Write Out: Ripple Effects-Water & Water (In)Justice

Join us for Write Out, Manitoba! We’ve expanded Write Out, MB to a year-long celebration of writing, making, and sharing inspired by being outdoors. 

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We invite you to participate by submitting a photo essay exploring our relationships with water and issues of water (in)justice. Have you ever thought about how water connects us to every living thing around us? Where and how do you notice water in your life every day? What do you know about the water you drink, and where it comes from? How well do you know the rivers and creeks and lakes that you might live near, play in/on, move along, or travel across? Where does that water come from and where does it go? What fish, animals, and plants call that water home, or rely on that water to live? Do you know how healthy that water is? What happens if that water becomes polluted or contaminated? What do you know about the forms water takes and how they cycle through our air, soil, food, and bodies? What are we doing to care for the water that gives us life?

 

As Leanne Betasamosake Simpson has written, 

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“Water is the network that facilitates communication and relationship between all forms of life. Water is a liminal space, always shifting between states. This network, Water, Nibi, is the container of life on our planet…. Every drop is all the water that has ever been on the planet. And all life shares this water.” (2025, p. 50-51) 

 

Water is life. 

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Autumn Peltier, an Anishinaabe Indigenous rights advocate and water activist from Wiikwemkong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, began advocating for clean drinking water, water rights, and water protection, early in her life. At the age of 18, Autumn became the Chief Water Protector for the Anishinaabek Nation. Autumn has explained that she grew up being taught to respect water, to understand that water is life, and thus, the responsibility we have to take care of water, not just for now, but for future generations: 

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“In our culture, we look at water as a living being, and we’re taught to treat it with the same respect we show another human. Water is the lifeblood of Mother Earth. It gives all life, and there is no life without it.” (Lindstrom, 2023, Foreword) 

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Individually and collectively, we hope the photos and essays submitted for Write Out, MB might offer ways for us to reflect on these questions: How do you understand your relationship with water? What does water mean to you? 

 

All you need to do is: 

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1. Take a photo of water. Have fun with this. Try experimenting with angle, distance, framing, perspective, and lighting as a photographer. Consider your audience and what you are hoping they might see, feel, or understand by looking at your photo. Please do not include people in your photo. Give your photo a title! 

2. Write about your photo. Your writing can take any form or combination of forms that you’d like (e.g., poem, reflection, personal essay, narrative, tribute). Your piece can be just a few words or longer (although we recommend keeping your writing to about 250 words for publishing purposes). You are welcome to write in one or more languages. Please keep your writing appropriate for a range of audiences. 

3. Send your photo and essay as attachments in an email to: ManitobaWriting.Project@umanitoba.ca. In the subject line, please specify: “Write Out Ripple Effects Photo Essay.” 

4. Complete the consent form. To have your photo and writing included in our digital archive, website, and/or a future installation, please complete this form: Write Out Ripple Effects Online Consent Form – Fill out form 

 

If you are interested in ideas for teaching or learning about issues of water (in)justice or in connecting with educators who are teaching about issues of water and water (in)justice, please see the Ripple Effects Place projects developed by educators in our 2025 Summer Writing Institute, under the “Ripple Effects Projects” tab. 

 

The Manitoba Writing Project is grateful to have several partnerships and collaborators in this work: 

 

• Ripple Effects International is an arts, education, and sustainability project involving schools, libraries, universities, and community organizations to promote climate change awareness and community literacy through photo essays from people around the globe. 

• Just Waters: Thinking with Hydro-Social Relations for a More Just and Sustainable World is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the University of Manitoba and supported by the Centre for Human Rights Research.

• Write Out is an initiative of the National Writing Project that encourages everyone to get outside and write and create.