Buried in the boggy edges of the island of Anglesey’s sacred lake, Lyn Cerrig Bach, a treasure hoard of precious metal and jewelled artefacts, was discovered in 2020. They date from the Roman conquest of Wales and the submission of the Druids between 60 and 77 CE. Tacitus’s account is well worth a read. The objects were deemed as offerings to the water goddess. They illustrate how watery locations were viewed as significant places, serving as portals for ritual ceremonies during times of tumult and change. More significantly, the origin stories of almost all pantheons have the world and mankind emerging from water. The Kogi Indians of Colombia believe that the beginning of Life is only Night, Mother, and Water. And for the Koyukon Indians of Alaska, the water coursing through their villages is so integral that the Cardinal directions were named by which way the river flows. It is not “north” or “south” but “upstream” or “downstream”. And among Algonquin, Haudenosaunee, Ojibwe, and Cree traditions, the Earth Diver or Turtle Island myth tells of a primordial world of only water and sky, from which Sky Woman fell before the muskrat brought up mud that grew upon Turtle’s back to form North America.
What do these stories have to do with wine and water? They tell us what is at the core of Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) … that the cultural, spiritual and social aspects are as important as the practical applications of knowledge to the natural world. This is the missing link in our modern relationship with water: we no longer worship it, but rather commodify it.
At the heart of the Indigenous sustainability model is the concept of balance. In Drawdown, the authors outline the five objectives of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (a subset of IKS): the indigenous view of water ownership (communal); their practice of leaving a biodiversity surplus, so “minimum necessary yield” is more important than “maximum sustained yield”; their creation of biodiversity to create ecological sustainability; an adherence to Natural Laws (no messing with nature/GMOs, etc.); and use of incentives for wealth distribution.
The importance and efficacy of Indigenous practices cannot be overstated. The fact is that Indigenous peoples have been very able guardians of the Earth for much longer than the Europeans. Again, from Drawdown (p.127) in the context of indigenous land management, I quote: “Indigenous peoples have secure land tenure on 1.3 billion acres globally (18% of all land area), though they live on and manage much more. Our analysis assumes higher rates of carbon sequestration and lower rates of deforestation on lands managed by indigenous peoples. If forestland under secure tenure grows by 909 million acres by 2050, reduced deforestation could result in 6.1 gigatons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided”. We have much to learn.
Water conservation methods can be updated and re-adopted. There is the assumption that most Indigenous agricultural practices are only effective in the context of small farms and small land parcels and that they would not apply to larger-scale commercial crops. What is missing is the knowledge and incentive to do so. A further assumption is that such methods are incompatible with creating large yields; however, reducing freshwater use and improving soil health by using IKS, eventually leads to increased yields.
I see a future in which wine production may ironically, once again, become an industry dominated by small, traditional farmers. The large industrial players may not survive the water wars. In this case, IKS would be a perfect fit. And I’m exploring how …