webinar with Misak leaders Jeremias Tunubalá Ullune and Liliana Pechene Muelas. Liliana and Jeremias will share what the Misak response to the pandemic has been, and how the community balances short-term crisis responses with long-term community visioning and planning. They will also speak about other indigenous communities with whom they have worked in Colombia and in the Peruvian and Ecuadorian Amazon region.
The Misak were displaced from their lands and almost disappeared as a people. Over the last 40 years they have reclaimed their territory, their culture and their futures against all odds. They did this by developing the Plan de Vida, an exceptional approach for communities to re-envision and take control of their futures. Pioneered by the Misak in the 1980s, this approach has been adopted by hundreds of indigenous peoples and communities across South America and beyond. Encuentro por zoom con los líderes Jeremías Tunubalá Ullune y Liliana Pechene Muelas Liliana y Jeremías compartirán cómo ha sido la respuesta de los Misak ante la pandemia, y cómo la comunidad balancea respuestas de corto plazo con la planeación y visiones de largo plazo. Ellos tambien van a hablar de la experiencia de otros pueblos indigenas con quienes han trabajado en Colombia, en la Amazonia Peruana y Ecuadoriana. Los Misak fueron desplazados de su tierra y casi desaparecen como pueblo. En los últimos 40 años ellos han reclamado su territorio, su cultura y su futuro contra viento y marea. Lograron esto desarrollando su Plan de Vida, un enfoque excepcional para que las comunidades se re-imaginen y tomen control de su futuro. Introducido por los Misak en la década de los 80, este enfoque ha sido adoptado por cientos de pueblos indígenas y comunidades en América del Sur y en todo el mundo.
This webinar provides an informed overview and discussion on the risk being posed to indigenous, fishing, agro-extractive and African-descendent ‘Quilombo’ communities by COVID-19 and their proximity to still functioning hydro and mineral and complexes that are considered as ‘key industries’ by Brazil’s government.
Mauricio Torres holds a Doctorate in Human Geography from the University of São Paulo, and is Professor at the Institute of Amazonian Agriculture at the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), with more than 20 years experience as a researcher on territorial conflicts involving traditional peoples and communities in the Amazon. He is co author of the book, ‘Amazon Besieged: by dams, soya, agribusiness and land-grabbing’; “[…] a fascinating, important and astonishing account of the battle to save the living world and the future prospects of humanity,” George Monbiot, journalist
Ana Laide Barbosa is daughter of a fisherman and peasant mother in the Amazonian region of Para state. She is an experienced, active organiser and campaigner for the rights of indigenous, peasant, fishing and African-descendent ‘Quilombo’ communities and has been central to community-based actions that expose the conflicts, loss of territory, water and livelihoods as a result of corporate dams, mining and extraction in the Amazon region. She is a partner in the COP26 related activities with Centre for Human cology, Galgael, Centre for the Political Economy of Labour at University of Strathclyde, and Forest Peoples’ Project. She is currently involved with Xingu Vivo in relation to the Belo Sun gold mining complex and the risk to local communities from Covid-19.
This FREE webinar is the first one the Centre for Human Ecology co-hosts with a group of people from Strathclyde University, the Forest People’s Programme and GalGael who have been meeting to plan an alternative event during the COP 26 summit in Glasgow.
“We used to talk about climate change as a problem that would impact upon our grandchildren or possibly our children. … What we’ve seen since the summer of 2018 is a shift in perception or a shift in narrative, where people feel that they themselves are in danger.”
“With the Deep Adaptation framework, I’m really inviting people to look at the worst case scenarios, and to support each other in all the difficult emotions that brings up, and actually see how we can turn toward that trouble, stay open to it, inquire into it with curiosity, compassion and respect for each other – rather than those other tendencies that can happen, which is to just be angry, to look for how to blame someone, and to look for a sense of some kind of psychological or practical safety as quick as possible.”
“Solidarity is a collective response in the face of collapse. It recognises that we need to recover our understanding of what community means – it’s become so impoverished by political narratives, and yet it was essential to survival.”
“Communities who are living in subsistence ways will tell you that: It’s impossible to survive on your own, no matter how many tins of beans you have stockpiled.”
“Solidarity is a form of resistance. And that resistance can be a generative practice that grows resilient communities and makes it more likely that with the future we’re facing, we can face that with more dignity.”
“We used to talk about climate change as a problem that would impact upon our grandchildren or possibly our children. … What we’ve seen since the summer of 2018 is a shift in perception or a shift in narrative, where people feel that they themselves are in danger.”
“With the Deep Adaptation framework, I’m really inviting people to look at the worst case scenarios, and to support each other in all the difficult emotions that brings up, and actually see how we can turn toward that trouble, stay open to it, inquire into it with curiosity, compassion and respect for each other – rather than those other tendencies that can happen, which is to just be angry, to look for how to blame someone, and to look for a sense of some kind of psychological or practical safety as quick as possible.”
“Solidarity is a collective response in the face of collapse. It recognises that we need to recover our understanding of what community means – it’s become so impoverished by political narratives, and yet it was essential to survival.”
“Communities who are living in subsistence ways will tell you that: It’s impossible to survive on your own, no matter how many tins of beans you have stockpiled.”
“Solidarity is a form of resistance. And that resistance can be a generative practice that grows resilient communities and makes it more likely that with the future we’re facing, we can face that with more dignity.”
Sapna Agarwal: The Dispersal and Displacement of the Coconut Seed
Talk synopsis: Sapna will talk about the oppositional pulls climate activism can bring to a woman of colour who is a second generation immigrant – the tedium and necessity to represent and some of the questions that raises.
Sapna Agarwal is a community organiser and educator. Much of her work is informed by her status as a second-generation immigrant, woman of colour, parent. It is currently focused on climate activism and she is the coordinator of Wee Rebellion, the families group of Extinction Rebellion Scotland.
Ali Fleabite: Palestinian liberation struggles and the transformation of Jewish identity and practice.
Talk synopsis: Resituating Jewish narratives, symbols, ritual and practice to emphasise their commonality with liberatory ideas and struggle and evolving a progressive, anti-occupation Judaism from a Zionist orthodoxy.
In 2003, Ali Fleabite spent 4 months doing Palestinian solidarity activism in the West Bank and Gaza. Subsequently they have been involved with, communicated with, and visited, Jewish organisations and communities within the Palestine solidarity movements, many individuals and communities, and a homegrown chosen family of progressive Jews in Glasgow, from 2005 onwards.
Alvaro Huertas: When my Growth Days came to an End.
Talk synopsis: Exploring the end of the illusion of unlimited growth as a parallel story between the personal and the global, from a career in academia to working in solidarity projects.
Alvaro Huertas-Rosero is a scientist by formation, holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Glasgow and has worked as a lecturer in Chemistry and Physics (primarily Quantum Theory). He now spends most of his time raising his child and working for migrant solidarity and food justice in Glasgow.
Annie Lord: Graft
Talk synopsis:Graft uses hand drawn illustrations and photographs to explore borders, boundaries and unions between plants and people and weave together several story lines including the birth and regeneration of Edinburgh’s Botanic Gardens; the cultivation of the Bramley apple, and the formation of symbiotic and parasitic relationships.
Annie Lord is a performer and visual artist based in Edinburgh. Her work explores material processes, cultural and geological histories and the ways in which they shape the present. Recent work has examined the botanical origins of celluloid film and the art of apple tree grafting. You can follow Annie on Twitter and Instagram.
Nayab Khalid: Even dreams must fall to rules. A simple love story
Talk synopsis:Through narrative fiction, I tell a story about immigration, culture and society. The beliefs and values my characters orient themselves by are mirrors. They might clash because of their differences, but their similarities are what truly drives them apart.
Nayab Khalid is trying to rekindle her love for fiction and performance. Her stories often involve elements of science fiction and fantasy, but in this one instance she has found the real world strange enough.
Jonathon Shafi: Deconstructing Fortress Europe
Talk synopsis:Building solidarity beyond the EU
Jonathon Shafi works for Common Weal. He has played a long-standing role in anti-cuts and anti-war in Glasgow and a founder member of the Radical Independence Campaign.
World Spirit Theatre: Theatre and Raising Awareness: solidarity, community, creativity, borders, social movements and arts
Talk synopsis: Showing images from our recent production ‘Where are you are really?’, World Spirit Theatre present the communities we have engaged with, responses we received from the communities and challenges of using theatre as a method of raising awareness.
World Spirit Theatre uses Theatre of the Oppressed methods to create plays and discussion around migration, working with people with direct experience of migration.
Short film
Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte: Amateur Botanist film screening (5mins 59 sec) followed by Q&A.
Kotryna Ula Kiliulyte is a Glasgow based artist working with moving image, photography and objects. Her practice explores themes of migrations, ecology, histories and future projections. She holds a BA and Mlitt from Glasgow School of Art, and exhibits and works internationally.
Performance
Joyous Choir – songs about hope, solidarity, sisterhood and women’s rights.
Maryhill Integration Network’s Joyous Choir consists of women from many different backgrounds who come together every week to share songs from their own cultures. Its members include refugees or asylum seekers who have made Scotland their home to escape conflict or danger in their home countries.
For directions to the venue, have a look atthis map.
We are grateful to the Network for Social Change for supporting this event.
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