CHAUTAUQUA — Water is life.

Kelsey Leonard said humans should recognize the natural world has a right to exist, thrive, and evolve free from harm.

“When we do this, we’re creating a future in which humans and nature flourish together,” Leonard said.

Leonard spoke to members of the Amphitheater audience Wednesday at Chautauqua Institution on the theme “The Wild: Reconnecting With Our Natural World.”

“We recognize and honor and protect nature’s inherent rights to exist. We create a future that is livable for those generations to come,” she said.

Leonard seeks to establish Indigenous traditions of water conservation as the foundation for international water policymaking, and her recent scholarship explores legal personhood for water, according to assembly.chq.org

She said all are born with a gift to experience Earth. It’s a natal connection.

“You see, when we are born onto this planet,” she said, “it’s not a privilege or right. It’s a gift. It’s a gift to be able to experience Earth. It’s a gift to be able to know that in the mother’s womb you are nurtured by water for nine months. It’s why for many indigenous peoples we know water as our first medicine. We’re all born with a natal connection to water. We’re all born with a natal connection to this planet.”

Leonard added that people have become gluttonous and look for the connection to be a fully one-way street and not reciprocal. She asked the audience what have they done for Chautauqua Lake. She said she has listened to many people share generational memories of coming to the grounds of Chautauqua Institution and experiencing the lake.

Leonard said Chautauqua Lake is threatened due to the persistent development, deteriorating sanitation infrastructure of homes around the lake, and the lack of natural habitat and shore restoration.

“This is an example of how we prioritize human needs above the needs of the lake,” she said. “Grass may be a nuisance for your boats but it’s critical for Lake health.”

Leonard is a water scientist, legal scholar, policy expert, writer, and enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Nation, who works as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, where her research focuses on Indigenous water justice and its climatic, territorial, and governance underpinnings, the website noted. Leonard represents the Shinnecock Indian Nation on the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean, which is charged with protecting America’s ocean ecosystems and coastlines.

In collaboration with a global team of water law scholars, Leonard has published in Lewis and Clark Law Review on Indigenous Water Justice and the defining international legal principle of self-determination under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Among Leonard’s honors and awards are the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship, a “Native American 40 Under 40” award from the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development, and a Peter Benchley Ocean Award for Excellence in Solutions.

She has also been recognized as a 30 Under 30 World Environmental Leader by the North American Association for Environmental Education. Leonard is a member of the Great Lakes Water Quality Board of the International Joint Commission, the National Ocean Protection Coalition Science Advisory Team, Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature Academic Hub and affiliate of the Earth Law Center. She received an A.B. in Sociology and Anthropology with honors from Harvard University, a MS in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford, a JD from Duquesne University, and Ph.D in Political Science from McMaster University.

Leonard said future generations depend on people today to start giving back to nature. She said future generations need to be able to form the same relationships with nature as we have formed.

“Every time you go to the beach, or you come here to the Chautauqua grounds, and you feel that calmness, that love, nature is giving you something,” she said.