the underground spaces where water can fall and flow. Taking these movements as inspiration, this keynote will focus on wai honua, or groundwater, water that falls and moves through earth. It will consider questions about water, not just as a moving entity but as a something that calls on us to move with it. It will reflect on what we have to learn from aquifers and will pay attention to contested spaces beneath the surface that sometimes escape our daily attention but that come back into our consciousness through controversy, degradation, and the need to protect movement.
