What are River Stories?

River Stories is a multi-disciplinary project that researches and disseminates the stories of how communities and individuals have lived with rivers.

• What has the river meant to people in the past, and how can we bring that meaning to light today?
• How does the role of the river differ among cultural and ethnic groups?
• How can we connect stories about the river’s importance to stronger stewardship efforts?

For more Information see the River Stories collection in River Life’s River Atlas.

Why do they matter?

There is a central paradox at the heart of our treatment of rivers. We often revere rivers, and the waters that they contain. Yet we are just as likely to poison them, polluting with industrial and human wastes. Telling River Stories asks questions derived from this paradox.

• What, exactly, does our treatment of rivers say about us as a society and culture?
• How are the ways we feel about rivers conveyed through our actions, and more important, our expressions that are encompassed in media as varied as public art, poetry, architecture, and song?