Theory of Water By Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
KPU Wild Spaces and the Climate+ Challenge and KPU Library invite you to join us for a virtual book club where we discuss Theory of Water by Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg artist and academic Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.
Winner of the 2025 Hilary Weston Wrtiers’ Trust Prize and a national bestseller, this powerful book reimagines water as a healing and environmental source of connection and change.
“Water is the network that facilitates communication and relationship between all forms of life."
In Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead, Simpson explores our deep interdependence with other beings, decentering humans, what rivers can teach us, and systemic reciprocity. She also emphasizes the importance of addressing Canada’s colonial past, learning from Elders, and centering land-based practices.
What might it mean to truly listen to water?
Simpson uses the process of sintering, in which individual grains of snow fuse together to form a solid pack, as a metaphor of overcoming the individualism of Western society and connecting with place and people. "Sintering is bonding, it’s building coalitions with your neighbours.” Sintering creates possibilities and is “a crucial collective work in creating constellations of co-resistance."
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg writer, academic and musician, and one of Canada’s most important Indigenous voices.
A powerful statement of social justice and Indigenous Sovereignty, her 2025 book Theory of Waterbook challenges the way we think and act in the world.
The book club will be hosted by Lee Beavington (Learning Strategist, Wild Spaces, former Climate+ Challenge Fellow) and Mark Vardy (Criminology, former Climate+ Challenge Fellow). For more information and to register, please visit: Meeting Link
Event Details
Title: Climate+ Challenge Book Club: Theory of Water
When: Thursday, March 26, 12pm-1pm (PST)
Where: Online, via Microsoft Teams (Register)
Event description: Join Climate + Challenge Fellows Lee Beavington and Sue Fairburn, for an informal, online discussion about Theory of Water by Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg artist and academic Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Everyone is welcome!
Questions?
Contact Celia at celia.brinkerhoff@kpu.ca or Ask the library.
Past Climate+ Challenge Books
Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane
The Right To Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet by Sheila Watt-Cloutier
Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility, edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young Lutunatabua
Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, by John Vaillant
Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis, by Britt Wray.
The Ministry for the Future, by Kim Stanley Robinson.
The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet, by Leah Thomas.
The citizen's guide to climate success: overcoming myths that hinder progress, by Mark Jaccard.