b'Amplifying the voice of water:AdvertorialInterweaving Indigenous Knowledge & western scienceParticipants included Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, Elders, youth, scientists, industry professionals, and members of the NWMO. Panelists discussed the personal connections we all have with wateras our first home, as a medicine for all Creation and the sacred relationship water holds with grandmother moon, grandfather sun and grandfather rocks.More than 70 per cent of the crust of the planet is billion-year-old rock, said geologist and University of Toronto Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar. Water bears the memory of the rock that has been in it.When we follow the water, it reveals life. How water survives gives us hints of its memory, and a water sample can tell us a story about what the water has been exposed to in the environment, providing valuable information to inform our work.Indigenous Knowledge Keepers, Elders, youth, scientists, industry professionals, and members of the NWMO gathered for the 5thOur instinct to protect water, people and the Indigenous Knowledge and Western Science Workshop. environment reflects the values and priorities that Canadians and Indigenous peoples identified as The Nuclear Waste Management Organizations (NWMO)important during our consultations with them on fifth and most recent Indigenous Knowledge and Westerndifferent approaches to the long-term management of Science Workshop explored the roles of sustainabilityused nuclear fuel.and environmental stewardship in water governanceThe lessons learned through these workshops will initiatives, from the perspective of both Indigenouscontinue to inform our approach because water worldviews and western science. A key lesson thatsustains people and the environment, and protecting it emerged was that water has a story to tell and that it isis the shared connection we have with one another.our responsibility to listen.Water is an important factor in the NWMOs plan forABOUT THE NWMOthe safe, long-term management of used nuclear fuel. Interweaving Indigenous Knowledge and westernThe Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) science is essential to all the NWMOs work, andis a not-for-profit organization implementing Canadas this workshop plays a crucial role in bringing theseplan to safely contain and isolate used nuclear fuel perspectives together to inform our approach to issuesinside a deep geological repository in a manner that like environmental stewardship. protects people and the environment for generations to come.Attendees spoke to the spiritual, emotional and physical teachings of water that are intertwined throughoutCanadas plan will only proceed in an area with many world views and knowledge systems. We learnedinformed and willing hosts, where the municipality, First that water governance needs to be inclusive of waterNation and Mtis communities, and others in the area protection and that it must restore the wrongs that haveare working together to implement it. The NWMO plans been done to water. to select a site in 2023, and two areas remain in our site selection process: the Ignace area and South Bruce, We have to see water as a living spirit, as a living being.both in Ontario.Water is alive. You can speak to water, and it will speak to you, said Elder Diane Longboat of the NWMOs Council of Elders and Youth. It is a unifying and transformational being that will bring us all together. We must be in awe of water and the teachings it has to share with us.'