The process of collaboratively planning and producing videos can bring people together to record and celebrate cultural food practices, strengthen traditional knowledge of the environment, and build strategies for a sustainable and resilient future. This article describes three recent examples of participatory video projects that aimed to stimulate food sovereignty - from Meghalaya (India), Gamo Highlands (Ethiopia) and Chiang Mai (Thailand).
Fifty members of the Khasi village in Nongtraw, Meghalaya, North West India, made a video with the support of InsightShare and KSO, a local indigenous organizationas part of the project for the Indigenous Partnership for Food Sovereignty and Agrobiodiversity. The video was presented at the Terra Madre meeting in Sweden (June 17th-19th 2011) by the commuity members themselves.
The Asia Pacific Indigenous Youth Network (APIYN) and InsightShare in partnership with Ifugao Research and Development Center (IRDC) produced “Lives in the Forest”, a participatory video (PV) on indigenous perspective on Reduce Emission through Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism and traditional forest management.
'Lives of the Forest' was created by indigenous activists from across the Asia Pacific region exploring the likely impacts of the UN's REDD programme on indigenous resources and lifestyles. It was created during a participatory video facilitator training in Ifugao (Philippines) by representatives of 15 distinct indigenous communities from 8 different countries.
The Philippines Hub was established by members of various indigenous communities, known collectively as the Igorot peoples, within the Cordillera region during 2009.
Participatory Video created by members of various indigenous communities in Itogon, Philippines, tracking the impacts of large-scale mining and now climate change on their environment and culture.
In this article Nick Lunch (InsightShare Co-Founder & Co-Director) describes how the Biocultural Portal (currently working under the project name 'Conversations with the Earth), functions as a web based resource for Indigenous Peoples and other stewards of biocultural diversity to share participatory video promoting local solutions to preserve the worlds biocultural diversity. He argues how the project - as a process at grassroots level - challenges power inequality but is simultaneously empowering for government officials, UN officers, civil servants, donors, NGOs, activists and communities alike.
The residents of Permisan village near the Porong river in East Java have been harvesting fish from their ponds for generations, but since an environmental disaster at the Lapindo Brantas gas mining site in May 2006, the area has been suffering from vast eruptions of volcanic mud, which have buried nearby villages and displaced thousands of people.
The residents of Permisan village (East Java, Indonesia) have harvested fish from the ponds for generations, but since an environmental disaster at the Lapindo Brantas gas mining site in May 2006, the area has suffered vast eruptions of volcanic mud, burying nearby villages and displacing thousands. This Photostory describes the process by which the residents of Permisan created their film 'Living on a Poisonous Stream'.
'Traditional Paddy To The Rescue' was made by Sri Lankan farmers in 2007 to document the re-introduction of traditional varieties of rice, which grow successfully in their heavily salinated soils.