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Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead
A genre-bending exploration of that most elemental force—water—through Indigenous storytelling, personal memory, and the work of influential artists and writers
For many years, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson took solace in skiing—in all kinds of weather, on all kinds of snow across all kinds of terrain, often following the trail beside a beloved creek near her home. Recently, as she skied on this path against the backdrop of uncertainty, environmental devastation, rising authoritarianism and ongoing social injustice, her mind turned to the water in the creek and an elemental What might it mean to truly listen to water? To know water? To exist with and alongside water?
So began a quest to understand her people's historical, cultural, and ongoing interactions with water in all its forms (ice, snow, rain, perspiration, breath). Pulling together these threads, Leanne began to see how a "Theory of Water" might suggest a radical rethinking of relationships between beings and forces in the world today. In this inventive work, Simpson draws on Nishnaabeg origin stories while artfully weaving the work of influential writers and artists alongside her personal memories and experience—and in doing so, reimagines water as a catalyst for radical transformation, capable of birthing a new world.
Theory of Water is a resonant exploration of an intricate, multi-layered relationship with the most abundant element on our planet—one that, as Simpson eloquently shows, is shaping our present even as it demands a radical rethinking of how we might achieve a just future.
For many years, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson took solace in skiing—in all kinds of weather, on all kinds of snow across all kinds of terrain, often following the trail beside a beloved creek near her home. Recently, as she skied on this path against the backdrop of uncertainty, environmental devastation, rising authoritarianism and ongoing social injustice, her mind turned to the water in the creek and an elemental What might it mean to truly listen to water? To know water? To exist with and alongside water?
So began a quest to understand her people's historical, cultural, and ongoing interactions with water in all its forms (ice, snow, rain, perspiration, breath). Pulling together these threads, Leanne began to see how a "Theory of Water" might suggest a radical rethinking of relationships between beings and forces in the world today. In this inventive work, Simpson draws on Nishnaabeg origin stories while artfully weaving the work of influential writers and artists alongside her personal memories and experience—and in doing so, reimagines water as a catalyst for radical transformation, capable of birthing a new world.
Theory of Water is a resonant exploration of an intricate, multi-layered relationship with the most abundant element on our planet—one that, as Simpson eloquently shows, is shaping our present even as it demands a radical rethinking of how we might achieve a just future.
224 pages, Hardcover
Published April 22, 2025
About the author
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
26 books1,149 followersLeanne Betasamosake Simpson is a renowned Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer and artist, who has been widely recognized as one of the most compelling Indigenous voices of her generation. Her work breaks open the intersections between politics, story and song—bringing audiences into a rich and layered world of sound, light, and sovereign creativity.
Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada and the United States and has twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba, and teaches at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh.
Leanne is the author of six previous books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was long listed for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. Her latest book, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2017, and was awarded Best Subsequent Book by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Her new novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies is was release this fall by the House of Anansi Press.
Leanne is also a musician combining poetry, storytelling, song-writing and performance in collaboration with musicians to create unique spoken songs and soundscapes. Leanne's third record, The Theory of Ice will be released in 2021.
Leanne is a member of Alderville First Nation.
Working for two decades as an independent scholar using Nishnaabeg intellectual practices, Leanne has lectured and taught extensively at universities across Canada and the United States and has twenty years experience with Indigenous land based education. She holds a PhD from the University of Manitoba, and teaches at the Dechinta Centre for Research & Learning in Denendeh.
Leanne is the author of six previous books, including This Accident of Being Lost, which won the MacEwan University Book of the Year; was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award; was long listed for CBC Canada Reads; and was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and Quill & Quire. Her latest book, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2017, and was awarded Best Subsequent Book by the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Her new novel Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies is was release this fall by the House of Anansi Press.
Leanne is also a musician combining poetry, storytelling, song-writing and performance in collaboration with musicians to create unique spoken songs and soundscapes. Leanne's third record, The Theory of Ice will be released in 2021.
Leanne is a member of Alderville First Nation.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews
August 12, 2025
Over a decade ago when a plan to lay an oil pipeline under the Mississippi led to a protest encampment near the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota many of us became aware of the slogan Mni Wiconi – Water is Life (or Mní Wičhóni as some orthography has it). For many, this awareness came late and after many years of action by water protectors, while for most of it seemed that ‘water is life’ functioned as a literal and instrumental statement. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s superbly layered and in places subtle exploration of water not as an instrumental need but as ontology, as a way of being, shows just how misguided and short sighted that instrumentalism is – all without any direct commentary on Standing Rock or ways it was discussed in settler worlds. This an elegantly crafted unpacking of the meaning of water and water as meaning, and while able to be read metaphorically, only to do so would be to miss the point.
We know water is pervasive, present in all environments and making up much of the planet’s mass (about 70%), that about 60% of human bodies are water, that only a tiny proportion of it – the ‘fresh’ kind (as less than 3% of the total mass of water) – is usable to sustain human life, and that the first water molecule is (almost certainly) still in existence – but Simpson is not so much concerned with this question of use, but of presence, of connection, of flow – literally, metaphorically, and figuratively. For some time, in much of her more recent work – such as As We Have Always Done and Rehearsals for Living – she has been developing the notion of constellations of co-resistance, and reading this through that lens it becomes a case for the ways those constellations form, link, interact, and associate.
Much of the shape of the book is provided through stories about and reflections on her work and relationship with her mentor, advisor, co-worker, and friend Curve Lake Elder Doug Williams who passed away not long before she began work on this book. Williams appears in stories in other pieces of her work, but here she becomes more reflective, weaving Williams more rigorously into the narrative, making this also a tribute to him, his work, his insight and learning of and about Nishnaabe ways of being and knowing. She is careful to make clear this is an Anishnaabe approach, in places drawing key comparisons with and distinction from other Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Other parts of the case are built through discussions of other work, with artists and musicians, water and land protectors, teaching, learning, exploring space and place, and the problems of getting to important places when settlers demarcate them as ‘owned’. Elsewhere there are poignant discussions of looking at the world from the water – from lakes and rivers – and the meaning of coasts, as well as the many stories of origin, many of which centre on water.
This means the tone varies, shifting from what seems at times like reminiscence and reflection to more direct commentary, building an ontology based in – at a surface level at least –what appears to be two concepts. The first is reciprocity linked to flow and accountability, so flow – water’s never-ending movement – reciprocally replenishes. The second is not a characteristic of water as such but of snow, where every snowflake, unique and distinctive as it is, melds to its environment when it lands through a process of sintering, which she presents as “living in a way that bonded them to the different life forms with whom they were sharing time and space”. (p24)
Again, here, Simpson mediates a subtle line between the metaphorical and the literal, where this ontology, this practice, of sintering means weaving oneself into a collective, a “fabric of life”. This literal meaning is then expanded to the figurative, where
Sintering builds networks, and the significance of networks, she shows compellingly, is in their connections, not their hubs; it is not the individuals but their relationships – a point she brings bluntly to the fore noting that “Colonialism … is about severing relationships – to each other, to our lands, to hope and to our futures”. (p179).
The philosopher in me wants to read this only a discussion of an Indigenous ontology – as that way of being that emphasises reciprocity, relationality and being positioned in a network of beings, human and non-human: there’s a not-very-well-hidden post-humanist demanding to be heard in my reading. But limiting this to that understanding would be an error – sintering is a collective effort of continuous transformation, of maintenance of networks, links and relations, which is where the constellation becomes important. Simpson’s case provides not only the ontological base for this approach, but also a moral and ethical one, a case for mutuality, for melding with allies and co-resistors, for action and the style of action, and through that for hope.
Simpson's case then, eloquently and unobtrusively made, is that mni wiconi, or mní wičhóni, is not just a life of being but one of acting, embodying practice, presence, and presencing to build a good life.
We know water is pervasive, present in all environments and making up much of the planet’s mass (about 70%), that about 60% of human bodies are water, that only a tiny proportion of it – the ‘fresh’ kind (as less than 3% of the total mass of water) – is usable to sustain human life, and that the first water molecule is (almost certainly) still in existence – but Simpson is not so much concerned with this question of use, but of presence, of connection, of flow – literally, metaphorically, and figuratively. For some time, in much of her more recent work – such as As We Have Always Done and Rehearsals for Living – she has been developing the notion of constellations of co-resistance, and reading this through that lens it becomes a case for the ways those constellations form, link, interact, and associate.
Much of the shape of the book is provided through stories about and reflections on her work and relationship with her mentor, advisor, co-worker, and friend Curve Lake Elder Doug Williams who passed away not long before she began work on this book. Williams appears in stories in other pieces of her work, but here she becomes more reflective, weaving Williams more rigorously into the narrative, making this also a tribute to him, his work, his insight and learning of and about Nishnaabe ways of being and knowing. She is careful to make clear this is an Anishnaabe approach, in places drawing key comparisons with and distinction from other Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Other parts of the case are built through discussions of other work, with artists and musicians, water and land protectors, teaching, learning, exploring space and place, and the problems of getting to important places when settlers demarcate them as ‘owned’. Elsewhere there are poignant discussions of looking at the world from the water – from lakes and rivers – and the meaning of coasts, as well as the many stories of origin, many of which centre on water.
This means the tone varies, shifting from what seems at times like reminiscence and reflection to more direct commentary, building an ontology based in – at a surface level at least –what appears to be two concepts. The first is reciprocity linked to flow and accountability, so flow – water’s never-ending movement – reciprocally replenishes. The second is not a characteristic of water as such but of snow, where every snowflake, unique and distinctive as it is, melds to its environment when it lands through a process of sintering, which she presents as “living in a way that bonded them to the different life forms with whom they were sharing time and space”. (p24)
Again, here, Simpson mediates a subtle line between the metaphorical and the literal, where this ontology, this practice, of sintering means weaving oneself into a collective, a “fabric of life”. This literal meaning is then expanded to the figurative, where
Sintering is fractal-like, expanding and contracting across scales. It is non-linear, iterative, transformative and adaptive. Sintering creates possibility. It is reflected in Indigenous practices of politics, economy and governance. And it is crucial collective work in creating constellations of co-resistance.
Sintering builds networks, and the significance of networks, she shows compellingly, is in their connections, not their hubs; it is not the individuals but their relationships – a point she brings bluntly to the fore noting that “Colonialism … is about severing relationships – to each other, to our lands, to hope and to our futures”. (p179).
The philosopher in me wants to read this only a discussion of an Indigenous ontology – as that way of being that emphasises reciprocity, relationality and being positioned in a network of beings, human and non-human: there’s a not-very-well-hidden post-humanist demanding to be heard in my reading. But limiting this to that understanding would be an error – sintering is a collective effort of continuous transformation, of maintenance of networks, links and relations, which is where the constellation becomes important. Simpson’s case provides not only the ontological base for this approach, but also a moral and ethical one, a case for mutuality, for melding with allies and co-resistors, for action and the style of action, and through that for hope.
Simpson's case then, eloquently and unobtrusively made, is that mni wiconi, or mní wičhóni, is not just a life of being but one of acting, embodying practice, presence, and presencing to build a good life.
May 19, 2025
A moving collection of essays from Indigenous author and activist about our relationship with water, the land and the environment, how we have a responsibility as stewards to respect the rivers, lakes and oceans and the risks of not doing so. She also touches on the MMIWG2S+ crisis, Residential school trauma and the genocide going on in Gaza with the starving of over 2 million people! Timely, important and impassioned, this was great on audio and highly recommended for fans of authors like Robin Wall Kimmerer.
June 16, 2025
An interesting cross-genre book on water and our relationship to and with it. I’ve read a bit — but fairly minimally — about Indigenous views on water before, and I felt like this was a really insightful examination that had me nodding along quite a bit at times or looking up additional books to read. There was an anecdote within where an Elder talked about how when they were younger their Elders warned them of a time when water would have to be purchased — now, we see water as so expensive, weaponized, political, etc. that imagining what it used to be like feels almost impossible. I appreciated especially the author’s discussions of colonialism in regard to how outside people sanitize Indigenous culture, e.g. ignoring or watering down Indigenous anti-landownership philosophies while simultaneously promoting Indigenous research into animal migration patterns. It commodifies their knowledge and experience in a way that is distasteful and had me reflecting on my place in reading this book and others like it.
I’d recommend this book to readers that enjoy learning about Indigenous philosophies and meditating on how water plays a role in modern conflicts.
This review was written with temporary free digital access to an ARC of the book. Thank you!
I’d recommend this book to readers that enjoy learning about Indigenous philosophies and meditating on how water plays a role in modern conflicts.
This review was written with temporary free digital access to an ARC of the book. Thank you!
June 9, 2025
The pleasantness of her writing and general honesty do disarm, but not enough to discourage strong wording against. I am reading for cultural and linguistic affinities in sources such as this, there are some new ones found and the bibliography can be of use, but overall on all that, plus the titular "theory", it is thin. She is honest admitting she may dissatisfy the spirit of her beloved mentor (whose book I am moved to read now) in reaching too international. Where she goes off the deep end I will give the most egregious example: Contemplating a certain photographic image of indigenous children non-traditionally uniformed and faceless to the camera, leads to musing about use of kids as human shields for the impugned alienating project to quash and assimilate her people. Fine. Then she picks up her gratuitous harping on the horrible situation an ocean away, siding with the hapless (Gaza esp.) oblivious to their being actually, not just through musing, being used as human shields! There appears to be complete buy-in to the world the author herself is assimilating to, all the while decrying "racial capitalism" or “settler colonialism", presumably re the last example somewhat absurdly attributing indigeneity to the suffering hapless Arabs caught in a death cult embrace, all the while championing the increase in life her own tradition claims to foster at its core. What ignorant incongruity. Is the gratuity of this kind of thing to find fashionable favour among those needed to assimilate? She has gratuitous digs at “anti-vaxxers”, oblivious to that some of the 1st covi-dissidence among Canadian doctors (subsequently professionally persecuted in a vein arguably continuous with that of her own people historically) involved injury and worse of the injections to aboriginal patients in BC.
She mentions N Sinclair a few times whose recent book I also read for similar reasons. He at least eg re the disaster of Ukraine sticks to commiseration with those he knows, avoiding misplaced rhetoric & gratuitous harping/siding with an ocean away. The author owes it to herself to deeply reconsider some things, moreover to why not have a good look at the people she seems to most wrongfully impugn that ocean away, whose claim on territory there should be instead obvious, and from whom her own people could learn much in that vein of culture and language and commonality, and survival with the best of all that through (now hyper-)modernity.
She mentions N Sinclair a few times whose recent book I also read for similar reasons. He at least eg re the disaster of Ukraine sticks to commiseration with those he knows, avoiding misplaced rhetoric & gratuitous harping/siding with an ocean away. The author owes it to herself to deeply reconsider some things, moreover to why not have a good look at the people she seems to most wrongfully impugn that ocean away, whose claim on territory there should be instead obvious, and from whom her own people could learn much in that vein of culture and language and commonality, and survival with the best of all that through (now hyper-)modernity.
March 10, 2026
I’m not so impassioned about my biology degree anymore but that does mean I’ve taken more than the average persons biology related courses
It is sick and twisted how so much core methodology is rooted in the findings of colonialists that abjectly ignore long standing indigenous tellings
In laymen’s terms, a core pillar of indigenous teachings is the reverence and preservation of nature in all its parts and functions
part memoir, part exploration, part teachings, I enjoyed the flow and pulls of topics truly emphasizing the global connection of nature and peoples and the ultimate enemy .. capitalism
there’s a lot of nuance in the conversations; the reality of present ongoing colonialism in Palestine, the hegemony of surface level policies and seemingly humanitarian acts, co-opting of indigenous teachings for anything other than liberation
It’s timely, inspiring, and truly thought-provoking
It is sick and twisted how so much core methodology is rooted in the findings of colonialists that abjectly ignore long standing indigenous tellings
In laymen’s terms, a core pillar of indigenous teachings is the reverence and preservation of nature in all its parts and functions
part memoir, part exploration, part teachings, I enjoyed the flow and pulls of topics truly emphasizing the global connection of nature and peoples and the ultimate enemy .. capitalism
there’s a lot of nuance in the conversations; the reality of present ongoing colonialism in Palestine, the hegemony of surface level policies and seemingly humanitarian acts, co-opting of indigenous teachings for anything other than liberation
It’s timely, inspiring, and truly thought-provoking
December 17, 2025
"the violence of colonialism requires an arsenal of coping mechanisms, and the full range of emotions - including anger, resentment, sadness, despair and hopelessness - are necessary responses and motivators alongside a foundational habit of care and kindness and unconditional love."
November 5, 2026
Very informative, I enjoyed reading this a lot. How Simpson talks about the deep-cutting impacts of colonialism and capitalism and how vastly differently white settlers have lived and used Indigenous land (and continue to do so due to corporate/capitalist greed), was infuriating and illuminating at the same time; Simpson highlights the chains that connect every being, human and animal, to one another as well as the waters.
August 29, 2025
Beautifully written. Essential reading. 🐸 🐢 🌾
November 25, 2025
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson writes:
“In his book The Nation on No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition, Wiliam C. Anderson asks us to consider a vision of politics that “no longer has the state as its object or horizon and eschews the calcified forms of politics as usual… where the state is no longer the horizon of possibility or the telos of struggle.”
This is a relief to read, even as it also marks a lonely path. This vision of politics means no more apologies, no more Royal Commissions and National Inquiries, no more Assembly of First Nations, Indian Act, Self-Government Agreement, Rights, Court – no more, no more, no more. No more begging neoliberalism for recognition. No more begging for charges and convictions. No more being bound up in the cyclical terror of never-ending court cases, negotiations and research projects so tightly controlled that the predetermined outcomes include pacifying resistance. It is a relief, and it also places me on a different trajectory from many others engaged in Indigenous struggle. I don’t mean to fault those who have tried and continue to try to make life and living better for First Nations people and our communities, and I don’t mean to diminish the gains they have made with issues such as clean drinking water or housing, for example. But I do mean that we must study and examine our strategies. And I do mean to bask, even if briefly, in the flight path opened up by changing the horizon.”
“In his book The Nation on No Map: Black Anarchism and Abolition, Wiliam C. Anderson asks us to consider a vision of politics that “no longer has the state as its object or horizon and eschews the calcified forms of politics as usual… where the state is no longer the horizon of possibility or the telos of struggle.”
This is a relief to read, even as it also marks a lonely path. This vision of politics means no more apologies, no more Royal Commissions and National Inquiries, no more Assembly of First Nations, Indian Act, Self-Government Agreement, Rights, Court – no more, no more, no more. No more begging neoliberalism for recognition. No more begging for charges and convictions. No more being bound up in the cyclical terror of never-ending court cases, negotiations and research projects so tightly controlled that the predetermined outcomes include pacifying resistance. It is a relief, and it also places me on a different trajectory from many others engaged in Indigenous struggle. I don’t mean to fault those who have tried and continue to try to make life and living better for First Nations people and our communities, and I don’t mean to diminish the gains they have made with issues such as clean drinking water or housing, for example. But I do mean that we must study and examine our strategies. And I do mean to bask, even if briefly, in the flight path opened up by changing the horizon.”
November 12, 2025
I tried this from the goodreads challenge. I just dont feel like I was the target audience for this book.
June 24, 2025
Shoutout CSRE for this pick. "We are not owed comfortable lives." I think about this a lot and how futile it is to try to seek comfort within the system only to be further suffocated by its cruelty. I learned a lot from this book especially about values to center in my daily life <33
May 28, 2025
Yuppppp by the end my brain was exploding and I loved how a little nugget in each chapter kinda led to the theme of the following chapter. She never misses!
January 25, 2026
4 1/2 stars
Simpson's writing is filled with intentional prose and stunning clarity. Theory of Water is simultaneously a meditation in grief and loss and also a guidance in love in the way of the Nishnaabe peoples. It does both with the utmost care and consideration (repetitive occasionally - but not heedlessly, I think.)
Fitted into the fabric of writings, academic teachings, oral and generational stories, and observations in modes of resistances, Simpson stitches together a look back, forward, and into us: all of us, human and not, connected by water (or Nibi). I'm learning how to sinter, too.
"Our fight is our critique."
Simpson's writing is filled with intentional prose and stunning clarity. Theory of Water is simultaneously a meditation in grief and loss and also a guidance in love in the way of the Nishnaabe peoples. It does both with the utmost care and consideration (repetitive occasionally - but not heedlessly, I think.)
Fitted into the fabric of writings, academic teachings, oral and generational stories, and observations in modes of resistances, Simpson stitches together a look back, forward, and into us: all of us, human and not, connected by water (or Nibi). I'm learning how to sinter, too.
November 17, 2025
Beautiful! Reading Simpson's work is always such a captivating way to learn. I love how she utilized the concept of sintering.
May 7, 2026
there is a part of this book where she's talking about a bologna sandwich that i stg made me tear up. how does she do it.
February 26, 2026
despite my misgivings, i took a lot away from this book and i thought the prose was at times very compelling
May 31, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
this river in which the past is always flowing.every water. is the same water coming around. everyday someone is standing on the edge. of this river,staring into time. whispering mistakenly.
only here only now.
this river in which the past is always flowing.every water. is the same water coming around. everyday someone is standing on the edge. of this river,staring into time. whispering mistakenly.
only here only now.
March 26, 2025
Thank you, Net Galley, for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review. The Theory of Water is beautifully written prose that highlights the issue of declining water supply. Capitalism has forced us to abandon indigenous knowledge systems, and this rich narrative tells us why we need to rethink our current global means. The world depends on indigenous knowledge to survive and protect our waters, but capitalism harms indigenous peoples and their traditions because it does not produce the capital they want to see. Capitalism benefits from harm and the only way to reduce the harm is to revolt against the current system for the original systems.
She discusses the need to work together and as bodies of water, such as rivers connect us all. We are all reliant on each other and need to learn to cohabitate in an environment that helps instead of dividing us further into individualistic categories. There is much to learn from the water and the animal kingdom, as this decrees. The prose, the lists, the poems all serve a purpose throughout this narrative to help us understand the knowledge we are missing out on if we continue down the path of capitalism. These indigenous stories are important and we need to embrace our knowledge instead of repressing it.
Thanks for this wonderful read and my only complaint is that I feel there is more to learn, but this book serves its purpose without overloading the readers with information. The blend of pose, marginalized voices, and poetry really brings the narrative and the authors perspective to focus. The purposeful writing is inspiring to fight back against culture that represses critical knowledge systems and infrastructures. Buy this book – share this narrative. Our water is our life force.
She discusses the need to work together and as bodies of water, such as rivers connect us all. We are all reliant on each other and need to learn to cohabitate in an environment that helps instead of dividing us further into individualistic categories. There is much to learn from the water and the animal kingdom, as this decrees. The prose, the lists, the poems all serve a purpose throughout this narrative to help us understand the knowledge we are missing out on if we continue down the path of capitalism. These indigenous stories are important and we need to embrace our knowledge instead of repressing it.
Thanks for this wonderful read and my only complaint is that I feel there is more to learn, but this book serves its purpose without overloading the readers with information. The blend of pose, marginalized voices, and poetry really brings the narrative and the authors perspective to focus. The purposeful writing is inspiring to fight back against culture that represses critical knowledge systems and infrastructures. Buy this book – share this narrative. Our water is our life force.
January 6, 2026
In early December of last year, I had the distinct and immense pleasure of attending a workshop-gathering on Theory of Water where Leanne gave the opening speech. I had only read the excerpts provided for the event (the opening chapters up to and including the origin story of Gizhiigokwe and Chi'Mikinak), but I was totally enveloped by what I had read.
What strikes a chord with me in all of these concepts is how, on the one hand, similar they are to the propositions going on in the field of study I work in most at the moment, object-oriented ontology (this may come off as a little counterintuitive but then again many things about OOO do), and yet, on the other hand, remain completely autonomous and driven; their political - or maybe I should say ethical? epistemological? - projects, the liberation and self-determination of indigenous groups worldwide, from Turtle Island to Palestine, are inalienable from the theory.
Which, in many ways is what draws me so much to what Leanne has written in these pages: underneath the tenderness, nuance, care and compassion with which she outlines Nibi's various flows through space and time, bodies and stories, there is a commitment to *doing* as a mode of *being*, in motion. That Nibi is incremental is not arbitrary. There are steps, currents, channels we must take, waves we must make if we want a world where all of us are free.
What strikes a chord with me in all of these concepts is how, on the one hand, similar they are to the propositions going on in the field of study I work in most at the moment, object-oriented ontology (this may come off as a little counterintuitive but then again many things about OOO do), and yet, on the other hand, remain completely autonomous and driven; their political - or maybe I should say ethical? epistemological? - projects, the liberation and self-determination of indigenous groups worldwide, from Turtle Island to Palestine, are inalienable from the theory.
Which, in many ways is what draws me so much to what Leanne has written in these pages: underneath the tenderness, nuance, care and compassion with which she outlines Nibi's various flows through space and time, bodies and stories, there is a commitment to *doing* as a mode of *being*, in motion. That Nibi is incremental is not arbitrary. There are steps, currents, channels we must take, waves we must make if we want a world where all of us are free.
September 5, 2026
I think this is a book that would make the world a better place if more people read it. It meanders a bit, sure, but that’s not a bad thing if you enjoy the journey, and it’s short enough that the meandering cannot go on too long, because there just aren’t enough pages. But more people should read it because the systems of thinking and living presented are so different from what our current world is like. Are the presented systems better? I can’t say. They certainly seem like they would. And the world we live in now doesn’t seem to be cutting it. But isn’t it true that any way of living can seem like utopia if presented in the right light? So, while I would sure like to say we should all live as Theory of Water describes, I haven’t lived that life and I haven’t seen society living that life. But. I can definitely say that if everybody in the world took at least a piece of this mindset of relations and connections, the world would be a better place. And so, despite the difficulty I had in reading certain sections and being able to relate and understand to something so different from what I grew up in, I think this book should be read more. If we can remind ourselves to think intentionally when we read and to make deliberate efforts to understand something new, then shouldn’t that same approach translate to real life? These are my thoughts.
February 22, 2026
Simpson is an excellent writer. Her stories are unique and powerful. Her theory of water and the way it is intertwined with us and more powerful than us is extremely humbling. On the grand scale of things, we are merely a blip in this universe, but when we sinter together we are powerful and can make great changes to the world around us. We have unfortunately been on a path of destruction, but we can still bind together and change the world for the better. The book definitely made me want to be a better person for myself and for others. I recommend giving it a read.
July 4, 2026
In her series of essays, the author uses water to map out a way forward in this world, a way that rejects capitalism, promotes decentred world building based on diversity, elevates the practice of reciprocity, and focuses on relationship building through sintering. This book is both unsettling and agreeable, is intellectual and down to earth.
📖
“Sintering is a joining. It’s a communal transformation that creates a fabric of former snowflakes bonded to each other. … It weaves itself to its environment, and it does so in a way that doesn’t destroy its neighbours. Sintering is bonding; it is building coalitions with your neighbours. And these coalitions mean that the packed sinter snow on the trail has staying power, that it remains long after the spring has melted the snow around it.”
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“Sintering is a joining. It’s a communal transformation that creates a fabric of former snowflakes bonded to each other. … It weaves itself to its environment, and it does so in a way that doesn’t destroy its neighbours. Sintering is bonding; it is building coalitions with your neighbours. And these coalitions mean that the packed sinter snow on the trail has staying power, that it remains long after the spring has melted the snow around it.”
October 20, 2025
Leanne why don’t you just punch me in the face instead?? Now I’m off to read As We Have Always Done. Also the encampment mention broke me.
Thinking about her and her work a lot these days,, maybe I don’t want MORE AI and MORE economic productivity and maybe I want clean water and for all children everywhere to grow up free of occupation and colonization.. maybe.. thank you water and all that you teach us
Thinking about her and her work a lot these days,, maybe I don’t want MORE AI and MORE economic productivity and maybe I want clean water and for all children everywhere to grow up free of occupation and colonization.. maybe.. thank you water and all that you teach us
March 17, 2026
" She carries the river. I carry the ice. You carry an ocean. She carries a glacier. They carry the snow. He carries a marsh. Hir carries the breath. It carries the spring. We (excluding them) carry the waterfall. We (including them) carry waves."
Milles et une réflexions qui replacent l'eau, Nibi au centre d'un monde complexe et déséquilibré.
Milles et une réflexions qui replacent l'eau, Nibi au centre d'un monde complexe et déséquilibré.
October 27, 2025
“Bears never find themselves unemployed or in need of career counselling.
Moose don’t take over a beavers means of production.
Robins don’t hire other birds to get worms for them.
Cardinals don’t have nanny’s looking after their young and cleaning their nests so their lives are more comfortable.
Caribou’s don’t have army’s guarding their territory.
Salmon don’t stock pile food in the river bed.
The exception is always humans.”
Maarsii Leanne for this beautiful book
Moose don’t take over a beavers means of production.
Robins don’t hire other birds to get worms for them.
Cardinals don’t have nanny’s looking after their young and cleaning their nests so their lives are more comfortable.
Caribou’s don’t have army’s guarding their territory.
Salmon don’t stock pile food in the river bed.
The exception is always humans.”
Maarsii Leanne for this beautiful book
September 11, 2026
I’ve read a few other books by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, and loved them. This Accident of Being Lost and Islands of Decolonial Love are collections of short stories and poems that explore different aspects of connection, love and belonging from an indigenous perspective. These works showcase a writing style that is deeply personal, beautiful in its emotional intensity and particularity.
In The Theory of Water, Simpson leaves the realm of fiction and poetry to allow her to speak more overtly politically. While I found this premise interesting, I felt flat-footed: despite the title, this book is not a work of political or philosophical theory but a personal memoir. Simpson looks back on the process of grieving the loss of Doug Williams, an Elder and friend who guided her in reconnecting with lost ancestral knowledge. When writing figuratively — such as in the metaphor of sintering, that joining and mutual transformation of snowflakes that could form a basis for radical community movement — Simpson’s writing is evocative and compelling, even in this non-fictional form.
However, her engagement with political theory left me disappointed. Works seemed haphazardly referenced, and were summarized subjectively: I recently read X and it made me think of Y. Her approving references to Gramsci and Aimé Césaire appeared carefully worded to give the impression they were opponents of communism, rather than committed communists with specific disagreements with specific communist parties. Her epistemology was also too irrationalist for my tastes (“Cyclical time comes from land. Linear time is a European construct that overlays cyclical time — a mechanism to organize the world in a homogeneous way to facilitate, of course, capitalism.”) Still, I found it interesting to see how she incorporated radical Black authors like Cedric Robinson into her vision for the radical indigenous movement.
Perhaps if I had gone into the book expecting a memoir, I would have appreciated it more for what it was than been disappointed for it not being what I wished for.
October 29, 2026
There were a lot of really interesting things to talk about in this book but also a lot of claims and ideas that I wish had been expanded on a bit more too. But overall very insightful and a good read!
May 7, 2025
3.5 rounded up to 4
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