With theatre artists and environmental experts, we co-designed a transformative workshop to address the climate/colonialism nexus with young climate advocates from around the world, prior to the climate negotations supported by the United Nations Climate Change secretariat.
Fifty youth activists and sustainability students participated in a one-day workshop on ‘Facing Colonialism at the Roots of Climate Change to Envision Decolonized Futures and Rethink Climate Action’ for the Action for Climate Empowerment initiative of the United Nations Climate Change secretariat in Bonn (Germany), on 13 June 2023. The workshop was co-designed and co-facilitated with theatre artists Komi Mizrajim Togbonou and Alois Reinhardt, as well as by environmental expert and host of the Black Earth Podcast, Marion Atieno Osieyo, with Laureline Simon (One Resilient Earth).
Throughout the workshop, we mobilized visual arts, music and theatre-based practices to express emotions and explore ways of being and doing that could contribute to actual solidarity while repairing the harms done by colonialism, colonial continuities, and climate colonialism.
REFLECTIONS from the participants
Feedback shared by participants at different moments of the workshop was profound and enthusiastic, confirming a need for more in-depth work to be offered in relation to colonialism and climate change.
After the workshop, participants highlighted that they had gained ‘a new perspective on climate change’ and viewed the workshop as ‘emotional and real’. Some also noted that the workshop will have a ‘deep and lasting impact’ on them.
The session had a new focus of thematic issues which I so far did not explore.
One Resilient Earth started conversations that are really necessary within climate spaces.
