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Climate change is a threat because it influences global weather patterns and therefore, contributes to more severe weather events and rapid changes in temperature and precipitation patterns. The impacts of climate change are currently being felt in every inhabited continent across the globe.
Participatory Video (PV) is a proven tool for Indigenous communities to document and share Indigenous knowledge of climate change to inform local, regional and international climate change adaptation efforts and policy. At the heart of the PV approach is a set of facilitated techniques and processes for communities to explore their own issues and adaptation options through video. PV workshops develop participants’ skills to explore, document, collate and reflect on information about local implications of climate change, including culturally relevant adaptation actions, focused on traditional fire management.
In May 2016, residents of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo experienced a serious wildfire, named the Horse River Fire. The region was then hit hard in 2020 by significant ice jam flooding and the COVID-19 pandemic. To aid in recovery of the region and its resilience building, the Canadian Red Cross supported a series of workshops and engagement activities, including the Fire & Ice program, that brought together a small cohort from the social profit sector who embarked on a creative learning journey filled with dialogue on topics about resilience and disaster risk reduction.
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Meris is a visual storyteller from Guelph, Ontario. Using photography, Meris works to authentically document stories with a focus on people and the outdoor environment. She is most passionate about the power of photography as a storytelling tool. Meris believes that sharing stories visually allows us to experience new perspectives and helps us connect with each other, our communities, and the world we live in.
Dr. Kira Hoffman
The 2022 Fire & Ice cohort gained new knowledge from experts about changes in water systems and wildfire, as well as the essential tools to tell their story through writing and photography, participants went into the field to reflect on their learnings. In the field, each participant took photos of ice, water, snow, and evidence of wildfire, and wrote short narratives about change: