Splashing Forward – The Rights of Water
Water gives life, movement, and tranquillity. It is the thread that connects all beings on Mother Earth, weaving through nations, languages, and cultures.
The Rights of Nature
The Rights of Nature (RON) campaign highlights the importance of recognizing all organisms, organic and inorganic, as part of a larger, interconnected community. Nature, like humans, has rights, agency, and responsibilities.
For too long, humans have taken Nature for granted, exploiting ecosystems, driving species to extinction, and pushing natural systems to the brink. The Rights of Nature movement seeks to reverse this trajectory by embedding environmental protection into legal frameworks.
Granting legal rights to Nature can take many forms:
- Appointing guardians to act on behalf of rivers, forests, or species
- Giving Nature a legal voice in courtrooms
- Ensuring ecosystems are treated as rights-bearing entities, not just resources to be used
Living in Harmony with Water
A powerful example of this movement is the Magpie River (Mutehekau Shipu) in Quebec. In February 2021, the river was granted legal personhood and rights by the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit and the Municipality of Minganie.
Most rivers in the area had already been dammed by Hydro-Québec. To prevent the same fate for the Magpie, the community created the Muteshekau-shipu Alliance, partnering with the International Observatory on the Rights of Nature. Together, they successfully declared the river a legal person, paving the way for protection from industrialization.
The Magpie River now holds the following rights:
- To live, to exist, and to flow
- To respect for its natural cycles
- To evolve naturally and be preserved
- To maintain its natural biodiversity
- To maintain its integrity
- To perform essential functions within its ecosystem
- To be free from pollution
- To regeneration and restoration
- To take legal action
Check out “I Am the Magpie River” (YouTube Trailer).
Conor Curtis from Sierra Club Canada sat down with Gilbert Whiteduck & Yenny Vega Cardenas about Rights for the Tenàgàdino Zibi/Gatineau River & Magpie River (podcast).
Join the Movement
The Magpie River is just one example. Across Canada and around the world, countless rivers, forests, and species face existential threats due to human activity. It’s up to us to build community-led initiatives, push for legal protections, and steward our environment with care.
This August: Connect Through Water with Sierra Club Canada
This August, Sierra Club Canada is bringing people together from coast to coast to coast, through water.
We invite you to celebrate, reflect, and take action by sharing a photo of a water area near you on Google Photos. Whether it’s a lake, river, ocean, or even a small stream, your local water source is part of a larger story.
Upload Your Photo – Splashing Forward
Join Sierra Club Canada’s coast-to-coast photo campaign: Splashing Forward – The Rights of Water.
Step 1: Take a Water Photo
Snap a photo of your favourite water place—river, lake, stream, ocean—anything!
Step 2: Open the Album
Click here to open the shared Google Photos album:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z52c7cU6CsYoyVb29
Step 3: Add Your Photo
On Phone or Computer:
- Tap the “Add photo” (+) icon
- Select your photo and upload
- You’re done!
Want to say more? Click your photo to leave a comment about what water means to you.
Follow our journey with #WaterWednesdays
Each week, we’ll be featuring your beautiful water photos on our social media. Follow along to discover how water connects us all and to see the incredible diversity of water ecosystems across Canada.
We can’t wait to see where the water flows near you!
What does water mean to you?
Leave a comment with your photo, share your thoughts, memories, or hopes for the future of water in your community.
Are you ready to pledge for the rights of water?
I pledge to respect, protect, and uphold the rights of water.
Water is life. It has the right to exist, flow freely, and remain clean and healthy.
I commit to:
- Defend water from harm and pollution
- Support efforts to recognize water’s legal rights
- Speak up for water in my community and beyond
Water connects us all. I will protect what sustains life for today and future generations.
Splashing Forward Reading List
As August blooms into September, explore some inspiring reads and stories that echo this growing global movement toward environmental justice. Explore the deep connection between nature, water, and our place within it.
- Is a River Alive? – Robert MacFarlane. A poetic exploration of whether nature, rivers, forests, and mountains, can be considered alive and worthy of rights.
- The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth – Zoë Schlanger. A mind-expanding dive into the secret lives of plants and what they teach us about intelligence, community, and life.
- Becoming Earth: How Our Planet Came to Life – Ferris Jabr. An illuminating look at Earth’s living systems, asking when Earth itself became “alive” and how we might rethink our relationship with it.
- Cry of the Wild: Life through the Eyes of Eight Animals – Charles Foster. Enter the world through the eyes and instincts of wild animals. A moving meditation on non-human ways of knowing.
- Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey toward Personal and Ecological Healing – Jennifer Grenz. A powerful blend of Indigenous knowledge and ecology, offering a path to personal and planetary healing.
- Our Green Heart: The Soul and Science of Forests – Diana Beresford-Kroeger. A botanical love letter to forests, blending science and spirit to reveal why forests are the heart of Earth.
- “I Am Mutehekau Shipu: A River’s Journey to Personhood in Eastern Quebec” – Canadian Geographic Article. An inspiring real-world story of the Magpie River’s legal personhood—and the community that fought for its rights. Read the article.
