The 7th OU International WaTER Conference Banquet and University of Oklahoma International Water Prize Award Ceremony took place Monday evening, September 26 from 6:30-9 pm at the First Americans Museum.
During this event, Dr. Martin-Hill was awarded the 2022 OU International Water Prize and gave the plenary address.
104 people attended this informative and grand gathering of stellar international WaSH professionals and caring individuals who celebrate clean water and our healthy world.
The seventh biennial OU International Water Conference was held on September 26-27, 2022. This conference was virtual with 104 registrants presenting on and discussing topics such as engineering with nature, hydrology and water security, water for disadvantaged populations, wastewater epidemiology, water resources and climate change, and household water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH). An in-person Prize banquet was held with 128 people in attendance at the beautiful First Americans Museum (FAM) in Oklahoma City.
Monday, Sept. 26 and Tuesday, Sept. 27
Virtual Conference
Randall Kolar: Welcome Remarks and Keynote #1
10:45 – 11:30 am CDT Keynote #2
Final Networking for WaTER Conference
Monday, Sept. 26
Banquet | 6:30-9 pm
Dr. Ana Barros
Department Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering
University of Illinois
Dr. Upmanu Lall
Director of the Columbia Water Center
Professor of Engineering and Chair of the Department of Earth & Environmental Engineering
Columbia University
Merrell-Ann Phare
Phare Law Corporation
International Joint Commission
Aondover Tarhule
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Illinois State University
Dr. Callist Tindimugaya
Department Head
Water Resources Planning and Regulation
Dr. Martin-Hill’s research examines the impact of contamination and water scarcity on humans, fish and wildlife at Six Nations of the Grand River. She says the community’s water treatment plant pipeline reaches only 10% of the community, yet the reservation is surrounded by major cities Toronto, Hamilton and Brantford, she says.
“Those cities have access to clean water and we do not. I would like to see that changed,” Martin-Hill said. The WaTER Center is proud to award her with this prestigious prize.
Dawn Martin-Hill is a storyteller, because it is in stories where the truth lies. She tells one story of leading a water ceremony out on the west coast of the U.S. One participant brought a pottery bowl that was engraved with “Water is Life” in many different languages. That bowl is a symbol of Dawn’s lifework – to honor and celebrate the sacramental gift that water is to all peoples using the stories and myths of her culture, the Haudenosaunee peoples of Canada’s Six Nations of the Grand River. The two-row wampum belt is another symbol that expresses a journey of two cultures who travel down the river together, side by side, without trying to steer one another. Surrounded by the Great Lakes, Dawn’s tribal culture is defined and nourished by freshwater. She says that “our entire way of life is governed by water. It is spiritual, it is cultural, it is our identity. When you take that away from us, you are literally taking away our culture.” Traditional indigenous knowledge is relayed through oral tradition, primarily from stories, arts, crafts, and ceremonies, all done in the indigenous language. Under colonization, the residential schools outlawed the indigenous language, and yet indigenous knowledge about water and ecology is embedded in the native language. When the language is lost, so is the indigenous knowledge. Thus, Dawn’s integrated teams of elders, youth, biologists, scientists, and engineers present their work in bilingual format.
At the banquet, Dawn was honored with the 2022 OU International Water Prize. Dawn is an Indigenous (Haudenosaunee) woman, a cultural anthropologist, and an associate professor at McMaster University. In addition, she is a mother who raised her girls in a home with periods of no running water. Using grants from the Global Water Futures, she and her students from McMaster University have developed indigenous water quality tools to monitor and assess the rich water life that surrounds them. Her research examines the sources of water contamination on both Six Nations and the Lubicon Cree in Alberta. At the Prize banquet, Dawn spoke of her passionate commitment to study and improve the health impacts of water quality on people and animals that live in both communities. She presented her work in water as relationship, not utility alone. Dawn is committed to understanding how water quality and security are linked to Indigenous community culture, livelihood, and health, all important in pursuit of future water security. Water is life . . . to all peoples.
