Striving toward reconciliation through the co-creation of water research

… abundant material prosperity has come at the expense of unprecedented exploitation of human and material resources and the degradation of the environment. This vision of development comes from a people who have yet to envision an identity and a cosmological connection with the natural world. The vision is generated by an image without substance, technique without soul, and knowledge without context [emphasis added]. The crisis we as peoples of this world face may ultimately lead to a social, cultural, and ecological catastrophe. The people of the Americas must come to grips with who they are, develop a spiritual connection with the natural world, and learn to associate with others in a multicultural surrounding. (Longboat, 2004, pp. 351–352)