Description

Our Climate Stories

Climate change impacts everyone, around the world.  We do not need to be climate experts in order to tell our climate stories. 

For this activity, we encourage you to create a video introduction. You can do a personal video or a group video. If you prefer not to create a video you can use pictures, word clouds, or poems to tell your story. This activity gives us a  better idea of WHO YOU ARE and why climate change, climate resilience, and climate justice matter to you.

Stories about climate change can include examples of changes from your community, your school, trends over time, significant events, or your personal experiences of climate impacts. There is no one right way of telling your story, but the most successful ones usually bring in lived experiences into the bigger issue facing us all. This storytelling is an example of Talanoa.

"Talanoa is a traditional word used in Fiji and across the Pacific to reflect a process of inclusive, participatory and transparent dialogue. The purpose of Talanoa is to share stories, build empathy, and to make wise decisions for the collective good. The process of Talanoa involves the sharing of ideas, skills, and experience through storytelling... Talanoa fosters stability and inclusiveness in dialogue, by creating a safe space that embraces mutual respect for a platform for decision making for the good of all.

We are looking forward to learning more about -

What shapes your identity? 

What drives your passion for climate action? 

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Task

1. Create an Introductory Video - Group or Alone

Your video could consist of the following elements (but it is up to you! It's your video! Have fun!!): 

• An introduction (5-10 seconds) Who you are? Where do you live? What grade are you in? 
• Climate Issue (10-20 seconds) What is a climate-related issue in your community or city?
• Project highlights (10-20 seconds) What is an example of a climate project at your school or in your community? 
• Student highlight (10-20 seconds) What do you hope to learn during #Decarbonize? 
• Conclusion (5-10 seconds) What actions do you want the viewer to take after watching your video?

RECORDING IDEAS:

• Record on your phone/ laptop using your camera
• Record on zoom (I can totally help with this!) 
• Record on a computer with Screencastomatic https://screencast-o-matic.com/

     NON-VIDEO OPTION

  Photovoice is a process of collecting information and expressing issues and concerns through photos. 

• Go outside and take 4 photographs
• Create a collage with the photos and consider the following questions:
  • What is this photo about?
  • What story does it tell?
  • Why do you think this photo important?
  • What issues are raised by this photo for you and your school community? Do you have any thoughts about how to deal with them?
  • What are some examples of how to improve your community’s abilities to better deal with climate change in the future?
• Upload your collage to the gallery link below. Add the answers to the questions above in the 'comments' section
  

2. Upload your video to the GALLERY  - Please Title with your Name, City, Country

3.  WATCH at least 5 other profiles of other participants from different regions. COMMENT with your NAME, COUNTRY, and ONE similarity (For example, SARAH, Edmonton, CANADA: We both love cats!)

Need help? Reach out to me at sarah@takingitglobal.org

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Learning Objectives

Talanoa

Storytelling is a universal tradition and indeed the oldest form of teaching. Every human culture in the world seems to create stories as a way of making sense of the world. Ancient knowledge has been passed down through successive generations by oratory and visual means; performances, stories and symbols. Storytelling traditions may vary all over the world yet have many things in common. Before the advent of writing, storytelling was the only tool available by which individuals within their communities could preserve and share their heritage. Stories not only explained life and preserved history, but also ensured the continuity of experiences from one generation to the next.

One form of storytelling that is integral to the pacific people and many other indigenous groups is Talanoa. Talanoa is a cultural storytelling method that allow people engage in open dialogue. It can be applied in creation, co-creation and transfer of knowledge. Through Talanoa, participants can freely express their “common sense” knowledge. Talanoa promotes agency, paves way for the emancipation of the voices of the marginalized and make room for the inclusion of different worldviews in finding practicable solutions to our common challenges of climate change, especially the problems that can arise when we forget the importance of living in harmony with the environment and each other.

The scientific explanations of the subject of climate change is complicated and can become disempowering for people without technical knowledge. But passing the information in ways that resonates with local ways of knowing, empower people within each locality to draw upon their existing adaptive knowledge and apply their abilities to mitigate/adapt to climate change.

Thus, communicating climate change information by means that resonate with everyone’s local ways of understanding is important both for conceptualization and empowerment. Storytelling, or Talanoa, can be a great tool for climate change education. Talanoa is inclusive. It helps to ground the understanding of climate change issues in people’s lived realities both in formal and informal settings consistent with regular means of interaction.

RESOURCES

Inspiring Climate Ambition through the Art of Storytelling - Talanoa

Samantha, Samoa - My Climate Change Action Story

The Human Impact of Climate Change: Personal Stories from Somalia, Ghana, and Kenya

Climate Change in Fiji in VR: 'Our Home, Our People'

Keya's story: climate change in Bangladesh

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