Marie-Eve Leduc:

Conversations with the Earth

3 Short Videos: Indigenous Voices on Climate Change

Marie-Eve Leduc

Conversations with the Earth (CWE) is a way of listening closely to traditional stewards of the Earth, Indigenous Peoples, to help formulate a viable collective response to the global challenge of climate change. It is an indigenous-led multimedia campaign to amplify indigenous voices in the global discourse on climate change. Grounded in respectful long-term partnerships 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 their resilience to converging global crises, including climate change.

Why now ?
Compared to the dominant industrialized societies, Indigenous Peoples have contributed little to climate change. Yet, they suffer from the brunt of direct and immediate effects of escalating global warming. Despite the recent adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, they continue to have little say in the UN climate negotiations, epitomizing the climate injustice. But at this critical time of global decisionmaking, indigenous voices have an important message for the global community and future generations. From Papua New Guineans saving their seaside homes, to Maasai villagers responding to cattle-killing drought, Conversations with the Earth enables indigenous communities to give dramatic first-hand accounts of their experience of climate change. “We can’t wait five years,” says Inupiat leader Patricia Cochran, the Chair of the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change, about efforts to phase out greenhouse gas emissions. “We’re a harbinger of what is to come, what the rest of the world can expect.”

Strand: Transition, Energy Descent, Low-Carbon Future

Type of event: Video Screening & Discussion

Place: Room 4 upstairs in Primary School

Starts: 17:00

Ends: 18:00

Presenter's Personal/Professional Background: Marie-Eve Leduc

Organisation: Insight

Email: meveleduc@insightshare.org

Website: http://www.conversationsearth.org

Recommended links: http://www.conversationsearth.org