Flows and frictions in translocating water stories: we never stand in the same river twice

This article reflects on Water Stories, a two year translocal, community-engaged project integrating water storytelling, textile arts and environmental education in two agriculturally intensive California communities: Arvin in the southern San Joaquin Valley and Las Lomas along the Central Coast. Despite their geographic distance, both communities experience severe water injustice rooted in colonial legacies, groundwater extraction, and the commodification of water. Drawing on personal and intergenerational water stories, the project centres joy, relationality and desire-based frameworks for water justice through practices including oral histories, natural dyes and child-centred biocultural storytelling. Grounded in Indigenous feminist thought – particularly “thinking with water” – and informed by critical pedagogies of mutual learning and eldering, this article reflects on the flows and frictions encountered while building a translocal partnership. We examine moments of experimentation, trust-building and unexpected challenges that emerged when adapting community practices across contexts. Attending to both successes and tensions, alongside experiences of ecological grief and joy, we argue that friction can be generative. Such moments clarify what sustains meaningful place-based and relational community practice. The article offers insights for scholars and practitioners working in water justice, environmental education and arts-based community research.