Heather Patterson: 08-08-2025

I got to interview board member Madhu Nagaraja this week for a story we’re working on. He had a lot to say about Swim Drink Fish, and I wanted to share:

Madhu Nagaraja, Swim Drink Fish Board Member

“When I first heard about Swim Drink Fish, I was actually questioning it as an organization. Here is my rationale for that: this is a developed country, and you don't take care of your waters? You need an organization to give a voice to the water? That was my thought process. That's when I actually spent time learning about Swim Drink Fish; that's when I learned about the issues with the Great Lakes.

As I started taking an interest in the lake, I learned more, I saw it, I experienced the issues. I see people using a lot of plastic in richer countries, which I wasn't used to in India. Many times, we take it for granted because we don't realize how the water gets into the plastic water bottle.

So when I started working with Mark Mattson, we wanted to keep it simple. We wanted the message to be easy: We need to take care of our waters. It belongs to the Indigenous, it belongs to you, and you have a responsibility to take care of it. When Swim Drink Fish partnered on Biinaagami, I did not even blink. It makes a lot of sense. This is what we've been doing already, right? I was able to relate to that right away. 

It’s an honour to be on the Swim Drink Fish board. It’s not just a contribution, I’m learning a lot. It's very educational because, being on the board, I get to see everything that happens all over Canada, including the Riverkeepers in the south. So it's been a learning experience. It’s an honour to be on the board for such an organization, which is doing some critical work. Telling stories is an important aspect of it, then working with policy makers, and then using technology to promote it.”

The official interview will be released soon, but this sneak peek was too good not to share.