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Friends, Two weeks ago, Aaron went up in a Cessna with Wil Henkle, a WWU graduate student and whitewater kayaker, to film the Nooksack from above. A few days later he filmed Jay Julius of Lummi Nation fishing in the San Juan Islands. Last week, before sunrise, he stood outside a barn interviewing the Steensma family while their cows were milked. From the air, the river looks alive. It cuts through steep canyons, shifts across old gravel, and slows through the floodplain on its way to Bellingham Bay. From the ground, the story is more crowded: treaty rights, water rights, milking schedules, shrinking glaciers, fish counts, flood lines, summer low flows. Both views hold important truths, and I believe we need practice holding them together. That practice is our work. We go to the river, set a table, show films of our community in this work, hang a painting, and invite people with very different stakes in this place to sit down over salmon and potatoes. More than 150 people have done that with us over the past few years. Trust gets made at those tables, and any durable solutions this watershed reaches will depend on it. Some of these stories are told by the people who live them, some by film and paint, and some we make together around those tables. On November 13, we'll screen films from the project alongside reflections from community members. On November 19 we premiere We Are Not Enemies, a 30 minute documentary of hope and cooperation on the Nooksack River, alongside three new paintings, local music, poetry, sculpture, and facilitated conversations. Come to either or both. Listen to your neighbors' stories of this river, share your own, and tell us what we've missed. Registration is required and space is limited. Details are below. Much love and respect, The W̶a̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶W̶a̶r̶s̶ (how to avoid) team: Aaron, Christopher, Ethan, and Jeff
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