“Listen, the buried stream gurgles its longing to return to daylight and moonlight to nourish ducks, bracken, ferns, salmonberry and you.” Rita Wong (words marking the eyes of the water along St. George Street at 11th Ave.)

Journeys of the Waters is a whole school collaboration sponsored by the city of Vancouver, that takes its inspiration from the new St. George Rehabilitation project that is taking place beside Mount Pleasant school. This newly installed rainway garden is designed to absorb, filter and clean the water run-off as it travels along the site of an original stream te statlew (Musqueam) that ran down to 5th avenue, (the original shore line), and into False Creek mudflats Skwácháy̓s [Sḵwx̱wú7mesh sníchim] that was once a teeming natural wetland habitat that was a place of sustenance shared by the 3 host Nations.          

This residency is about making the invisible visible: attending to the memories, stories, and dreams of the water, past, present and future. Through individual and collaborative artmaking experiences - drawing, painting, map making and relief printing - each cohort of students reflected on our relationship with water, emphasizing care and reciprocity as integral to the wellbeing of this precious gift that is necessary for all life.  

Water is history and our future: Journeys for Justice: THe grade 6 and 7 classes learned about the personhood of rivers and the history of Vancouver’s lost streams, creating water justice wood carvings that express our dreams for water’s future.  

Water is a meeting place: Animals journeys: The grade 4s and 5s learned about the rich animal biodiversity of our watershed, and the ongoing impacts of development on their survival. 

Water is a journey home: Salmon journeys: Grade 2 and 3 classes learned about the salmon’s journey and intimate connection to these lands.

Water is a reflection: Plant journeys: The K’s and 1s came to know about some of our importantIndigenous plant relations that grow along the rawinay.   

Individual prints in each class were brought together onto collaborative eco-printed and plant dyed banners, that together, create an undulating stream representing our interconnectedness and gratitude to water.  

Our project has been enriched by water teachings from Candice Halls Howcroft, (Squamish Nation) knowledge about the rainway from community activist Shahira Llaneza, ethnobotany teachings from Indigenous herbalist Lori Snyder and movement and music integration by Christina Cuglietta, music and dance teacher at Mount Pleasant. We are also indebted to the many local community members and water protectors, (including Mount Pleasant school children) whose tenacious advocacy for revitalizing this lost stream was the driving force for this rainway project’s realization.  

We look forward to a final exhibition and ceremony involving the school neighbourhood communities to celebrate the waters, the rainway project, and a new generation of water protectors to take up the responsibility of caring for the waters that connect us all.