through social gatherings and workshops led by indigenous mentors, the program seeks to build community and communication skills to empower the next generation of indigenous storytellers. planet forward’s lisa palmer recently spoke with cotnoir and lafrance about what inspired them to create the program. 

palmer: can you tell us about your background and what made you want to focus on creating a space for indigenous environmental storytellers? 

cotnoir: kwaï! ndeliwizi alexander. nojiawi mamlawbagok. my name is alexander, and i grew up along the shores of lake memphremagog. i am a citizen of the nulhegan band of the coosuk-abenaki tribe. my family comes from trois-rivières along the saint françois river, as well as coaticook, quebec and vermont’s northeast kingdom. i’m passionate about food systems and understanding how climate change impacts northern forests, including the species and communities that depend upon them, given my experiences growing up in a family and community that makes maple syrup from the woods behind our home each spring, carrying on our community’s long tradition of making local food. i’ve witnessed firsthand how many of our local practices — from ice fishing, snowshoeing, and ash basket making to maple sugaring — are threatened by warmer winters and the associated influx of invasive species brought about by climate change. 

lafrance: kahay! baalaashe iichiinmaatchileesh huuk. basammalíaxxia biiuuwuutasshiik deelé koon biixúhkaalaxchebaakaatik. binnéesappeele kookakawook. iikooshtakáatbaatchaache kookakawook. hello. my apsáalooke name is fortunate with horses and my english name is joree lafrance. i come from the greasy mouth clan and i am a child of the ties the bundle clan. i come from the river crow band. i am from the mighty few district at the foothills of the big horn mountains on the crow reservation in southeastern montana. 

cotnoir: my passion for environmental storytelling comes from recognizing that, although indigenous communities have contributed little to global carbon emissions, we are disproportionately impacted by the loss of species and habitats brought about by global warming. this disproportionate impact is because our spirituality and identities are formed through interactions with local plants, animals, medicines, land, and waters. thus, anything that threatens the health of local ecosystems threatens our community’s health.

today, my work in science communication is grounded in the recognition that science is but one among several ways of understanding the world. if we are to fully combat and adapt to climate change, we need policymakers and scientists to value other ways of knowing, including indigenous knowledge. indigenous knowledge is powerful because it is imbued with ethics, and it’s time and field-tested. indigenous knowledge teaches us what to look for — so it can help us better predict and adapt to environmental changes. i seek to honor indigenous ways of knowing, as well as the knowledge-bearers that have passed down their experiences to the younger generations through the stories i tell. 

lafrance: i am the 7th generation of chief déaxitchish/pretty eagle, the last principal chief of the apsáalooke nation, and one of the first five apsáalooke delegation members to travel to washington, d.c., on behalf of our people. i am proud to come from families who are known for our horsemanship, horse parade sets, our original red elk tooth dress, kindness, love, and hard work. my ultimate goal is to return to my homelands and continue my heart’s work. i strive to live in a world where my people can be unapologetically apsáalooke and am working hard to be a good ancestor.

palmer: where did the idea for the ilíiaitchik: indigenous correspondents program come from? what are you hoping to accomplish with this program?

cotnoir: we recognized the need for an indigenous space where students interested in sharing their experiences and communicating environmental issues to the general public can gather, form a community, and strengthen their communication skills by learning directly from indigenous leaders in the communication field. 

lafrance: although representation of indigenous writers, podcasters, filmmakers, and storytellers has grown in recent years, reporting about science and the environment has not always been inclusive nor respectful of indigenous communities and knowledge systems. 

cotnoir: in the past, reporting on “native issues” was typically done solely by non-indigenous reporters, with little to no continued connections to the communities they reported on beyond the interview period. today, a lot of work remains to make journalism — a process steeped in colonial ideas about who holds the right to tell stories — more accessible and equitable for native people. 

lafrance: although indigenous communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change and global biodiversity loss, only a very small percentage of scientists, professors, and science journalists at u.s. universities and news organizations are indigenous. despite modest increases in indigenous representation among stem professionals in recent years, recent research from the institute for scientific information shows that between 2010 and 2020, there “was virtually no change in the representation of black, hispanic, and native american researchers among authors of scientific publications” a symptom of structural inequality, including underfunding of bipoc academics. this lack of resources and representation influences the coverage and perspectives around environmental justice, climate adaptation, and environmental policy issues while perpetuating harmful stereotypes about native communities. 

now is the time for indigenous people to write their own stories about their communities. we have the power to tell our own stories, we just need the space and the right tools. as indigenous graduate students working in environmental storytelling, we have worked hard to build the ilíiaitchik: indigenous correspondents program in the hopes that it will create a native space where our voices and perspectives inform and uplift one another.

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stay tuned to planetfoward.org for an introduction of the incredible indigenous correspondent team and updates from the program!

kelsey nyland, ph.d., a research scientist and adjunct professor at the george washington university department of geography, is studying permafrost through the u.s. national science foundation-funded project circumpolar active layer monitoring (calm). at the 2022 planet forward summit, she discussed long-term trends of warming and thaw in alaska, and the resulting impact on local ways of life.

learn more by reading kelsey’s research.

the 2022 planet forward summit was dedicated to tom’s enduring work on behalf of biological diversity and the amazon rainforest. in this segment, alumni from the 2018 planet forward storyfest expedition reflect on their time with tom at the camp 41 biodiversity center in the amazon rainforest.

watch “why is connectivity important in the rainforest?” by jayme dittmar

view the series “planet forward in the amazon.”

matt scott, manager of storytelling and engagement at project drawdown, is working to “pass the mic” to underrepresented climate change makers. in this pairing of interviews, matt chats with eli chen, senior editor for overheard at national geographic, and mckenzie allen-charmley, planet forward comcast nbcuniversal sustainable storytelling fellow, to discuss what “passing the mic” means to them.

watch “drawdown’s neighborhood” to see matt “pass the mic” to climate heroes.

listen to eli’s work on “overheard at national geographic.”

national geographic explorer arati kumar-rao is on a mission to document what she calls “the slow violence of climate change” through visual storytelling over time. in this keynote presentation, she transports us to the flooded banks of the ganges river through photography and verse, and asks us to consider the responsibility we bear as chroniclers of the land in the midst of continuing crisis.

afterward, arati engages in a virtual q&a with students. learn more about her work on her website.

in this conversation from the 2022 planet forward summit, mala sharma, vice president and general manager of adobe creative cloud, shares her creative expertise, inspiration, and advice for emerging storytellers with planet 世界杯欧洲预选赛免费直播 diana quintero.

planet forward was honored to be featured as a creative changemaker at the 2021 adobe max conference. more here!

andrés speaks with tara scully, director of the sustainability minor program at george washington university and his co-professor for their class “world on a plate.” their conversation is followed by remarks by jocelyn brown hall, director of the food and agricultural organization of the united nations in north america.