Conversations with the Earth (CWE)

Conversations
with the Earth
Indigenous Voices on Climate Change
Endala Tilbe, “Ade”– Gamo – Doko, Ethiopia
.Conversations with the Earth
Longyearbyen
Gwich'in
Inuit
Arctic village
Cambridge Bay
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ETHIOPIA
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CAMEROON
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ER
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GN
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& Gamo Highlands
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CWE Participatory Video Story
KG
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Funchal
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Peoples
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SM
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KZ
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la Vella
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AT
LI
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PM
ALTAI REPUBLIC
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PL
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London
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BY
IM
Dublin
IE
FJ
Nuku?alofa
Nouméa
Fasito'otai & Fagamalo Villages
AU
Maseru
LS
Kingston
NF
Montevideo
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CWE Photostory
NZ
Wellington
CWE Media Hub
FK
Stanley
GS
King Edward Point
BV
Map of CWE indigenous climate change stories to date - 2011
Conversations with the Earth (CWE) is a way of listening closely to traditional custodians of the world’s biocultural diversity in order to formulate
viable global responses to environmental challenges. CWE’s opening conversation brings Indigenous Voices on Climate Change to convey local
experiences of climate change. Grounded in respectful long-term partnership between indigenous-led organizations and award-winning experts
in participatory video, journalism, photography, and audio, CWE conveys local accounts of the impacts of climate change on indigenous
communities, stories of the unintended consequences of imposed mitigation efforts on local livelihoods, and examples of traditional knowledge
and its value in developing appropriate responses to climate change. CWE asserts indigenous peoples’ inherent rights to their territories, lands, and
resources as a necessary condition of maintaining and enhancing resilience of local social-ecological systems to multiple converging global crises,
including climate change.
.Core Beliefs
“We have knowledge that can contribute to finding
solutions to the crisis of climate change. But if you’re not
prepared to listen, how can we communicate this to you?”
Marcos Terena, Xané leader, Brazil.
Jimmy John – Gwich’in hunter, at his winter camp – Arctic Village, Alaska
Traditional and Indigenous communities depend on a healthy relationship with the
land and therefore possess a wealth of knowledge, wisdom, and practical
experience in adapting to long-term changes in their environment. Still,
indigenous communities are extremely vulnerable to the current unprecedented
rate of global climate change, with its large-scale external disruptions to the web
of life. This threat to traditional communities is a threat to the entire human family.
Proposed or implemented responses to the common challenges of climate change
will fall short, unless they are grounded in a recognition of the territorial, land, and
resource rights of Indigenous peoples. The traditional ecological knowledge,
wisdom and practices of Indigenous peoples comprise the global biocultural
heritage that must inform and guide climate change adaptation and mitigation
strategies at global, regional and local scales.
.Why now?
“Our proverb says: ‘The ox never gives birth, and it never rains in the dry season.’
But now we have rains in the dry season, and it’s dry in the rainy season.”
Shagre Shano Shale (Gamo), Ethiopia.
Enset propagation field – Doko village, Ethiopia
Compared to the dominant industrialized societies, Indigenous Peoples have
contributed least to climate change. Still, they suffer the brunt of the immediate
and direct effects of escalating climate disruption. Despite the September 2007
adoption by the UN General Assembly of the UN Declaration on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), Indigenous Peoples continue to be excluded from
the UN climate negotiations – the embodiment of climate injustice. At this critical
time of global decision-making, Indigenous voices have important knowledge and
wisdom to contribute to the global discourse on climate change that guides global
choices in shaping our collective future. From Manus Islanders in Papua New
Guinea working together to save their oceanside homes, to Maasai villagers in
Kenya responding to a cattle-killing drought in the open grasslands,
Conversations with the Earth works to enable local Indigenous communities to
create and share first-hand accounts of their experience of climate change.
.Who?
“I make a call to all the people, to all the world, that we
shouldn’t destroy, we should continue leaving the bad aside,
and take care.” Josefina Lema (Kichwa), Mojandita, Ecuador.
Josefina Lema – Mojandita, Ecuador
Conversations with the Earth (CWE) was founded in 2009 by an international
indigenous-led advocacy and education organization for the rights of Indigenous
Peoples, Land Is Life; renowned experts in participatory video, InsightShare;
and award-winning photographer and expert in sustaining oral traditions, Nicolas
Villaume, founder of Conversations du Monde. CWE has also benefited from
contributions from a range of writers and editorial sources. Today, Conversations
with the Earth is a growing network of indigenous groups and communities living in
critical ecosystems around the world, from the Atlantic Rainforest to Central Asia,
from the Philippines to the Andes, from the Arctic to Ethiopia. As part of CWE, the
indigenous communities share their local stories of climate change impacts and
adaptation strategies with each other and the global community. Around the world,
CWE supports and networks communities developing sustainable autonomous
indigenous media based on principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC),
local control and support for local indigenous media capacity.
.Evolving Conversation
“You rich countries are very happy
about what you’re doing, going
about your business, not knowing
that your actions are damaging
our reefs and our islands.”
John Pondrein (Manus),
Papua New Guinea
Amos Tapo – Pitilu island, Papua New Guinea
Conversations with the Earth (CWE) premiered as a major multimedia exhibition at
the watershed 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) of the United Nation
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meeting in Copenhagen,
Denmark (December 2009). Since then, CWE has continued to bring Indigenous
voices on climate change to key meetings around the world through CWE's mobile
exhibits in Spanish and English, participatory video screenings at film festivals,
and in-person presentations of delegates from CWE partner communities. Venues
have included the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of
Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia; the 10th International Festival of Film and
Video of Indigenous Peoples in Quito, Ecuador; the US Social Forum in Detroit,
Michigan; the UNFCCC COP 16 meeting on climate change in Cancun, Mexico; and
National Geographic's All Roads Film Festival in Washington, DC. Most recently,
CWE's major exhibit was on display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of
American Indian in Washington, DC from 22 July 2011 - 2 January 2012.
“We don’t have much, but what we have is out there.”
Charley Swaney, Arctic Village community member.
Gwich’in territory, near Arctic Village – Alaska, USA
The CWE exhibits and web-based resources are an open invitation to the world to
engage in a conversation about the real impacts of climate change on Indigenous
communities, and to grow a global network of sharing, reflection, action and
support. To carry forward the momentum generated over the last two years, CWE
has been organizing trainings on Indigenous rights, climate change policy, and
participatory media; creating new photostories with Indigenous communities; and,
enhancing local capacity to connect and share with each other and the rest of the
world through holding retreats, participating in global gatherings and using social
media. CWE continues to focus on climate change, but is also exploring issues
related to local food systems, food sovereignty and sacred sites - fundamental
elements of Indigenous wellbeing.
“We are a harbinger of what is to come,
what the rest of the world can expect.”
Patricia Cochran (Inupiat), Chair of the
2009 Indigenous Peoples Global
Summit on Climate Change.
Contact Conversations with the Earth (CWE)
Casey Box, CWE Coordinator
[email protected]
+1 9177203641 / +1 6468126255
Follow CWE
facebook.com/conversationsearth
youtube.com/conversationsearth
Twitter: @ConversEarth
www.conversationsearth.org
Guaraquecaba - Brazil