At the end of a long hallway of Concordia University‘s EV building, floors of polished concrete, ceilings opened to expose – on purpose – the pipes and wires that connect each room to the blood and guts of industrialized society, there are about a dozen people gathered to hear three talks of the Environmental Studies Association of Canada – one of the scholarly associations who are meeting at Congress 2010.
The first to present is Adrian Ivakhiv, an Associate Professor of Environmental Thought and Culture at the University of Vermont. His ecologies of the moving image talk was provocative and evocative. A deeply thoughtful man, Adrian took us through a grand tour of some of the key ideas that explain how moving images move us – how cinema creates new worlds and shapes the one that we live in.
The second, shorter presentation by Cynthia Grant, opened up the debate about whether the movie Avatar either sensitized or desensitized audiences to environmental issues, colonialism, and whether its blockbuster status was the reason the left largely ignored the movie.
These first two presentations are interesting and the speakers are passionate but it is Ashlee Cunsolo Willox that I am here to hear. She is a PhD Candidate at the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development, Ontario Agricultural College, University of Guelph. She is also the Co-Director of the Changing Climate, Changing Health, Changing Stories project based in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut, Newfoundland and Labrador (Labrador really). This is a digital storytelling project that is really about mobilizing knowledge for the survival of a people and their way of life.
Digital storytelling is – in my professional opinion – one of the MOST important forms of knowledge mobilization available to community-based organization and citizens. Storytelling is among the oldest forms of exchange of knowledge between people. It is certainly one of the most resilient forms. With the introduction of inexpensive digital equipment, it is now becoming one of the most effective methods for deep contextual understanding to be shared widely across diverse and distant audiences.
Climate change may be a topic of discussion in the South. In the North climate change is an issue of survival. The massive changes to the food, flora, and fauna caused by climate change has resulted in a rise in depression, allergies, stress, gastrointestinal illness, diabetes, emotional distress, isolation, obesity, asthma, sunburn, anxiety, and spiritual distress. This is not however a project that deals only in problems but – perhaps more importantly – in telling the stories of a way of living held dearly by generations of people whose progeny may never witness this way of life again.
Place-based narrative that occurs through digital storytelling is important because it helps to develop supports that are locally appropriate. Ashlee had the group laughing as she recounted the “Menopause is your friend” brochures that had blond women in workout tights on the cover. Brochures sent to the North that did not speak to the North. This is often the story of the well meaning to those in need. The reality is that it does not need to be so.
Digital storytelling helps to mobilize the interests of researchers, epidemiologists, and not-for-profit organizations to come together around a deeply complex set of problems that threaten both the health and long term survival of a population threatened by the changes being driven by the effects of climate change.
Ashlee is humble in her assessment of her own role in the project but is effusive in her praise of the community members she works with. Her eyes light up as she describes the creation of a Centre for Digital Storytelling in the North. She is animated as she talks about how to explain the complex interaction of factors that affect health and well-being of this population she is clearly connected to. It becomes clear that the use of digital storytelling is a powerful method to bring together people to address difficult issues faced by the community as a result of climate change.
With funding from Health Canada, the community of Rigolet is shaping how and with whom they are working. They are building the capacity to mobilize their own knowledge through digital storytelling – and in their own words: “Everyone got a story to tell. Everyone. Some of them real good stories.”
Peter Levesque
Note: this is a re-posting of an article that was lost during some website service
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Glad you were able to repost this after your digital migration to wordpress. Great showcase of a personal story, and the use of digital storytelling as a form of connecting the significance of world issues – like climate change – with individual lives. The Digital Storytelling Project is a worthy example of how clear language addressing complex issues can make those issues much more relevant through a personal lense. These place-based narratives can act as a bridge where knowledge mobilization takes place between ommunity-based organizations, researchers and policy-makers. Thanks for re-posting.
“The My Word: Storytelling and Digital Media Lab Team in Rigolet are looking for photos (both old & new) of scenery and activities in Lake Melville. Activities could include fishing, hunting,trapping, camping, etc. The photos will be used as part of a presentation that Nunatsiavut Government will be preparing for environmental hearings, regarding the proposed Lower Churchill Hydro Development. All photos used will be credited to the person(s) who gave them to us.
Please forward photos to Marilyn Baikie at marilynb@rigolet.ca or please or inbox me the photos. You can also feel free to call the My Word Team at 947 – 3313 with any questions.”
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