Emergent Seas (ES) is a Great Lakes storying collective that nurtures stories of repair and responsibility by radically relating across borders, honoring Indigenous lifeways, inspiring artful transformation, and imagining ancient futures of belonging. ES emerged from Great Lakes Commons, a grassroots effort to establish the Great Lakes as shared and sacred waters that all protect in perpetuity. ES follows in the footsteps of water walkers, treaty walkers, water protectors, and water justice warriors by using prayer, ceremony, citizen science, and artful action to reclaim water relations from structures of extraction and subjugation. Through theatre, cinema, literary art, music, counter-cartography, counter-memorials, and visual art, ES helps draw attention to emergent possibilities within/between state-manufactured emergencies of water poisoning, water shut-offs, water extraction, and wetland destruction, and strives to heal the haunted histories in the lands we call home.
Land of Stories Performance, Puppet Design by Sam Zimmerman. Photo: Krista Gardner
ES collaborates with archivists, authors, historians, playwrights, and environmentalists who aim to restore water sovereignty. ES is led by a team of seven artists and educators that co-develop projects; as well, an advisory council of seven teachers and water protectors guide the spiritual work of the collective. The Great Lakes Carnival, sailing in 2026 and 2027 during the 250th Anniversary of the U.S. and 160th Anniversary of Canada, is a multidisciplinary storytelling migration that aims to celebrate Great Lakes peoples, cultures, and histories; and imagine livable futures of ecological respect and reciprocity. Previous projects include a shadow puppet performance and curriculum called Land of Stories with stories by Ojibwe authors about Indian boarding school; a feature film Birchbark, about Ojibwe and Karelian relationships to the birch tree; BLISTERED, a documentary series exploring hidden histories of Cloquet, MN; and a multicultural water ceremony called River Stories.
The Water Puppet, by Becca DeWitt, helps children understand the sacredness of water and the need to protect it at the River Stories annual gathering, August 2024. Photo: David Kenedy