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Webinar Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge Monday 27 May, UTC 6pm

Indigenous/Native communities have for centuries created and applied approaches to climate change and developed their own climate sciences, which are often overlooked or treated as inferior to modern mainstream science. This lack of attention given to the critical contribution of Indigenous climate knowledge and spiritualities continues to promote a one-sided narrative.  

This webinar will continue a dialogue held in a webinar on 12 October 2023.  In that 2023 discussion, new perspectives were opened by examining climate change in the Pacific and giving examples of interfaith dialogue with Indigenous spiritualities promoting environmental justice. It highlighted how Indigenous and Native knowledge and spiritualities could assist in critically informing national and global climate strategies and climate policies, and looked into approaches Indigenous communities could offer to the COP28 meeting taking place soon after the webinar in November 2023.

This discussion will explore in more depth how Indigenous knowledge can be preserved and drawn upon in the face of climate change and other development pressures.  It takes place at the same time as the 4th International Conference on Small Island Developing States with their rich and diverse Indigenous cultures and islands that are uniquely and unfortunately positioned at the forefront of multiple global crises, notably climate change. The webinar will also prepare for the discussion of climate change at the G20 Interfaith Forum (IF20) 2024 Brazil in Brasilia, 19-22 August 2024.

The webinar is a cooperation between IF20 Environmental Working Group and the International Dialogue Centre – KAICIID.

 

SPEAKERS

Elvira Rumkabu, speaker at webinar on Climate Change and the Importance of Indigenous Knowledge
Elvira Rumkabu

Elvira Rumkabu is a lecturer of international relations at Cenderawasih University based in Jayapura, Papua. She completed her Master's Degree at the Australian National University. Her areas of expertise are conflict resolution, peace studies, and Papuan politics. Elvira is a member of the Academics Forum for Papua Peace (FAPD), a forum established by Indonesian lecturers to initiate conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Papua. She is actively involved in the Peaceful Papua Lobbying Team, initiated by the Democratic Alliance for Papua (ALDP). Elvira has written about issues relating to the conflict in Papua in a number of publications. She has also spoken about conflict resolution in Papua, racism and marginalisation, and women, peace and security in national and international forums.

Tafue Molu Lusama, speaker at webinar on Climate Change and indigenous Knowledge
Tafue Lusama

Tafue M Lusama is Climate Change Project Officer for the climate change unit of the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, where he also heads the Institute for Climate Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) within PTC. His passion is on climate justice, and this, he believes, can only be achieved through a total transformation in our mindset, and the inclusion of indigenous climate knowledge in the climate narrative and policies. He completed his doctoral studies in 2021 in which he redefined the theology of God from a Tuvaluan indigenous perspective in relation to climate change and the suffering that the vulnerable communities in the region are facing.  He is the former General Secretary of the Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu (Tuvalu Christian Church) and Program secretary for Peace and Justice within his national church, which includes dealing with the issue of climate change. He was instrumental in establishing the Tuvalu Climate Action Network (TuCAN), and advocating for the voiceless on climate justice regionally, and globally.

Danya Carroll
Danya Carroll

Dr. Danya Carroll, is Diné (Navajo) and White Mountain Apache from the Southwestern United States. She has a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Arizona and a Master of Public Health from the Colorado School of Public Health. She recently graduated from the University of North Dakota with a PhD in Indigenous Health. Dr. Carroll has worked in various capacities to improve overall Indigenous health including within the Tribal, nonprofit and research sectors in the US. Her public health work and practice has evolved around building culturally relevant models and practices to improve healthy and traditional foods access in American Indian communities. Dr. Carroll’s current research includes engagement with Indigenous communities in Canada to support the mobilization and protection of traditional ecological knowledges amidst the climate crisis. Dr. Carroll is currently a Postdoctoral Associate working with Dr. Nicole Redvers at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University in Canada. 

George Carter
George Carter

George is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Head Department of Pacific Affairs, and the Director of the Pacific Institute, at The Australian National University. His research explores the interplay of international politics and climate change (diplomacy, negotiations, security, finance, democracy, gender and indigenous knowledge), through the influence and power of small island states (foreign policy, non-western and Oceanic Diplomacy), Pacific regionalism and geopolitics, indigenous knowledge and philosophy. He teaches and supervises research in international relations, security, diplomatic and Pacific studies; and provides advice to Pacific regional organisations and countries in climate, ocean and sustainable development multilateral forums. He is also a Co-Director for RESI (Resilient and Sustainable Islands Initiative) a network of Small Islands Developing States researchers. George’s research and teaching interests are influenced by his work experience and education in the Pacific, and grounded by his Samoan, Tuvaluan, i-Kiribati, Chinese and British heritage and upbringing. He serves his communities and villages in Samoa, and holds high chief title of Salā from Lēauva’a.

MODERATOR(S)

Amanah Nurish
Amanah Nurish

Dr. Amanah Nurish is an Indonesian ethnographer and anthropologist. She is a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Dept. of Anthropology – Stanford University. She teaches at the School of Strategic and Global Studies, University of Indonesia. Before working in academic field, she worked as a regional consultant in the United Nation Development Program (UNDP) for the program of Violent Extremism and Corruption in the Pacific Asia region. She also has working experiences with USAID Washington D.C as regional coordinator for the project of Climate Change and Conflict in the East Indonesian Archipelago. Her field is religious anthropology, with research interest on minority religions, gender, environment, and populism in Southeast Asia. For the past ten years, she has been working on the Baha'i communities in Southeast Asia that had a significant impact on public discourse regarding religious minorities' rights. She wrote books, monographs, journals and popular articles

Arthur Dahl, speaker at Webinar on Climate Change and the Importance of Indigenous Knowledge
Arthur Lyon Dahl

Arthur Lyon Dahl is President of the International Environment Forum and a retired senior official of the United Nations Environment Programme, where he coordinated the UN System-wide Earthwatch and was Deputy Director of the Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme. He studied biology at Stanford University and has a PhD in marine biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He resided in the Pacific Islands for 11 years as Regional Ecological Advisor and organised the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). He helped to launch the concept of Small Island Developing States, including the final drafting of that section of Agenda 21 for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. He has expertise in climate science and has researched and published on indigenous knowledge and value systems in the Pacific Islands.

Where Online through Zoom
Time Europe/Lisbon
Date
Speakers
Danya Carroll
George Carter
Elvira Rumkabu
Tafue Lusama
Language English