Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Before Jennifer Steele and her husband moved into their home on Springfield Estates park in Middle Sackville, N.S., in 2013, they knew there was an issue with the water. She says she was told by someone else in the mobile home park that there was some "history" there. But it was affordable, she said. So they bought it.
When documentarian James Burns and Apache guitarist Stevie Salas set out to create a film that examined the ongoing impacts of the water crisis in Indigenous communities, the two knew they wanted the final piece to be an exploration of identity and how it's tied to Earth's most abundant natural resource. The result is an ambitious 104-minute documentary that blends unscripted real-life moments with scripted vignettes to go beyond the template of using statistics and experts to put the spotlight on an issue that transcends geographical boundaries.
