Possibilities: Healing Waters

Communities have gathered and formed by the banks of rivers throughout human history. This is certainly true of people who were indigenous to this region before European settlers arrived. This proposal seeks to acknowledge and honour those earliest inhabitants. One way to do so is to recognize the beauty and healing powers of the waters, which they first grasped and which other, later arrivals came to understand themselves.

Early on in the colonial period, water was primarily viewed as a source of energy. Thus, the first reference to “Lake Victoria” was made in 1886 when the Canada Company built a dam on a mill pond to provide power to a sawmill and gristmill. By the early 1900s the earlier industrial conception of the waterway was being challenged by a new vision, one which emphasized common spaces designed for leisure. Most famously, a 1913 poster depicting crowds of people enjoying boating on the river played a decisive role in a municipal vote regarding the use of land on the banks of the Avon River. 

A century later, in 2013, The Blowes family funded the installation of a floating monument in Lake Victoria on the west side of the William Hutt Bridge to mark the passing of former Mayor Edward Stanley "Ted" Blowes. We propose a reconstituted fountain for the centre of Lake Victoria, viewable from the Hutt Bridge Lookout. This fountain would have ecological properties to help cleanse the river water. 

With regard to the health of the Avon, recent efforts have been made along its north bank to protect the shoreline from erosion, introduce indigenous plant life and preserve the habitats of species threatened by climate change. Our aim is to bring attention to these initiatives and to create a child-friendly immersive experience (e.g. an idea tree or a future past time capsule) to educate young people on the beauty and fragility of the river.

The River Above the River Below is a vision inspired by the Provocations Ideas Festival. 

Introduction | Shakespearean Gardens  | Orr Dam | Allward Monument | The Tom | Festival Theatre | The Lookout | Healing Waters | Island  | Gallery Pathways | North Shore | TJ Dolan Pathway | Conclusion