Leanne Betasamosake Simpson: Theory of Water
The world as we know it appears to be unravelling and becoming unmade at a bewildering and unnerving pace, but as Anishinaabe scholar, author and musician Leanne Betasamosake Simpson notes, that’s an experience all too familiar to Indigenous peoples, whose worlds were undone by colonialism. In her latest award-winning book, Theory of Water, Simpson draws on the Anishinaabe creation story, Indigenous ethics of relationality and reciprocity, and the wisdom of water to chart a course for remaking a better, more sustainable and just world. In particular, she takes inspiration from sintering — the way snowflakes bind together to become a bigger, stronger whole while taking nothing away from themselves or each other — as a model for living in the world. Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead won the 2025 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.