DRAMATIC REPORTS AND IMAGES of wildfires, evacuations, record summer temperatures, atmospheric rivers, storms, and flooding—such extreme events have become all too common for many regions around the world. Yet even as it becomes more apparent globally how climate change impacts lands, waters and human infrastructure, for Indigenous communities, its associated extremes often layer onto existing challenges with settler colonialism and socio-technical institutions and systems.
A special gathering of Indigenous storytellers working to document and depict how Indigenous peoples contend with climate change, BFF: Beyond Fires & Floods—Indigenous Narratives in an Era of Extremes brought together over three-dozen Indigenous narrators—journalists, experts, and storytellers, mostly from North America and the greater Pacific region—to engage in a series of discussions rooted in three core questions:
- What would it mean for our storytelling were we to approach climate change not so much as a problem, but as a symptom?
- How do Indigenous narratives of climate change intervene, disrupt, and/or heal?
- How can Indigenous imaginaries/narratives help ready us for what’s coming, and help us navigate it once it’s here?
Co-convened by Candis Callison and Rick Harp, BFF took place over three days last October at the UBC-Vancouver campus on the unceded territory of the Musqueam Nation. Together, our conversations generated greater understanding and further articulations of what climate change means on Indigenous terms, surfaced new ideas and approaches to covering and contextualizing events, offering best practices for storying with Indigenous knowledges rooted in the needs and priorities of Indigenous communities. In so doing, BFF showcased the power of Indigenous narratives to better inform and assess actions and policies related to climate change.
BFF: The Podcast
With all three days’ insightful interactions recorded on site, we have begun to share them as part of a free, special MEDIA INDIGENA podcast series, to be released over the coming weeks and months:
⛭ Part 0 (MI 365) An overview of BFF’s origins, contents, and objectives by co-convenors Rick Harp (MI host/producer) and Candis Callison (UBC Professor)
⛭ Part 1 (MI 366) The formal kick-off to our extended series, beginning with the first half of a panel of veteran Indigenous journalists, recorded before a live audience at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.
⛭ Part 2 (MI 367) The back half of our live panel at MOA at UBC, the only public portion of BFF.
⛭ Part 3 (MI 368) “Storytellers Without Borders,” the first of our second day’s sessions, in which we explore why our narrative lens(es) on climate change must be commensurate with the scale of global forces driving it.
⛭ Part 4 (MI 369) The back half of “Storytellers Without Borders,” the lead-off session of BFF’s second day.
⛭ Part 5: Coming soon!
BFF Sponsors
BFF is supported with grants from fellowship funding through the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (with whom Candis was a Fellow in 2019–2021), and the Global Journalism Innovation Lab at UBC (where Candis is a co-investigator, and Rick a partner/collaborator). Their generous funding and support enabled us to fund participants’ travel, accommodations, meals and honoraria. We’re also grateful for the tremendous in-kind contributions of the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC.
