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At most United Nations’ major government meetings, parallel conferences –organized for public education and to give input to the UN meeting by Non-Governmental Organizations (also known as NGOs)– are held simultaneously and attended by tens of thousands of concerned individuals who do not have access to the government meeting.
At the 15th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 15), the NGO conference was held at the DGI Byen Conference Center.
Conversations with the Earth installed three of its major photostories featuring indigenous experience of and response to climate change together with a large flat touchscreen display that allowed visitors to view all six photostories (including the ones on display at the NationalMuseet of Denmark).
Additionally, CWE participatory videos – created collaboratively in six indigenous communities from around the world – were viewed by visitors on the exhibition touchscreen.
While the CWE exhibit was on display at the Klimaforum, CWE partners organized a number of « side events » including a major evening program attended by over 500 people. The special evening included screenings of all CWE participatory videos followed by questions and answers with the indigenous filmmakers who made them and who had travelled to Copenhagen to participate in COP 15. |
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During the two week intergovernmental Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, CWE was in residence at the Klimaforum – a two-week global civil society summit on climate change – presenting videos from the CWE indigenous media hubs and photostories showing climate impacts and adaptation strategies.
Stories presented included « Caribou People » about the Gwich'in community from Arctic Village, Alaska and « The Price of Carbon » about the Guarani people of Brasil. An interactive touchscreen with all CWE indigenous media hubs’ videos was displayed and open for visitors feedback.
While the CWE exhibit was on display at the Klimaforum, CWE partners organized a number of « side events » including a major evening program attended by over 500 people.
| The special evening included screenings of all CWE participatory videos followed by questions and answers with the indigenous filmmakers who made them and who had travelled to Copenhagen to participate in COP 15.
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Peoples’ Climate Summit
Parallel NGO
Conference to
the United Nations
Framework
Convention on
Climate Change
COP 15
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Conversation with the Earth artfully blends local knowledge of land and seascapes, media expertise, high-tech tools, and participatory action, to convey intimate stories of climate change. Through good reporting, powerful portraits and interviews, and participatory media, the visitor is immersed in the sounds and the feel of a site and its people, in order to recreate the intimate experiences of listening to a local person. In the process the visitor experiences not only a story about climate change but the means by which the communities tell the story-and indeed the means by which indigenous communities everywhere share knowledge to address problems: conversation. |
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| Photography |
| To recreate the experience of being live and in the field, CWE offers life-sized color portraits, both animated and posed. |
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| Interactive touchscreen and web |
The CWE website, which brings the voices, images and stories of indigenous peoples on climate change to the global audience beyond the exhibit, is also accessible at the exhibit. Through a touchscreen, visitors can navigate various indigenous climate-change testimonies around the world, get more in-depth information, access printed articles, and register their own feedback or questions to speakers. The website features an interactive map of the world, which allows the visitor to explore and listen to stories from regional networks near and far. |
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| Talking Portraits and sound |
| Select photographs allow the narrator to actually talk directly to the visitor via hidden MP3 sound boxes or other devices. The voice, usually field recordings in the original native language, is added either through a loudspeaker near the portrait or a stereo headphones by its side. |
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| Text panels and published work |
At the visual heart of the exhibit is a series of photo essays of communities and the issues that affect them. In a photo essay, each photograph offers an informative caption and/or a quote from field recordings, easing the visitor into a deeper understanding of each story displayed. These will be supplemented by informative text panels introducing each of the photo essays separately. In some cases, panels display fuller text or a published article on the story concerned. |
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| Participatory Video Booth |
| Using a video projector in an alcove with benches, Conversations with the Earth screens a series of films made by indigenous communities about their own experience with climate change, using the participatory video methodology. Cameras in their hands, community members interview their friends and neighbours, men and women, parents and children, youth and elders, to record how climate-change affects their daily lives. The result is a direct testimony, a skillful and custom-crafted narrative, and community-owned media. The 10-minute clips come from the growing Indigenous Media Hubs network that CWE is promoting around the world. |
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