From here at the Indigenous Peoples Global Summit on Climate Change, it’s hard to single out a few highlights for the blog. The backdrop for these amazing discussions is Anchorage, Alaska, and outside the conference center, tall snowy mountains ring the horizon. A few hundred participants are here, from all continents. I’ve gotten to meet with native peoples from Greenland, Canada, Kenya, Finland, and many island nations, including Dominica and Kiribati. Everyone has an important story to share, and many of the stories are interconnected.
One of the highlights so far, which you can share in, was a mini film festival yesterday evening, which showcased films about climate impacts around the world. Many of the films were made by community members, over the course of a ten-day training. I learned about Masai herdspeople in Kenya, who are suffering from drought. Their traditional livelihood, cattle herding, is severly impacted by drought. While I had read and heard about climate-induced drought, this film made it very real: especially a segment with a Masai man describing the drought in front of the carcass of a dead zebra. Another film from Borneo showed how a local tribe is preserving its forest in innovative ways. If you’d like to see some of these films, visit Insight Share.
Another impressive film was produced by Sacred Lands Film Project, which highlighted the plight of Peruvian people as their water source, glaciers, dwindle due to rising temperatures. Check it out here.
These films were eye-opening to all in the audience, and not just because of the stories they shared, but because they represented innovative storytelling. The underlying hope in these films is that, by providing access to the means of video production, these heart-rendering stories will reach a wider audience and inspire greater action. We here at 350 hope to help out with this by spotlighting the stories of these impacted communities during the October 24 day of action.