On two-eyed seeing 

I learned a teaching from [educator and story holder] Lewis Cardinal before two-eyed seeing [came about as a concept]. It’s a teaching of why Indigenous people sit in a circle. If you had the most beautiful carving in the center of that circle and I asked you to describe what you see on your side of the circle, you would come back and describe that beautiful carving from your perspective. I would describe it from mine. But together we’re talking about the same thing.

As I started researching for the series, that’s where I learned about the two-eyed seeing, which is basically the same principle, developed by Albert Marshall. One eye sees the traditional Indigenous ways of knowing and the other eye sees the Western ways of knowing. Together, they can guide our future. The whole principle of the series is that there are the things we are facing, but there are also the two mindsets coming together to find solutions that benefit all.

On walking in two worlds

It was really cool to be able to jump into those worlds and have active conversations with different scientists and Knowledge Keepers — and be able to keep up with it, and then try and put it into words infused with our teachings. That’s where I think being urban Indigenous helps.

I’ve always walked in both worlds. For the longest time, I didn’t know where I stood in that circle. Right now, we have Indigenous Peoples of Canada broken down into Métis, Inuit and First Nations. But being urban Indigenous, you don’t know where you stand. But then I realized we’re our own sector. We stand on our own and we have an identity that complements everybody. Once I learned that identity, I felt like it was a superpower to walk in between two worlds and have something to say.

I found a balance where I wouldn’t overwhelm people with the science and I just kept it simple. You know how when the Knowledge Keeper or Elder sits down, there’s that tone and the way they tell the story? Well, I just told the story like that, from that point of view. You always pull up your seat and you listen to them and they tell this beautiful story of what’s going on. And so, I found my place like I am one of those storytellers. I found the balance by leaning on our own traditions and how we tell a story.

On water and its flow

After the rain falls, it pushes and makes the veins of Mother Earth. It filters that water which has minerals and nutrients, and then pushes [it] into those creeks and those creeks flow down. 

We drink water every day and then expel it. So we’re constantly flushing water through ourselves because we’re part of that system. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. The things you do don’t magically go away; they go into the greater whole.

On making change

Everybody’s tackling problems in their area within their own backyards — every Nation, and community we went to. Climate change is such a huge conversation and there’s many parts to that circle that everybody is coming from. But what I found with this series is that Nations and different organizations are keeping it simple and they’re bringing awareness. They might say, “let’s talk about streams.” This is what’s affecting the streams; this is what we’re doing to mitigate that. This is our two worlds coming together to be the stewards of that. 

I found that with every environment that there was somebody or groups and organizations all working on something with the environments that they can control. But when you put it together, it’s a lot of change. 

On working together

Right now, we’re just so blanketed with such heavy statements, we don’t even know where to where to start. Like, it’s so depressing. There’s so much fear. The world is so divided. But then, you know, at the moment when Water Worlds really got the push, we went out into these communities and people just opened the door and they were willing to teach us. Everybody from all walks of life showed up to help with the series. 

But everybody I approached for help taught me different things. When the world was so divided, people under a common cause were willing to come out of the woodwork to teach and learn and pass on their knowledge. And I think that’s actually the spirit of reconciliation. At that point, it wasn’t for anybody’s agenda. It was because we needed help and people were willing to help. 

It was pouring rain when we showed up at the dock [in Haida Gwaii]. This show didn’t have a massive budget and I thought, “my gosh, if we have a rain day, what am I going to do?” We really need to do this today. The Haida Gwaii guardians said, “we’ll get you down there.” And then the sky turned blue and the sea turned into glass and they were able to take us all the way through the Gwaii Haanas where we filmed. Then after we got back to our hotel, the rain came back. It was so moving to be on that island. I felt so at peace. That was a beautiful spiritual journey.

On language preservation

The series will be in English and Cree. It’s narrated by Tantoo Cardinal, a strong warrior woman who showed me what perseverance was like. We always talk about how we have to preserve our language but at a certain point, you’ve got to put in the work to do that. She knew Cree from when she was younger but she didn’t speak for years, so she had to get up on it.

Once a week or twice a week, we would get online on Zoom and she’d be doing her script reading. For all those weeks, I got to just listen to Cree and learn by osmosis as much as I could. It was really cool to be on that journey with her. It was so intimate. We had some good laughs. 

One of the biggest challenges was converting the science script into Cree, a descriptive language. With all the interpreters that we used, we had to condense it down, keeping the same timings as the English. Then Tantoo Cardinal would take those scripts, listen to them, read them, and then she would do the Cree. And that breathed life into the whole series and now we have a beautiful Cree version and English version. I’m pretty proud that I got to contribute to preserving the language — and to see what it takes to do it. 

On women and water protection

Women play a vital role in the big puzzle. Throughout my whole career, women have been the leaders. Women are the life givers, right? Actually, we even bring up water of the womb [in the series] because we’re born in water. Quite literally. Every single First Nation, community and organization I went to was either run by women or had guidance of women. It was really powerful. I’m really glad that this series uplifts them. 

Jill Heinerth, world renowned cave diver, is fearless, like the stuff she was doing and showing us was…. just wow.

When we went to Haida Gwaii, we worked with a strong warrior woman named Jaasaljuus Yakgujanaas who was one of the Haida divers. She’s the one who spearheaded getting me out there. And we filmed this beautiful thing. First Nations women are the leaders out there. They’re doing a lot of great things.

On solutions

We really dissect things [in the series]. We learn a lot of truths and there’s certain things I wish I didn’t learn — but that’s a fact. It gave me solace knowing that there are some solutions, but we have to keep putting light on some of these things and expand it so it’s common knowledge. 

At the end of the series you’ll learn what every water system does and how it all clicks together. It inspires people to keep it small. What can you control in your own community? Maybe I won’t put that down the drain, or maybe I’ll try and recycle this. As long as you’re making your effort and you go out to volunteer or organize green days where everybody’s picking up the garbage or people are going to the creeks and streams and cleaning up — that’s what it’s going to take.

We can let all the politicians and everybody argue over the big points but a simple thing that you can do in your life that you have control over is you can just keep it small. But that combines to a larger purpose and this whole ripple effect can happen. The series really tries to highlight that.