VOICES

Acequias are community centered networks of irrigation ditches. Generally used in dryland, steppe ecologies, the systems utilize the hydrology of mountain ‘water towers’, directing flow across hillsides to grow food and fodder. This method broadens alluvial plains as a rare form of agriculture that benefits the ecology while feeding humans and raising livestock. Because it maintains water in the commons, it is an important antithesis to increasing threats of water privatization. Acequias are promoted as a scientifically proven and time-tested way to mitigate the desertification component in climate change. It maintains water tables and keeps rivers flowing. This project traces the origins of the practice, beyond ‘Moorish Spain’ to re-cognize how maintaining water in the commons is a sacred practice that migrated across MENA countries from Persia over the course of four thousand years. It follows the migration of the methods through Spain and on to the Americas, connecting Acequia communities through visual storytelling, poetry and conversations around the shared table in order to offer potential ways we can utilize this ancient practice in navigating a changing world.

Created on a residency at Green Olive Arts in Tetouan, Morocco 2022