Standing at the Water’s Edge

Photojournalist Cristina Mittermeier knows the power of water: the power to give life when it is respected, and the power to destroy when it is misused. During her time with the Kayapó people in the Amazon, she documented a society that relied on their local waterway to survive—and found their way of life threatened by a massive new dam. In British Columbia, she found First Nations protecting their sacred headwaters, and in Hawaii, a new community of indigenous peoples seeking to reclaim their connection to the sea. She learned that one concept bound these three disparate communities together: “Enoughness,” or taking only that which you need.