Episode Details

The Gravity Well podcast explores the importance of maintaining healthy relationships with our environment, focusing on water, air, land, and life. Dixon Hammond, a long-time advocate for the Beaver Creek Watershed, shares his experiences and efforts in improving water quality and riparian health. He emphasizes the importance of grassroots involvement, collaboration with various stakeholders, and the need for evidence-based approaches to manage water resources effectively. Dixon highlights the challenges faced during droughts, the significance of proper water licencing, and the role of education in fostering sustainable practices.

The episode underscores the power of cooperation, the need for reeducation, especially among youth, and the importance of maintaining ecological health and stability. The hosts and guests advocate for continued dialogue and action to address environmental challenges and ensure a sustainable future.

Welcome and Round 1 Review

Alex:

Welcome to The Gravity Well, where we break down heavy ideas into small buckets anyone can handle in our work and at play, we seek the wisdom of elders, individuals, and communities that share knowledge to care for our water, air, land, life and resource needs a healthy relationship with our homeland and each other’s is our guide.

Jenny:

That little opening has been evolving as we go. I’ve attached to this meeting a document that we’re using. This is the end of round one. We started our first discussions. The first round was talking about the broader why we’re talking. I’m just going to do a quick overview starting from last week and working my way backwards. Last week we spoke with Ryan Heavy Head. It was a tremendous conversation where we learned about Maslow’s visit with the Blackfoot First Nations and how this was before Maslow had created the hierarchy of needs which is the first system on mental health. Ryan explained to us that until that time they had talked about mental health disorders or conditions. But after Maslow visited with the Blackfoot, he started focusing on mental health. He learned a lot from staying with them about altruism and looking out for each other.

He started forming his whole new concept of learning, which was carried forward throughout Western society or at least in North American society. Hi Janet. Thank you for joining us. Dixon. Just so you know, Janet is a collaborator of mine. We both volunteer and work with an organization called Alberta Talks together. Janet has an environmental background, and she and I have had the opportunity to work together. Janet, if at any time you want to ask some questions, feel free to just raise your hand in the bottom right corner and we’ll bring you up to do subjects and said he’d be open to that. That was last week. As I said, Maslow visited Blackfoot, but the key part I forgot in the original video we saw is that Ryan had also met with David Suzuki and Al Gore when they were explaining the uncomfortable truth and trying to help people understand what the climate crisis looked like, et cetera.

He had a big breakthrough moment after that meeting, which was that the climate scientists and Al Gore and others are missing this key piece, which is this ongoing living relationship with the earth. And this is something that Ryan and I quite frankly believe is a really big key for us being able to overcome what we’re doing. And actually, it’s going to tie in a lot with what Dixon will offer us today in terms of honouring what the earth can give us and making sure we’re looking after it. Lastly, on this, I’ll just say we’re going to have future conversations with Ryan where we’re going to hear more about the Beaver bundle story, which is a really good example of the balance required with nature and making sure that we’re living in balance not only with our words but in our relationship and being