Arawaka, NM
Vision & Beginning
The water cycle is an integral part of the cycle of life on Earth, and the preciousness of water is felt strongly in the high desert of New Mexico. Its gentle presence brings flourishing life.
Sadly, human activities, such as deforestation, overgrazing, and industrialization, have disrupted the water cycle -around the world. Water that falls to the Earth needs to be received in such a way that it can slowly soak in and permeate the Earth, refilling groundwater reserves - rather than running off quickly, which contributes to erosion, drought and climate change.
Arawaka’s semi-arid home in Northern New Mexico has suffered severe erosion since the late 1800’s, when incoming American settlers’ unsustainable grazing practices severely damaged the native grassland ecosystem that had existed in this area for thousands of years.
For many years we dreamed of restoring our human role in caretaking the healthy, unbroken water cycle, including recharging the vital groundwater stores. This collaboration with our land started small and has steadily grown.
With this project, we invite the rainwater to permeate the land, to feed the grasses and trees, to move slowly down through rocks and branches, nourishing seeds that we scatter where water will gather. As the water continues its journey, it rests in pools, flows to Arawaka’s farmland and eventually to the Pecos River, making the journey to the ocean and then returning to the land in gentle drops of rain.
In the summer of 2017, after years of prayers and offerings, we laid our first stones: friends, neighbors, nourishers of life, children, elders, long-time community members and new faces, working side by side. Each year we have done a lot of work by hand, spreading branches, planting seeds, laying stone, and creating sloping mounds of soil in trails. Each of these gentle interventions slows the water in its downhill path so it has time to soak into the Earth-body. As more vegetation regrows, the plants also serve to slow the water and help it absorb deeper into the Earth.
Since that time, there have also been larger phases of the project which required heavy equipment - tractors, backhoes, and excavators - and we have eased into that level of change in partnership with the land: praying, explaining our intentions, and asking permission.
In the summer of 2022, after working in the upland areas and down a long arroyo system, we began planting pollinator and wildlife habitat in the lower area of the arroyo. In this current phase we are planting flowering herbaceous perennials which are native to our area along with a smaller number of native trees and shrubs. All of these plant relatives naturally provide food and shelter to pollinators and other animals and expand the diversity of native plants at Arawaka.
The vision of more abundant water is a physical embodiment of our continuous prayer for health and balance for all life. The water cycle is one of Earth’s manifestations of the sacred dance between the masculine and feminine.
With this project we are continually reaching out our hands to encounter, to learn, to remember and to move into a deeper and deeper relationship of love and understanding with the water and the Earth.
Ancient Technology
Many of the structures we are building come through archeological observation of structures built by the ancient people of the Southwest and the patient teachings of our soil and water conservation partner, the local agency Tierra y Montes. The hand structures we are learning to build are thoughtful, functional, sculptural and have been perfected over thousands of years--we see it as balanced technology.
Ancient people dealt with some of the same issues we do, like trail erosion and strong water flow--but a crucial difference is that between the time they were caretakers and now, there has been massive overgrazing and introduction of new plant species. With the vanishing native grasses and plants has come a loss of soil “sponginess”--the capacity for the earth to act like a sponge and soak up water during times of rainfall. It is this sponginess that keeps groundwater levels high, wetlands fed, and provides a buffer for maintaining balance.
In fact, the mesa to the east of Arawaka, where our Vision Quest forest is located,
used to be known as Blue Mesa, because of all the former wetland areas.
It was an important resting place for migrating birds.
We have a unique situation in this river valley in that we caretake the land from the top of a large arroyo, near our main center, all the way down to the Pecos River. This arroyo runs along our road and during heavy rain, floods the farmland. When the rain is strong, the water moves rapidly over the land and rushes into the arroyo, forming a fast flowing river. This river takes with it topsoil and nutrients from the land, ultimately depositing massive amounts of silt in the river valley.
The water project at Arawaka is being designed and implemented to restore the capacity of the land to receive the rain and to invite the water to permeate the earth through building water-slowing structures and reestablishing native plants, which allow life in this high desert land to flourish.
Ripples
Because so many people come to Arawaka throughout the year, including many who are leaders in their own communities, our Water Project also inspires others to take steps toward healing with the land and the water where they live.