In this reflective essay I assimilate ideas about writing, the body and performance as research, conducted alongside archival investigation about natural streams, called spruits, in Johannesburg. The underpinning to the essay is a description of a walking-led performance along the embankment of a spruit, which converges into the gesture of immersing the body in polluted water.
The William Cullen Library in the University of the Witwa-tersrand, Johannesburg, specializes in Africana. The university has its own difficult history with both water and gold mining. The university is named after the turbulent (white) water that undercuts local topography, and it has its genesis in a School of Mining. It continues to contribute knowledge to the mining industry, a major culprit in the pollution of local water systems, as described by House (in this section). The library holds a historical archive that provided the underpinning of an investigation of the tributaries and streams...