Rivers as Bridges
The River Spirit Exchange is a cross-cultural
event for college students to share our knowledge about rivers inherited
from our ancestors and to explore new experiences that will connect us for the
future. Through camping, storytelling, and outdoor educational excursions, the
exchange will focus on linking the river cultures of China and the U.S. This
experience on May 16, 17 and 18 in Wisconsin and Iowa will provide a channel
for creating a social network among future leaders around the globe. The
tentative itinerary includes a visit to the Ho Chunk buffalo grounds and effigy
mounds with a ceremonial presentation, adventures on 3 Midwest rivers, a
night's sleep on the historical Steamboat William M. Black, and a tour of the
International Crane Foundation and Dubuque River Museum. This trip will be free
to participants.
The River Spirit Exchange is a pilot project of
"Rivers as Bridges" a project to connect the Yangtze and
Mississippi Rivers by sharing stories and information about people's lives,
work and dependence water. It is a sister-river strategy that
recognizes that knowledge, beliefs, culture and political economy have shaped
and have been shaped the the environment. Rivers are integral to this
shaping because they are civilization's cultural estuaries and mainstays of
humankind's survival. Rivers as
Bridges complements the search by the government,
non-government and private sectors to find new models for sustaining the
world's working river systems.
