07/12/2024
Columbia River Treaty negotiations - who cares?
I certainly didn't care AT ALL until 10 years ago when I was asked to distill and design 200 years of historical facts about the The Columbia River Treaty (curated by Eileen Delehanty Pearkes) into an 8 panel travelling exhibit. At the time it felt super risqué and unpopular to be talking about the destruction of local ecosystems, the displacement and declared "extinction" of Sinixt First Nation peoples (now legally recognized as"not extinct"), and how major decisions about the river were made by the government without public consultation. We had to tread lightly. The upper Columbia River used to be home to over 6 million ocean salmon spawning, (can you imagine!) but now because of the dams, there were NONE.
So a year later, when our exhibition won the Canadian Museums Association award I was like "Yay!" on the outside, but really, on the inside, I was like "really? so what?"
Fast forward 10 years, the landscape is changing, and several First Nations now have an official seat at the CRT negotiations table, advocating for restoration of ecosystem function. I feel the importance of this deeply because I just finished designing a public portal for the CRT that compiles hundreds of documents of research and data to be considered during negotiations - finally giving life, flora, fauna and the environment a voice!
And now yesterday's news makes me care even more - because I feel a tiny, teeny (yet understandably skeptical) sparkle of hope.
From the government of BC, July 11, 2024: "Canada and the United States have taken an important step in the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty by reaching an agreement-in-principle. This milestone in the negotiation process provides a clear road map for a renewed Treaty that protects and supports the people and ecosystems in the Columbia Basin. "
So, in case you "care" to learn more about the Columbia River Treaty (but dont feel like reading a tonne of documents), here is a link to those original exhibition panels shown as screenshots below https://lnkd.in/gxPYAp3U
Enjoy!
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