March 14: A Day for Action for Rivers – and for Creativity
It takes a certain level of creativity to get out from behind your desk and take any sort of action on March 14. Every year I found myself amazed by the creative energies displayed by our partners and friends that fight for rivers and justice around the world.
Groups in Burma, Thailand and China often get kids involved, painting pictures and writing river poems, which is lovely. Turkish activists once climbed to the top of a mountain and spelled out their message in the snow to demonstrate the link between mountain headwaters and our rivers and oceans. European activists do great street theatre. Defenders of Patagonia only have to stand next to one of their rivers to create a stunning visual.
My all time favorite creative March 14 event was a poetry slam we held at our California office. A young poet named Abe wrote and performed a series of poems; I was especially moved by his poem dedicated to Juan Pablo Orrego, a Chilean activist and long-time friend of International Rivers.
In 2003, we partnered with Craig Tucker at Friends of the River to host a New Orleans-style jazz funeral for the zombie Auburn Dam. We were celebrating the recent decision to close the diversion tunnel, and finally put to rest the repeatedly proposed project. The event was complete with a coffin-carrying funeral march through the town of Auburn, a performance by the band Mumbo Gumbo, T-shirts, posters and Mardi Gras fish beads for everyone. Our funeral ended on a happy note: the Auburn Dam was never built!
I also love when groups make human chains; these are especially popular in South Asia. For example, there was a 220km human chain to save Bangladesh's Baral River in 2013. They also translated the Day of Action for Rivers logo into Bengali that year. We are always very excited to see the logo in other languages, because that consistency of imagery across events helps to reinforce that we represent a unified movement.
Any action that involves boats is fun; we’ve seen our share, including actions that included naked Russians, and kayak stars. Any protest that generates a great visual is exciting to me, because people might pay more attention, and learn about the importance of healthy rivers and the threats posed by large dams that communities are actively telling you they do not want. For example, there was a great image of bodies spelling out “Viva Nile” next to the river at Bujagali Falls from a few years back.
Many activists, particularly in the US, tend to rely heavily on facts and intellect to push for change. If we want people outside of our movements to feel differently and behave differently and believe differently, we have to connect with their emotions, and connect with their rivers. Art, photographs, music, dance, poetry and creative action are all effective ways to connect with people emotionally, and remind them why they love rivers.
Last year, we launched the Every River Has A Story, a project I love. Every river story is a creative masterpiece to me.
This year, we will be once again calling upon our partners, allies and friends from around the world to share their River Story. You can send us your story or read some of the stories.
Exciting events are being planned around the world for the 2014 International Day of Action for Rivers. Groups in South Africa, Peru and India have already begun sharing their plans, with more events being planned every day. We hope you’ll join in the action and plan an event to celebrate your local river!
