This Saturday I’m heading to France and Douai to participate in the residency ‘Rivers of Democracy’, organized by European Alternatives .

“Rivers of Democracy is a series of transnational residencies across Europe where rivers are treated as political living spaces, shaping how we think about participation and democracy. Flowing across borders, these journeys turn Europe’s waterways into sites of encounter where ecological interdependence meets cultural practice and where democratic processes might be expanded or reimagined in relation to water.” 

To me rivers are not simply waterways. Their existence is absolutely crucial to humans and more-than-humans survival, on a local, global and planetary scale. Our rivers carry so many memories. Memories of seasonal change, of collectiveness, of movement and labour. But also of conflict, displacement, pollution and colonial extraction. The ecology and health of our rivers reveal how we distribute and view power, resources, responsibility and care. They hold answers to whether or not we can balance shared resources, power and justice, as well as ecological, humanitarian and cultural survival. Without our rivers, humans and nonhumans will be extinct.

Humanitarian crises of the present are entangled with the environmental crises through longer histories and the ongoing structures of colonialism, (industrial) capitalism, extraction, the patriarchy and unequal distributions of power and the politics of memory. Deeply wounding and violating both to humans and more-than-humans.

Some initial questions I’m interested in addressing are,

In what ways is the river a teacher? How have we/people learned from living with the rivers and waters?

How can we think of and what actions can we take, to see human and nonhuman justice not as separate but as an intertwined matter?

We humans and nonhumans are connected yes—But: On whose terms? Who benefits? Who pays the cost?

What forms of democracy arises when rivers are understood not just as a resource, but as carriers of ecological, colonial, human and more-than-human stories simultaneously? 

Very curious and excited to meet and work with a divers team of people from different disciplines, and to be living and working with the river as a co-creator as we will be drifting on a boat for a week together exploring “What is hidden in Europe’s rivers?”

//Francesca