First and foremost, gentle care and reconciliatory acts of healing, which is what this project is proposing; passive and gentle cleansing that can give oxygen, water, and nutrients back to the environment. Constructed wetland treatment systems could give rivers their cleansing force again, and if handled transparently and honorably, could also help balance community/project collaborations. Concealing information whether between industry and communities, or natural and social scientists working together breaks trust, reinforces negative colonial and capitalist patterns, and devalues project validity inside and outside the project for all participants.
Modern society’s communication expectations, international environmental knowledge sharing, and the crisis state of our climate demand real change in how scientists, government, and industry proceed with designing and building projects. The G.R.O.W. project proposal is situated in the world’s largest and most mechanically aggressive oil extraction site executed on Treaty 8 and 10 Territories of the Denesuline, Woodland Cree, and Chipewyan First Nations, Inuvialuit people of the NWT, and the Homelands of Alberta Métis Districts 5 and 6, and is inseparable from Canada’s responsibility to reconcile the traumatic effects of systemic colonial genocide and land theft. Tailings pond water remediation is imperative. “For each barrel of bitumen produced through surface mining operations, roughly 2.6 barrels of fresh water are needed to strip the bitumen from the recovered bitumen-rich subsurface sand. As a result, over 1 billion m3 (2019) of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) has been produced and detained in large tailings ponds covering an area greater than 250 km2” (Alberta Energy Regulator, 2020 as cited by Dr Alexander M. Cancelli, 2022). Recent changes, such as the law that all impact assessment projects must consider social, cultural, and health impacts to inform decision-making and Bill C-68 to protect our waters are critical actions toward a better water world, but are being challenged in and outside this project. Having the social scientist team on the G.R.O.W. project made it possible for an artist to be included as a researcher within the workings of a national oil sands design project- despite the challenges expected with such a change, this is an incredible step forward for the industry, natural scientists, the field of research creation, and the project in general towards trans-disciplinarity and developing an accessible means of communication and transparency. Equalling the footing for all disciplines and affected communities within this project can have a reconciliatory effect and ensure voices are heard in decision-making. Environmental projects with the best intentions can perpetuate ongoing colonial environmental and social violations when following “top-down” decision-making mindsets, particularly when project leads are linked to academic and industry funding structures. The ongoing opportunity to work as independent, equally valuable, disciplines with professional methods and output is essential.
Prioritizing the inclusion of Indigenous researchers and honoring affected community input and engagement can help steer large bioremediation projects to work within the needs and approval of the place it operates within. As articulated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action, the many journeys towards reconciliation demand clear and honest communication with all rights- and stakeholders, and scientist to scientist, and scientist to partners. Lack of communication and inclusion affects relations with Indigenous communities based on socio-political histories, and more contemporary events, such as the May 19, 2022 Imperial Oil Ltd. seepage event at the Kearl site on Treaty 8 territory. This research creation statement and art exhibit are not only about water and remediation or relaying the findings of the scientific collaborators; it’s a call to action – a call to confront uncomfortable truths about extraction and interdisciplinarity, to forge trans-sectoral responsibilities and envision a world where curiosity, compassion, and justice prevail over industrial apathy and moral vacuousness. It seems like an insurmountable issue, but it starts with communicating facts in an accessible way for communities, academics, and industry to allow equally informed and independent working relations.