How Water Writes Us: Stitching Memory & Connection to Place by Jacintha Antonio

Purpose and Guiding Question

How Water Writes Us: Stitching Memory and Connection to Place is a place-based,

multimodal storytelling project designed for Grade 7 and 8 Home Economics learners at École Waterford Springs School in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Most learners in these classrooms identify as Filipino or Indian and are newcomers to Canada. This project invites them to reflect on their own and others’ cultural relationships to water. That is, how it connects, sustains, and carries memory.

Through walking, writing, photography, and embroidery, learners respond to the guiding

question: We all have a connection to water… what is it?

Project Summary

Set on Treaty 1 territory, the project takes place near a pond by the school and at Little

Mountain Park. These outdoor spaces become classrooms where learners slow down, notice, and reflect on how water shapes the physical land and their personal stories through photography and journalling. The images are then photo transferred onto canvas and stitched with thread, symbols, and words, transforming everyday experiences into works of art. Learners explore family memories such as boiling tea, washing clothes, surviving floods, or celebrating cultural rituals.

How Water Writes Us includes a collaboration between École Waterford Springs and

Shaughnessy Park School, located just minutes away but with a predominantly Indigenous student population. After Waterford Springs learners have written reflective letters and created their stitched photo pieces, they are displayed in a school gallery walk. Shaughnessy Park learners are invited to view the exhibit and respond with their own reflections, stories, and letters. Community Elders and family members are also invited to share their teachings about water.

How Water Writes Us blends writing with care, culture, and connection. Learners are not

just acquiring knowledge on how to write - they are learning to write with purpose, with place, and with each other. Drawing from decolonial, relational, and arts-based pedagogy, the project challenges traditional approaches to literacy by inviting embodied and multimodal expression. Writing becomes a form of noticing, of feeling, and of witnessing each other’s stories.

As climate change, cultural disconnection, and inequality increase, learners need opportunities to imagine a more relational and sustainable world. By reflecting on their

relationships to water and sharing across cultural and community lines, they will learn to honour differences and commonalities. How Water Writes Us helps young writers understand that they are always writing in relation to land, to one another, and to the stories that flow between them.

Sample Activities Include:

• Nature walks, journaling, and memory mapping

• Photographing everyday water moments

• Image transfer onto canvas and embroidery

• Sharing circles and anti-racist peer writing workshops

• Collaborative quilt-style gallery exhibit with written pieces

• Letter exchanges between schools