ABSTRACT
Contemporary water challenges suggest the need for a new paradigm of water management and governance, which requires rethinking what water ‘is’ and what water ‘means’ for all users, especially those at the margins. Water museums exhibit and interpret a liquid heritage, tangible and intangible, from ancient artifacts and technologies to strategies to combat water scarcity, pollution and climate change. While museums are repositories of our fluid past, they also play a role in reconnecting people with water in all its dimensions, particularly from a contextual lens embedded in culture, power and practice. This chapter explores the opportunities and challenges faced by a virtual museum, part of a larger global network of water museums, in engaging with citizens and communities through digital media, storytelling and the creative and performing arts. Launched in India in 2017, the Living Waters Museum emerged from a personal and institutional inquiry into the future and relevance of museums beyond borders, the nuances of measuring impact and the value of building inclusive, collaborative partnerships which address social equity and gender justice through research, design and curation. Retelling our water story necessitates looking at how our water worlds are socially constructed through our material reality, rituals and agency.
