Walking water
Locals and visitors to participate in pilgrimage from Mono to Owens Lake.
A group of international and Inyo and Mono walkers will be participating in a pilgrimage called Walking Water in one- to three-week sections from August 31 to September 22.
Walkers will be travelling from Mono Lake to Owens Lake in the first of a three-year effort.
While the Owens Valley and Mono County have been focused on issues of water since 1913, when the Los Angeles Aqueduct began functioning and draining Owens and Mono Lakes, in the last four drought years much of our attention has been intensified. Media, scientific study and everyday habits now examine water in California, the West and across the world.
By now many people are not only thinking about water, but also adjusting their behavior to save water. The approximately 50 walkers for this pilgrimage are made up of local residents and people from across the world, some of whose home countries are experiencing an environment nearing calamity from the lack of clean, potable water for the native residents, including Rajendra Singh, known as “the waterman of India.”
The goals for Walking Water are simple yet deal with complex water issues. The organizers stated, “The goal is to contribute to empowering, inspiring and equipping individuals and communities in the Owens to L.A. region to engage in the issue of water—water use, water protection, city living and wild nature—and the relationships between human communities.”
“Walking Water intends to attract the interest, and open the hearts of people who live in Southern California, to further move and inspire them to understand the impacts of their personal lifestyles on other people and the ecosystem, and motivate and equip them to make effective changes in those lifestyles that can reduce the amount of water they use, waste, and pollute.”
Some local participants include Alan Bacock and Gigi Coyle. Alan is a Big Pine Tribal Member and serves as the Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley’s Water Program Coordinator. He has been involved with environmental issues for the past 15 years, working on behalf of tribes to protect the water, air and land for the future. As the Tribe’s Water Program Coordinator, Alan monitors water quality to ensure that Big Pine Creek meets water quality standards established by the Tribe as it flows through the reservation. He is also the manager of the Tribe’s Sustainable Food Project.
Gigi Coyle lives in the Owens Valley and has been focused in many ways on the connection to water—the care of, the teaching of, the protection of, throughout her life. For 45 years, she has served in various roles from director to consultant, student to teacher, working with different communities, organizations, and cultures. She serves today as a wilderness rites-of-passage guide, trainer and council carrier, a community facilitator and mentor.
In fact, it was Gigi who first brought Kate Bunney—the visionary behind Walking Water—to the Owens Valley. Bunney has overseen several pilgrimages for peace already in several parts of the globe. She stated, “In 2012 I came to the Owens Valley for the first time and was instantly in awe of the magnificence around me. To the west the Sierra, to the East the Inyo and so much expanse, wilderness, desert and life in between.”
Bunney had come to the Valley to participate in a course led by Coyle for community leaders from all over the world. “Our focus was very much on how our work in the world could better serve the relationship between us, as human beings and the Earth we share.” She continues, “One day, as I was walking along Tinnemaha Creek, I could suddenly see pilgrimage: the image, sound, smell, movement of a group of people with intent to bring awareness to the long-standing and conflicted issue of water in California and the world.”
“Unknowingly, I had walked into one of the most contentious water issues in the United States, a conflict that has seen the gradual desertification of the Owens Valley, the constant increase in the urbanization of Los Angeles and still very few solutions on how to manage the water resources for all: human beings, animals, plants and Earth.”
Bunney explained that immediately a core advising team of Gigi Coyle, Win Phelps, Andy Lipkis and Sharon Shay Sloan came together with their help and knowledge.
“Walking Water is not a demonstration, it is not a march against something, instead it is a celebration of the possibilities we have when we come together,” Bunney said.
Three of the noted walkers, active in water issues across the world, are Marcela Olivera from Bolivia, Rajendra Singh from India, and Andy Lipkis from TreePeople Los Angeles. They will be offering free public talks during the pilgrimage in various locations along the route.
Olivera is a water commons organizer based in Cochabamba, Bolivia. She was part of the la Coordinadora de defense del Aqua y de la Vida (Coalition for the Defense of Water and Life), the organization that defeated water privatization in Cochabamba in 2000.
Singh is a well-known water conservationist, also known as “waterman of India.” He won the Stockholm Water Prize, an award known as “the Nobel Prize for water,” in 2015. He has been doing pioneering work in community based efforts in water harvesting and water management for decades.
Finally, Lipkis is a practical visionary who has dedicated his life to healing the environment while improving the lives of individuals and communities. He founded TreePeople in Los Angeles in 1973 at age 18 and continues to serve as its President.
In the time leading up to and during Walking Water, many other walkers will be featured and will become more familiar to those interested in being part of this water pilgrimage here in the Owens Valley and Los Angeles, and places in between.
Walking Water is a volunteer project built on the generosity of many local people and organizations as well as participants from around the world.
Additional information, biographies of all the walkers, and more can be found at www.walking-water.org. Many opportunities for supporting individual walkers, supporting the project both financial and with in-kind gifting and work can also be found on the website. For additional information call or email Kate Bunney at 310.307.6690, or kate@walking-water.org.
