III – CLIMATE CONFERENCES

COP26: SHE Changes Climate

The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference
November 2021

︎ Glasgow, UK

COP26

A COP – or Conference of the Parties – is a global climate summit, bringing together every country on earth to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

SHE Changes Climate

SCC is a non-profit campaigning organisation, driving awareness of the crucial role of women in accelerating just climate action.

Founded in late 2020 by Antoinette Vermilye, Bianca Pitt and Elise Buckle, with the aim to bring diversity and inclusiveness, transparency and accountability to the COP negotiations on Climate Change.

Today it is an independent campaign group with thousands of supporters around the world. Its global mission is to ensure all delegations, for all climate negotiations, have at least a 50% representation of women, all their diversity, at their top levels, now and in the future.

#5050Vision

Champions of Solutions

SHE Changes Climate’s inaugural event at COP26

︎ The Pipe Factory, Glasgow
9th Nov 2021

Session 8: Creative Sisters & Brothers Panel
The Power of the Arts

Watch Full Video Here

left to right
[1] Translator, [2] Verónica Inmunda, [3] Atossa Soltani, [4] Sam Lee, [5] Judy Ling Wong, [6] Kit Ondaatje Rolls, [7] Chiara Baldari, [8] Brian Eno

Moderated by Judy Ling Wong, painter, poet, and environmental activist

This event was my first introduction to Climate Conferences and I had the privilege to curate SHE Changes Climate’s entire creative segment. I was also invited to speak on the Creative Sisters and Brother’s panel, where we discussed the power of the arts in meaningfully addressing the climate and biodiversity crises.

Exploring themes of education, storytelling, heritage, and dreams, we were reminded that we are all artists, and what we need now is community, collaboration, and connectivity. In this two hour session (although only an hour is recorded), this is exactly what was created between the panelists and the audience.

One observant audience member, who had just walked the Spine of Albion, noted that while all panelists operated at the intersection of nature and culture, or ecology and the arts, there was a clear distinction between the ways in which we approached creativity:

Half of the panelists were encouraging playfulness while the other half championed reverence.

The division was essentially between the Western worldview and the Indigenous worldview.

She ernestly asked whether these two approaches, or ontologies, were in opposition or whether they could become complimentary.

As an anthropologist by training, I see this question as all about culture: societal customs, the arts, heritage, and ecological cultures.

After the panel I created this diagram.

What is the relationship between play & spirituality?

I believe that it is exactly here, at the meeting point of nature and culture, playfulness and spirituality, that worldviews, cultures, can come together in mutual understanding.

This theme, inspired by this lady’s question, has led me to start work on my next book, Creatures & Cultures, celebrating playful pollination across the arts and sciences.