Stories of Resilience: Water
Indigenous women across the Prairies
Across the Canadian Prairies, water carries memory, identity, responsibility, and life. Yet the voices of those most deeply connected to it are often absent from climate and water policy discussions.
Key Messages
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The historical variability of the Canadian Prairies climate, coupled with anticipated changes in temperature, precipitation, and extreme storms, is shaping decision making related to water supply, health, and security.
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Underserved and vulnerable populations exist across the Prairies, especially in many Indigenous and rural communities where access to support is inadequate and ongoing challenges to water infrastructure persist.
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Effective collaboration among the many beneficiaries of fresh water across the Prairies is a moral imperative. It will help to avoid exacerbating existing social and structural inequalities and ensure we pave the way for a just and equitable future—where no one suffers due to water scarcity.
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Water is far more than a resource to manage for human benefit. The stories shared by participants in this project speak of rivers as lifelines, lakes as relatives, and water as a living being that connects families, cultures, and generations.
Across the Canadian Prairies, water carries memory, identity, responsibility, and life. Yet the voices of those most deeply connected to it are often absent from climate and water policy discussions.
Through Stories of Resilience: Water, the Natural Infrastructure for Water Solutions (NIWS) initiative and The Resilience Institute (TRI) are helping change that. This digital story map brings forward the experiences of Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people from across Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba—sharing deeply personal reflections on water, climate change, stewardship, and resilience.
The stories reveal water as far more than infrastructure or a resource to manage. Participants speak of rivers as lifelines, lakes as relatives, and water as a living being that connects families, cultures, and generations. They also describe the growing pressures facing Prairie communities, from drought and wildfire to ecosystem loss and changing watersheds, while highlighting community-led responses rooted in Indigenous knowledge, restoration, and care for the land.
For the International Institute for Sustainable Development, this work is part of a broader effort to support more inclusive and resilient water futures across the Prairies. By elevating voices too often overlooked in environmental decision making, Stories of Resilience: Water challenges us to rethink our relationship with water—and with each other.
Like tributaries flowing into a larger watershed, each story contributes to a growing collective understanding of what resilience can look like in a changing climate.
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