Chapter 11: Lifeline, A Water Storytelling Project
A community of stars....
The Lifeline project’s constellation of collaborating “stars” keeps growing. A few months ago, I returned to the Po River Delta in Italy and immediately reached out to my new friends Giovanna and Oscarina (you may remember their deeply moving water story of true friendship and sisterhood between these two members of the only all-female team in their local fishing consortium, as told in Chapter 3. ) I couldn’t help but smile when I saw that they both happened to be wearing clothing sparkling and sprinkled with stars on night sky blue (see photo below) that day. That can’t be mere coincidence!
When I interviewed them last July, they faced the very urgent threat to the biodiversity of the local ecosystem and to their livelihood, the invasive, explosively multiplying and highly destructive Blue Crab /“Granchio Blu”, which has no predators there. It is believed to have arrived via the waters released from a shipping hull and it has wreaked havoc ever since. In the months since our visit, Oscarina and Giovanna’s fears have become reality, forcing them to put their fishing boat into storage and find other work, along with thousands of other families in this area.
I wondered how locals were adapting and developing new ways of dealing with these issues. Oscarina and Giovanna generously connected me with Nicola Baroni , who has been working with his father, uncle and cousin to cultivate mussels and oysters in the Po River Delta since he was 18 years old (now he is 28). He is part of a young generation of determined environmentalists dedicated to sustainability and reciprocity with our sacred waterways and to finding new ways to navigate in these challenging times, with climate change, invasive species and the delicate balance between acqua dolce from the Po River ( fresh water) and acqua salata ( from the Adriatic Sea) that makes this estuary’s ecosystem so rich.
Next he took us into the Po Delta’s labyrinth, to share more about this fragile ecosystem, a home to 370 bird species and 400 species of fish, while sharing his concerns about an ever-changing environment facing new and dramatic challenges due to climate change, changing temperatures and tidal fluctuations.
In my Lifeline project, the Po’s network of braided channels, like lifelines, inspire the weaving together of the vital but underrepresented voices of both the river itself and those working to protect, support and honor its life-giving, life-sustaining and life-regenerative energy. Themes of interconnectedness run throughout Lifeline reminding us that we are stronger together when united for a common cause. I’m grateful to Nicola for sharing his story, intertwined with that of the breathtaking Po River Delta. And I am grateful to Marcella Ferrari, my adventurous project manager.
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Love,
MM
Amazing - love this so much.
The Photography is fabulous and emphasizes your beautiful words describing the area and its issues. Thank you for sharing.