COPART

Goodbye Climate Train

2011-12-12T03:38:00.000-08:00

We waved goodbye to the train this saturday.

So much resting and reflecting to be done...

Some pictures from the last few days of COP...

The Green Heart Movement painting the heart green at the the corner Cafe

Deaf Pavement Poets in Glenwood

Bye Train!

Here's looking at you kids!

ALL NIGHT VIGIL

2011-12-09T02:23:00.000-08:00

MOTHER EARTH HAD RIGHTS ALL ALONG

2011-12-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

By Dylan McGarry

Around the world in almost all non-indigenous law nature is seen as property. Nature is a commodity that we use and exploit. Today at a panel discussion on the rights for nature at the C17 peoples space at UKZN. I listened to the panel of Shannon Biggs from the Community Rights Program for Global Exchange, Natalia Greene (An Ecuadorian environmental activist), Tom Goldtooth from the Indigenous Environmental Network, and author and environmental advocate Cormac Cullinan, discuss the systemic paradigm shift needed in our culture and in our law, that will change how we regard, respect and treat Mother Earth. At the moment because nature is treated as a commodity (something that can be owned) the rights of nature are invisible in our legal systems. Yet this does not mean that those rights do not inherently exist. Understanding that this old property based legal system was not going to take the world where it go, Ecuador in 2008 became the first country to adopt the rights of nature in their constitution, and this year so did Bolivia. The rights for nature recognise that ecosystems have the right to carry out natural cycles and processes free from human alteration, the right to not be polluted, the right to not have cellular structure or genetics altered, the right of nature to not be affected by major forms of development, and that communities have the right to decide for themselves what occurs in their environments. These are just some of the expressions of the rights for nature found in the Universal Declaration of Rights For Mother Earth.

An illegal mining operation in Venda, Picture courtesy of Mphatheleni Makaulule

I attended this panel discussion with Mphatheleni Makaulule from Dzomo La Mupo, whom I met near her village in Venda while on the Climate Train, and have been collaborating with on her advocacy projects while at COP17. Silently lying underneath sacred Venda forests, rivers, lakes and waterfalls are vast bands of coal reserves, which Australian Mining Corporation Coal for Africa LTD, is speculating to mine. Even though this company need to have a licence to begin tapping water for the mining operation, they have dug a massive L-shaped cavitiy that cuts deep into the earth and has already destroyd sacred forests and rivers in the area, which is completely illegal (you can read more about this struggle here). Mpatheleni alongside elders from her community should have the right to defend their own land, their sacred sites and the plants, animals and people who live there.

The more time I spend contemplating it, I just cannot believe that a corporation has more rights than a whole community of life. While Mpatheleni and thousands of people from communities around the world are fighting similar 'development' projects in their backyards, they are in reality fighting for all earth communities globally. They are speaking on behalf of all those creatures, plants, rivers, and mountains that cannot do so themselves. As Mpatheleni puts it "We are the mouthpeice of Mupo" (Mupo is Venda for Mother Earth, it also refers to the entire cosmos and all living and non-living entities).

Mphatheleni Makaulule speaking about her struggles against coal mining
at the 'German & South African Coal Struggles' discussion held on friday by Earth life Africa

The Universal Declaration of Rights For Mother Earth states that the earth is sacred, all life shall live well, each has its right to its place in the community, life before property and profit and that there shall be a giving for every taking. Some might think that it is a radical idea that nature should have rights, but as Shannon Biggs stated eloquently today; the reality is that nature had rights all along, and we just did not recognize them, just as slaves, woman and animals had rights all along, we just forgot to recognize that everyone and everything has the right to exist. A mountain has the right to remain a mountain regardless of how much coal lies beneath the soil.

We now need to recognize the wounds we have created, we need to 'replace exploitation with healing'. Recognising the rights of nature is the first step in this healing, and as we begin to build our societies on the longstanding and sophisticated ancient indigenous law, we will begin to foster a form of healing that has been needed for centuries. As Tom Goldtooth as a first nation American put it, recognising the rights of nature will offer a deep healing between the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples of the world and unite all life on earth.

Earth Wound an installation made in Pietermartizburg, Kwa-Zulu Natal
created by South African Environmental Artist Simon MAX Bannister

Coal Installation by Simon MAX Bannister " What's yours is MINE!"

The obstacles we face now is to create a massive paradigm shift, just as the Americans needed to do when they changed the paradigm of slavery, where in reality, at the time the entire economy was based on slave labour. Cormac reminded us that just because recognising that nature has rights is difficult, that it will of course upset the status quo and it changes fundamentally how we live in the modern world, it does not mean we should shy away from this change, regardless how difficult and unpopular the truth may be. It is a welcome and necessary shift, if we, and all other earth communities are able to live well and express our universal right to exist.

If you would like to add your name to the signatures to the rights of nature click here. These signatures are being collected for the Rio+20 meeting to be held next year in June.

Tom Goldtooth speaking at todays session on rights for nature.

Demanding rights for nature this saturday at the Global Day of Action

un•earthed

2011-12-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

Pessimistic or Optimistic

2011-12-04T22:19:00.000-08:00

"When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums."

By Paul Hawken, The Unforgettable Commencement Address

http://www.paulhawken.com/

A NIGHT AND DAY OF ACTION IN PICTURES

2011-12-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

Over the past few days we have been preparing for the International Day of Action. Gathering used card from printing companies, sewing banners with my Granny's people powered sewing machine, and painting with 100% natural ProNature paint, we managed to create sustainable protest instruments. On our journey we met Mpathaleni from Dzomo La Mupo from Venda, who is fighting against a proposed Coal Mining project spearheaded by the Austrailian Corporation COAL OF AFRICA LTD (You can read more here). This 'development' will not only destroy pristine ecosystems, suck up all the water, and reduce the food security of the region, it will also destroy sacred ancestral sites, and potentially cause catastrophe for Venda culture. As Mpathaleni puts it "We are not just fighting for the people, plants and animals in Venda, this fight is for all earth communities". Mpathaleni collaborated with artists from the Climate Train to create protest instruments for the international day of action. The Climate Train also collaborated with Cormac Cullinan from the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, to create giant beach ball earths and banners for the day of action. Thanks to Jennifer New, Kai Losgott, Elizabeth Fletcher, Dee Lourens, Andrew Kayser, Taryn Pereira, Linzi Lewis, and volunteers from the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and Earth Life Africa for their support in the creation of a fantastic day! Finally thanks again to the CLIMATE TRAIN who has offered us the physical and symbolic platform to make this all happen!

Mphathaleni preparing slogans in English and Xhosa

Jennifer and Liliana Transplanter ProNature painting at the Climate Train.

Early morning banner sewing on my Granny's hand powered sewing machine!

as my sister in law likes to say "BURN CALORIES NOT COAL!"

Ironically we needed to blow up the globes at a petrol station,

and the only paint we could get to stick was spray paint.

Everyone offered a helping hand to hold the stencils

While others spray painted "GO Kai! the march is about to start!"

As those of you who were at the march, the globes had a mind of their own...

They rolled away ready for action

Jennifer at her first protest

Kyla Davis with activists from Taiwan!

WWF with banners and t-shirts reading

"FOOD, WATER, ENERGY, FOR EVERYONE, FOREVER"

They chanted "Save Kyoto!"

My planet my choice is a performance group emerging from Tshwane.

They are comprised of four pillars: Good Food Good Mood, Ubuntu, Dialogue and the Green Art Group.

Enjoying the rest under a WWF banner,

the humidity and the length of the march made many weary

To read more regarding the rights for Mother Earth Click Here

Janet from the Climate Train and Mongi from Well Worn Theatre Company,

Helped Dzomo La Mupo Carry this Banner the entire way!!!

Wayword Sun from AMBUSH gardening Collective

Cormac and Kai "RIGHTS FOR MOTHER EARTH, NOW!"

‘Unite Against Climate Change’: Thousands expected to join Durban climate march on 3 December

2011-12-01T23:02:00.000-08:00

Learners from Schools around DeAar last month marching and cleaning their streets at a Climate Train social mobilization day. (Photo courtesy of Dylan McGarry)

By Melita Steele

The third of December will mark the crucial mid-point of the COP17 climate negotiations. It will also be the day that people across the world come out onto the streets of Durban to demand action from world leaders inside the ICC. It's a march organised by the C17, a coalition of civil society organisations.

Politicians are discussing the fate of our planet behind the barricades enclosing the ICC. It is crucial they listen to the people, not the polluting corporations who are influencing the negotiations and delaying action because of their vested interests.

The science is clear: urgent action is needed to avoid catastrophic climate change. It is also clear that a shift to renewable energy will have major benefits for job creation, energy access and the climate. It’s literally a no-brainer, but it’s clearly up to us to make sure that governments listen to the logic and put it into action.

The march on Saturday is one big opportunity to do exactly that. (Map and other logistics below)

Earthlife Africa has a slogan: “renewable energy is people’s power”. What the people of this country and in countries around the world want is clear: a sustainable future. These negotiations are key for delivering that future through renewable energy, and reducing dependencies on dirty and dangerous energy like coal and nuclear. And because of that, it’s up to us to work even harder to make sure that our voices are heard.

I am really hoping to see you in the streets of Durban on 3 December. Future generations will judge us by the action that we take, and that we push governments to take. Let us not have to tell them that we did not have the courage to act when it was needed most.

Not in Durban? Click here for our live photo and twitter stream of the action.

March Logistics

Participants are invited to gather from 8:30am at Botha’s Garden/King Dinuzulu Garden (near the corner of Julius Myerere Street and Dr Pixley Kaseme Street) for the pre-march rally to begin at 9:00am. Speakers will include South African and international community representatives, Durban Archdiocese Cardinal Napier and C17’s Desmond D’sa.

The march will follow a route past the ICC, site of the United Nations climate change negotiations, gathering faith community members (who will rally at Diakonia Centre, 20 Andrew’s Street, Durban), special needs groups and youth groups en route.

Pausing at the entrance to the ICC at about 13:00, speakers will present short speeches, before statements gathered from participating groups and organisations are collectively handed over to UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres. Speakers will include Zwelinzima Vavi (representing labour), Ninmmo Bassy (representing Africa), Bishop Davies representing faith communities, Aluwani Nemukula representing youth and Constance Mogale representing women.

The GDA march will end at about 14:00 at the Old Pavilion site (corner of OR Tambo parade and KE Masinga).

PLEASE NOTE: After negotiations with the City of Durban, the starting point of the march has changed. It was previously advertised that the march would start at Curries Fountain, however it will now begin at Botha’s Gardens.

A COPART public art studio on the Climate Train

2011-12-01T21:46:00.000-08:00

A year ago we started working on reclaiming the acronym C.O.P. From Conference Of the Parties which is also affectionately referred to as Conference Of Polluters, we felt we needed a more subversive consistent reclamation in the form of a permanent conference, one that supports the development of active ecological citizenship throughout the year, one that does not only wait for people with power to make decisions regarding the future of Mother Earth, but rather responding as people of the planet from every position we find ourselves in. Our acronym for COP stands for Connecting Our Planet, and we appended ART to it which both implies a creative response, and also speaks of our belief that every person is an artist, and that imagination is at the heart of change and so the ART stands for And Re-Imagining Together.

Over the past two days with help from Kevin Buckland from 350.org USA, we have set up a public art studio on the train. With a generous donation of 100% natural paints from ProNature, and with donations from Fishwicks printers of off-cut cardboard and paper, we have already begun working in the studio we like to call the “ProNature Studio at Platform 15”. Last night while working on banners and placards for the Rights Of Nature group, I was joined by young activists and artists from around the world working on different projects, a collection of green felt tunics were being printed with hand made stencils. The group were making “Robin-hood” costumes to use in the UN delegation. The group of mostly merry-woman were also working on a large green and white target to represent which countries were getting close to the Climate Fund targets. Another group of USA youth delegates were working on a fleet of colourful cardboard ships to use to lobby for the USA to commit to the bunker tax which would also support global climate finance.

If you are needing to paint banners, create puppets, and other artworks for COP, come down to the Climate Train and work in this public studio. You will find the train at the Durban Station, on Platform 15. The studio is the second to last carriage on the right end of the platform. Please introduce yourself to either Xolani, Jaysen, Mathias, Dylan or anyone else wearing a green Climate Train T-shirt. We look forward to meeting you all there!

reflecting

2011-12-01T16:58:00.000-08:00

In May 2010 one of the most unique gatherings took place at the Spier Wine estate just outside of Cape Town. This gathering was a collection of scientists and artists from South Africa, Africa and the UK. The aim was to reach a tipping point that enables unique collaborations between artists and scientists to better communicate the issue of climate change.

Through various interventions, meetings, festivals and offerings COPART continues to work in creative, intelligent and interesting ways. Over the journey of the climate train the most valuable interactions have been with those South Africans so far from the information high way. The only word I have been able to use to describe this experience has been humbling.

As I sit on the climate train, parked at platform 15 at Durban Central Station, I feel that we are not doing enough to take the messages of the people to COP17. I feel guilty that I have not been able to do this (as I am the only COPARTIST that has UN accreditation). This guilt disappears when I think about why we started COPART. I think back to the long conversations about a permanent conference of the parties. I also feel that somehow we have missed a few steps. We are in Durban and we try and spend our time to interact with so many of our counterparts from around the world and the country... why is this? Do they better understand this language, the process or are we aiming to inform them of those forgotten voices we have gathered?

In my opinion I think we as a community have become obsessed with interacting with COP17 and the need to engage and build our movement. This is important if we are building solidarity but how can we do this when many of the people we engaged with do not know we exist or even why? This is an important point, as these COP negotiations seem to take the same format.

EXTRACT TILL WE DIE?

2011-11-30T13:08:00.001-08:00

By Dylan McGarry

After a journey through South Africa on the Climate Train over the last month we have met people in Gauteng and Limpopo who have been significantly effected by the destructive activities of extractive industries. Urgently and violently removing minerals and fossil fuels from the earth, these companies seem to conveniently ignore the environmental, cultural and spiritual worlds they disrupt forever. From the landless peoples at Mokopane to the elders at Dzomo La Mopu in Venda it seems innocent South Africans are now suffering heavy mineral poisoning, radioactive-induced illnesses and landlessness and the loss of ecological and cultural heritage from these practices; but business seems to carry on as usual; and so today under the shade of a pair of fever trees at speakers corner my heart and ears were particularly sensitive to the voices from Canada and Nigeria.

Today In Canada, the United Kingdom, and South Africa Indigenous activists and their supporters targeted Shell for violating agreements made with Indigenous communities in Canada. In Durban, the site of the ongoing UN climate negotiations, activists from Canada joined activists from Africa to denounce Shell and their repeated violations of human rights and environmental regulations. Appearing outside the south Durban Shell refinery, a number of Indigenous activists joined with youth from Canada and Africa to support the community of Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN), who recently announced their lawsuit against Shell.

“Shell has a history of devastation across the African continent that we are well aware of. Our peoples and our environments have been turned into a colony for companies like Shell, who profit from our suffering. Knowing full well the extent of brutality that Shell has delivered to my fellow Nigerians, we stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Canada standing up to say ‘get the Shell out of here’,” emphasized Nnimmo Bassey (above), director of Environmental Rights Action (Nigeria) and winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize.

“The destructive tar sands operations by Shell and other big oil companies are destroying the land and violating our people’s rights to hunt, trap and fish. Canada is a willing partner in these crimes and other human rights abuses caused by fossil fuels and climate change,” noted Daniel T’seleie (above), is from northern Canada, and a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation.

Ben Powless (above) from the Indigenous Environmental Network

Kandi Eagle Woman Mossett expresses her struggles against various forms of extractive industries from Coal Mining, Oil Drilling and Gas fracturing and now Tar-Sand mining. "My friends and family members suffer from how these industries enter into our low income communities, we are expendable to them... we have had 7 people in our community who have died from the semi automatic trucks that race through our community...human rights is just noted, it means nothing to them at the moment, we need to have the right to say what we need for our communities"

“Shell has left a trail of broken promises and ravaged eco-systems. They have been pushing their dirty fossil fuels plans on every country they can bully. It's time to stand up and say get the Shell out of there, we don't want your broken promises anymore,” declared Eriel Deranger, a community member of ACFN and director of Sierra Club Prairies.

“We’re drawing the line, and taking a strong stand against Shell. ACFN wants no further developments until Shell is brought to justice and our broader concerns about the cumulative impacts in the region are addressed,” stated Allan Adam, Chief of ACFN.

“Ironically, Durban, the site of this year’s international climate talks, has struggled against a refinery here that is the symbol of climate change and environmental injustice. Shell has been responsible for crimes against local citizens, who have paid with their lives. We strictly oppose plans to bring Tar Sands oil to South Africa, and agree that Shell must be held accountable for its violations against communities,” claimed Bobby Peek, director of Groundwork in Durban.

“We are here in Durban to look for climate solutions, meanwhile countries like Canada are promoting dirty oil from the Tar Sands, backed by large corporations like Shell. While our communities are suffering from the impacts of climate change, groups like Shell have been found to be lobbying governments to weaken their positions. This has to be the time when we begin to hold companies and countries alike responsible for their actions against our communities,” declared Tom Goldtooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network in North America.

These are the voices from today, that now resonate profoundly with the voices from Sowetho, Makopane and Louis Trichardt that we heard weeks ago on the train. Since listening to Nemo, Ben, Daniel and Kani speak I could not shake the thought of three significant lines from the Universal Declaration of Rights For Mother Earth:

1. Healing shall replace exploitation

2. A giving for every taking

3. Those that harm the earth shall be held accountable

We need to do everything in our abilities to ensure that healing, giving and accountability enters the hearts and minds of those extracting the soul from the soil.

COPARTISTS AROUND DURBAN

2011-11-29T23:07:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of the COPART activities happening around Durban

The train arriving at Durban

The We have Faith Rally on Sunday

The Artists at COP gathering

The Being Water social sculpture at the Artist At COP gathering

The General Assembly at Speakers Corner

Being Water at speakers corner

AMBUSH guerilla gardening at Speakers Corner

Love Life groundbreakers working in Collaboration

with the AMBUSH Gardening Collective

How can the leaves forget the roots?

2011-11-29T22:58:00.000-08:00

There is a special supplement in todays (30 November 2011) Natal Witness Newspaper about the Climate Train's Journey over the past month through South Africa. Here is the front page article

Coal mining plans jeopardise the cultural and ecological future of Venda

By Dylan McGarry & Christelle Terreblanche

“How can the leaves on the tree say 'we do not care for the roots’. How can they claim to be evergreen. Our elders are our roots, and we are the leaves. This is what we are seeing, the seeds are dying-why?- because we do not care for the roots. The younger generations they are the seeds, they have lost their connection to the elders, saying 'we can live our own life' I learned this from my father, he was an elder.”

These are the words of Makaulule Mpatheleni the spokesperson for Dzomo La Mupo (The Mupo Foundation: www.mupofoundation.org) who on November 15 alongside Moses Mudau handed over a letter to the Deputy Minister of Water Affairs Rejoice Mabudafhasi, on behalf of a coalition of nine NGOs to call for a ban on the water licence application by Coal of Africa, an Australian mining company. The company is prospecting to mine for coal at the Vele mining site at the edge of the Mapungubwe world heritage site. This would also necessitate the extraction of underground water from an area in Venda to feed the new Medupi power station in the area. The coal also happens to be below sites deemed sacred for the baVenda. A day after publication of the official appeal, Moses since received word that the company would take legal action against Dzomo La Mupo over the appeal to government. The company dismissed as “spurious” the allegations when contacted for comment, but admitted it would revert to legal avenues if attempts to bring the company into disrepute does not stop.

On Saturday 19^th November in Louis Trichardt-Makhado, a round table exchange, guided by the Climate Train team, was conducted with the women of Dzomo La Mupo, who guard the ancient water springs, their elders and spokespersons of communities from far-flung areas such as Tshidzivhe, Vhutanda and Thsivhale. The group sincerely shared their concerns and pains regarding several burning challenges - ranging from the proposed mining in the area to the growing disconnection occurring between generations in their communities - and shared their requests to the decision makers at COP17. A global report last week also pointed out that the Limpopo Valley is among the most climate vulnerable sites in the world, and the group is facing diminishing water supplies at a time when the coal mines are expected to use vast quantities of water amidst fears that the extraction process could also contaminate ground water.

The vision of Dzomo La Mupo (vhaVenda for Voice of Nature or Universe) is to revive the indigenous values of Mother Earth and to protect their sacred sites, traditions and way of life from extractive and unsustainable industrial development. A primary focus for the foundation is to heal the ailing trans-generational knowledge pathways in their community, which are rapidly being eroded from the effects of globalisation and urbanisation.

Mphatheleni says: “At Mupo Foundation we are working with elders, for us the elders are fountains of knowledge, without elders, we cannot say we will have a future... for us, as we say we learned from the elders, sacred sites is not just a forest or a cave, as the elders say, sacred sites starts very deep under the ground, beyond where we can reach to up, up to where we can’t reach above the stars..”

She stressed that sacred sites “connect us on earth, and the ancestors in the ground and the one we don’t know, meaning the creator.” If you disturb the sacred sites, you interfere with the connection of spirituality, of where we are and where our water comes from. We have disturbed this cycle of seasons that is why we have climate change. We do to sacred sites to pray for the health of whole communities. This is not a story, it is a reality. We want to raise this in a loud voice at COP17. Look at the disturbed indigenous forests, sacred sites and ecosystems. This is what causes climate change.

Our children today are growing knowing another way of life. The children, they know that the food comes from the packets and from the shops, there is no relation to the soil… How can our children believe in the knowledge coming from the elders and from nature.”

Forgetting to respect sacred nature

On behalf of the gathering, Mpatheleni shared the concerns from the elders regarding how even government do not respect their sacred sites, regarded as the dwellings of protective water spirits and early warning systems to droughts: “Today the department of tourism have turned our sacred sites into an entertainment place. You will now find condoms scattered at our sacred site. You go inside our sacred site you find a concrete house with people sleeping there. There are modern burials there, with tombstones, plastic flowers and empty bags of cement.”

The indigenous people of vhaVenda are sensitive to the delicate balance between culture, spirituality, livelihoods and nature. During the exchange the elders passionately explained that when individuals or industries disturb sacred sites they not only interfere and jeopardise Venda spirituality, but also jeopardise the natural ecological patterns that sustain all earth communities.

An elderly woman from Dzomo La Mupo testified “The rivers are empty, they should not be empty during this time, we have a month which is a restricted-sacred month, where we should not do anything during this month, we are not allowed marriage, or any other ceremony in that month... it is taboo...during this time you stay at home like the Israelites... during this month people are mining minerals from the earth and burning the forest, now we are seeing that these months have shifted, that’s why there is climate change. How can there be balance, how can we be stable?”

A woman from the group affectionately called Makazi, carefully deciphered the large ecological calendar that the elders had previously created with younger members of the community. She highlighted the paramount importance of protecting traditional cultural cycles, based on understanding the interconnectivity and balance found in nature, and between people, in order to solve the complex problems of climate change:

“If you look at this calendar, this is the cycle, the movement of the ecosystem which is found in the sacred site, in the indigenous forest. We are saying as Dzomo La Mupo, there is no miracle to solve climate change if we do not go back to the roots. Our elders, the ecosystem, this is our solution to bring order to this disordered world.”

Alleged threats and bribes from Coal of Africa

Shocked by the response of Coal of Africa in a national newspapers (eds – Beeld and The Star) to their letter to the Water Affairs department, Moses Mudau states “categorically that they will persecute us legally”. Another concern for Moses and the rest of the Mupo Foundation is the community consultation process made by the mining company. In order for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be approved by government, the developer has to conduct a rigorous process of community consultation. According to Moses this process has been seriously flawed and allegedly even corrupt:

“They say they are busy consulting communities, so that they can indicate to the government that they have met with the communities and the communities have agreed, but when we speak to them as community spokespersons they threaten us…now we wonder what is really happening. What Coal of Africa is doing is not enough, there are many people out there who don’t really know what they (Coal for Africa) are planning.”

In response, Coal of Africa’s Investor Relations Manager Sakhile Ndlovu, said:

“We most certainly have complied fully with what the law requires in terms of community consultation and continue to do so; and yes, genuine concerns, articulated to us in the appropriate forums in good faith, are taken seriously and acted upon. Further, these are transparent processes where the outcomes of engagement are considered by the authorities throughout the permitting and licensing process.”

She said the company was “committed to the responsible development of its mineral assets” and “acting in compliance with legislation and regulation”.

“We are committed to more than just compliance though – and believe that the company should do all it can to mitigate any negative environmental impacts and support the preservation of the natural environment, while creating direct and indirect job, and supporting local economic development and skills development in local communities.”

The suggestions of bribes and threats were dismissed. Ndlovu said that they were, however, “growing weary of individuals and entities using public platforms other than those provided by statute to make spurious, unsupported allegations against us” when they are protected by rigorous legislative safeguards.

“We have said that we will certainly consider using avenues available to us in the law to stop parties that maliciously seek to bring us into public disrepute. We also suggest that individuals or communities who are genuinely interested and affected parties engage through the processes and structures that are in place.”

A male elder insisted the consultations benefited individuals at the expense of the community: “…you find now that the community is in darkness, they don’t even know what is happening, very few people will benefit. What we are saying as Dzomo La Mupo, the whole environment does not belong to an individual, even if I am a king I cannot make a decision without proper consultation, proper consultation should be done properly. We are not against the mine per say, we know that our people lack jobs, the issue is the repercussions of the mine (and that) they may bring disaster to human life. We are saying as Dzomo La Mupo, please do not damage our ecosystem, as no one can restore the ecosystem which is damaged...”

According to Mpatheleni, who attended the initial public consultation process hosted by Coal of Africa, she learned from their engineers that if the mining is to go ahead it is estimated that by 2015 they would have used all the underground water reserves in the area. Mpatheleni recalls the meeting: “We stood up and said what about the ecosystem, you are not caring for the ecosystem, you are not caring for the eco-system that is the basin for the whole life. Then the director or the manager went out of the room, then we said to those who would allow us that 'you cannot apply this water licence, and minister should not give you this water licence, because once you are taking water you bring desert here. We are still against mining here because it will destroy trees, it will destroy our soil, it will pollute our air it will poison everything.”

On the depletion of groundwater by 2015, Coal of Africa rejected the “alarmist predictions” which it said was not based on empirical facts and said it had commissioned “detailed analysis of water usage and sourcing and these are at an advanced stage"

But Dzomo La Mupo’s concerns mirrors that of countless communities across South Africa, particularly those in Limpopo and the North West provinces where rampant platinum extraction has displaced whole communities and their livelihoods while scaring vast tracts of nature during the last decade. At COP17, civil society groups from Africa and South America are scheduled to hold several consultations on this apparently worldwide trend of putting minerals and energy for short term gain before people and ecosystems.

Dzomo La Mupo's response to the African Charter for rights for Mother Earth

The Climate Train has been creating open spaces for exchange and discussion around a countrywide process to draft a People's Climate Charter, which aims to be the African contribution the Universal Declaration For Rights For Mother Earth, adopted by South American countries in the last two years after extensive consultation. Through the Earth Forum (www.earthfora.org) a social sculpture process and other round table discussions on the train route, there has been a continuous stream of engagement around a draft charter crafted by eminent environmental lawyer Cormac Cullinan.

In summary, the draft document proposes several universal and Africa particular values about human relationships with nature – including;

The Earth is Sacred
All shall live well
Each (member of natural communities, which includes plants, animals, rivers, mountains) has the right to its place in the community
Healing shall replace exploitation
Communities shall decide for themselves
Those that harm the Earth shall be held accountable

Dzamo La Mupo asked to add two core principles to the draft charter – that all indigenous forests be protected as a priority to bolster ecosystems – and on a cultural level, that the ancient wisdom of the elders be respected and harnessed in the bid to meet climate change before it is lost forever. They insisted we should “…live to leave a space for future generations to continue …where we are trying to full-fill the present life… everything we must do, it (must be) for the future generation. And for me the future generation doesn’t only mean human beings, it is the future of all earth communities, future of everything, future of the trees as when we were today planting trees with the school children, the children are future, but the great grandchild of those children will see that big tree. We have to do everything thinking about the future generations of all earth communities.”

A request to COP17

The exchange on the Climate Train ended with a formal request from Dzomo La Mupo articulated by Mphatheleni - “We are humbly requesting … can we save the last remaining indigenous forests rather than continuing to destroy them. Can this be a call very loud to every community? Every indigenous tree, every indigenous forest that we see, can we use all our power and all the means to save it, instead of destroying it, or interfering it. We hope that through this way we can really deal with the climate change... another request, can we use the knowledgeable elders before they die, because to us Dzomo la Mupo, elders are our library, a living library, which if an elder dies it’s like going to Oxford and burning the library...can COP17 and all the institutions regard the elders as a knowledge library that we have to save before it goes to decay. I don’t see in a hundred years to come we will be having knowledgeable elders with this knowledge... there is a huge gap between the young and the elders, that’s why we said the food in the packet, there is no knowledge there, no elder who is going to transfer the knowledge there, there is no connection, no connection to everything”

Speakers' Corner

2011-11-29T10:04:00.000-08:00

After our Artists at COP17 meeting, a group of us headed down to Speakers' Corner to check out what was going in the open, designated protest space on Bram Fischer road. As we arrived, the General Assembly of the Occupy movement was being held.

Different types of people: speakers, participants, media.

The We Have Faith Caravan, which has traveled through Africa, led the group in a song.

Our friends, AMbush arrived from the train to plant, sing and beautify.

Artists at COP17

2011-11-29T00:44:00.000-08:00

We had a great meeting of artists at COP17 today kindly hosted by Kyla Davis in Studio 5 at UKZN where the Well Worn show, Planet B, will be performed free this week.

Here's who came to share:

The Green Heart Movement

www.cycles4socialjustice.org (also on Facebook)

www.ecologyandcycling.org (launching on 7 dec)

If New York is the big apple, Paris the city of love, Mikhail Peppas wants Durban to be known as the Green Heart City. Mikhail has already got the premier and Gcina Mhlope to wear a green heart to the opening of COP.

He's also involved in promoting sign language across the globe as a trans-linguistic form of communication. Through this, he is involved in sign-language street poetry and conversation trees where deaf poets sign their work which is then orated by a translator.

On the 10th December they will be hosting a pavement poetry event at Corner Cafe (197 Brand road, Glenwood, Durban)

AMbush!

Linzi Lewis, or Liliana Transplanter as she also likes to be known represented AMbush and talked about using the other road, the difference between nice, clean pretty city and then reality.

How we use public space is important and the perception thereof.

Ambush! has been a contributor on the Climate Train and they target forgotten, wasted spaces and make them beautiful by cleaning them up and using plants. AMBush works with people who live in that space so that they look after the plants and gain a sense of responsibility.

Natural and cultural heritage is lost.

Rio plus 20

Anna and Kevin are working on mobilizing youth (15-35 years) for the Rio plus 20 Conference held next June. They brought our attention to gathering places such as Speaker's Corner and Art Space ( 48B Florida road, Durban). They let us know about the General Assembly held by the Occupy movement at Speaker's Corner every day at 1pm.

http://www.earthsummit2012.org/

COPART

Dylan McGarry gave an introduction to COPART, it's history and its presence on the Climate Train. He spoke about his offerings of social sculpture in the form of Earth Forum and Being Water.

www.earthfora.org

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Earth-Forum-South-Africa/126043267474996

Well Worn Theatre Company

Kyla Davis spoke about Well Worn Theatre Company and its two show on the official arts and culture programme: Pollution Revolution (for children) which is being shown at the Expo and Planet B which is showing at Studio 5 at UKNZ this week.

http://www.wellworn.org.za/

Midlands Meander Education Project

Charlene spoke about the work she does with schools on the Midlands Meander and how she's bringing a group of learners who have made a documentary about climate change to the Global Day for Action march on Saturday, 3 December.

Impendle Eco School

Zandile represented Impendle Eco-school and the work she does in schools in the area.

http://www.impendle-ecotourism.org.za/

Injairu Kulundu

Shared her work as a creative human-development practitioner in the former Transkei homeland, working with communities vulnerable to climate change. She is at COP as part of the IDRC and Environmental Science Dept at Rhodes University delegation. She also is working for the Environmental Learning Research Centre. As a singer, performer and creative facilitator she is obviously interested in participating in more subtle creative forms of activism at COP, but is trying to find her feet in the chaos.

WARP

Maria van Gas from WARP has been travelling on the Climate Train and spoke about collaborating with other partners for guerilla crocheting.

http://artreefproject.ning.com/

Ollie's Workshop

Chantal

Green Revolution

Through chats in the meeting it emerged that Chantal's giant puppets would be a great contribution to Speaker's Corner.

Seed

www.seed.org.za

Chatsworth Youth Centre

Sam from the Chatsworth Youth Centre came to hear how he could bring the idea of Climate Change to his community project.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=178913549778

My Planet my choice

My planet my choice is a performance group emerging from Tshwane. They are comprised of four pillars: Good Food Good Mood, Ubuntu, Dialogue and the Green Art Group.

Here's some detail:

Green Art Group comprises of four projects:

Walls of Change: inner city wall art and legacy program.

Trashy art - artwork made of found materials to produce to fine art.

Clean music - eco-aware tunes.

Green Nose Drive - school-based clown training for youth.

Ubuntu - is made up of programmes based on indigenous peoples' rights.

The programme works to celebrate legends and icons of social and environmental justice and make heroes out of local green activists.

The Earth Junkies Project

Dee Lourens was present to represent the children's project, The Earth Junkies, which introduces children to the character of Mother Earth. The project is drawing also up a Children's Charter.http://www.earthjunkies.blogspot.com/

The Climate Train comes to town

2011-11-28T09:55:00.000-08:00

Here is a fantanstic article written by Kathryn Fourie from Martizburg, it was published in MediaClub

By Kathryn Fourie

Skooching along the obviously-not-clean tar on my bottom, I’m trying to maintain a low eye-line to take a decent photograph of a wheelbarrow. Not the most interesting gardening artefact I know, but this one says ‘love me’ on it, painted in happy bright white letters. The shutter makes a satisfying click noise; I pull my face back from the view finder and am flustered when I catch the eyes of a tall man in a green t-shirt who is smiling under his arm at me. His hand is resting on a cow print bicycle with a solar panel attached behind the saddle. “Is this your bike?” he says.
No, it’s not my bike unfortunately. Rather, it belongs to the travelling environmental activism collaborative that is the Climate Train.

The tar I was sitting on is part of the passenger platform of the Pietermaritzburg train station, the second to last stop on the Climate Train's journey to COP17 (the COP bit actually stands for Conference of the Parties, and yes, you guessed it this is the 17th meeting of this kind) in Durban. The much-anticipated climate conference opens on 28 November, with thousands of delegates flocking into Durban to debate crucial environmental issues.

The Pietermaritzburg train station is not a place I come to often, nor do a great percentage of the town’s people.
It’s a forgotten historical spot, a redbrick brookie-laced building that hails straight out of a 1940s movie scene. I expect to see my grandad in his safari suit holding out his hand for me. Despite its charm, all around it the buildings have fallen into complete disrepair, equipment is abandoned, and shipping boxes are stacked and forgotten. Strangler figs eat their way through cement and brick. To me, it seems a very apt spot for a collaboration of artists to swoosh into town with a creative and vibrant environmental message.

The Climate Train has been whizzing along South Africa’s railway tracks since 28 October, when it left Cape Town to visit 17 cities in seven provinces. It carried on board a true mixed bag of people and organisations; including poets, artists, environmentalists and even the occasional politician. Green awareness agency Indalo Yethu, Copart (Connecting our planet and re-imaging together), the British Council, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa are the main bodies making the Climate Train a reality…but what is it really about?

After chatting to the man in the green t-shirt, who turns out to be a land artist called Simon Max Bannister (after Googling him later I discover he’s darn good at what he does), I step aboard the train to see what’s going down.
A hand-drawn map shows a layout of the train, and it seems I’m at the door of the board room.
Venturing in I find an enormous box with ‘Coral Art Reef Capsule’ stencilled across the front. It has portholes that let one peer in, and inside is a mesmerising kaleidoscope of crocheted corals.Through the train windows I can see the women responsible for this art work crocheting like mad, sitting around a plastic table covered in a rainbow of wool. It is utterly beautiful, and I have to resist the urge to break into the box and roll around in the squishy nest of woolly colours as I move on to the theatre coach.

Here, Copart’s Dylan McGarry is talking to a group of schoolchildren and a couple of adults about using renewable energy sources. He is surrounded by tomato plants, sculptures, TV screens and people.
I smile to myself as he says “That’s right! It takes a very long time for organic matter to turn into oil, so we should rather be using sunlight to power things which is way better for the environment and we don’t have to wait a bazillion years for it to make itself!” I always like it when science people use words like bazillion. It makes them so much more human.
This is what the Climate Train is about, making the rather large and scary topic of climate change something that anyone can relate to. Using mixed mediums of art, drama and teaching as well as discussion forums, the topic of climate change is tackled from a variety of different angles.

A child will enjoy a creative play and the chance to paint all over a large sheet of paper, while an adult will relate to the exhibition coach filled with examples of alternative technologies and moreover, the opportunity to speak about environmental issues effecting their communities. The Climate Train is as much about listening to disenfranchised communities around South Africa as it is about creating awareness around climate change.
Station platforms are a subtle metaphor for a platform to allow voices to be heard, and it is the responsibility of the artists and organisers on board to take those messages to the end destination of COP17.

McGarry, one of the creators of the original Climate Train idea, commented that he has been absolutely blown away by the response in some towns and horrified by many of the tales he has heard, especially those related to the mining industry.
“The Climate Train has always been about opening up dialogue with people, we want to listen to what South African communities have to say; particularly those who are never given the opportunity to talk,” he said.
But the mission of the Climate Train is not to preach about green issues, said McGarry, but rather to listen so that the people’s voices can be heard at COP17.

After a long day filled with hundreds of schoolchildren, film crews, journalists and curious townsfolk; the Ambush group packs up all the indigenous trees from their Guerrilla Gardening initiative, they lift chairs and tables, pack up giant puppets and to be honest they look absolutely shattered.It’s bizarre seeing Bannister remove his installation art, like the cleverly split rock that he had placed on the tar and dressed with a sticky, dark stain of blood. In a few moments this very striking work of art is gone, and a wash of water later the ‘blood’ will trickle off the platform. Tomorrow this spot will simply be the station most of us don’t visit again.

As we dismantle McGarry’s cleverly designed circular community conference table, crafted by his own hands which are now thrown in the air, he says “I have to protect this table, kids and graffiti, what can you do?”
Blue ball point is scratched into the plain untreated wood; the Climate Train is far from a shiny glamorous PR circus, once you get past all the branding and media hype.

Dirty, sweaty and exhausted, the crew talk about how they’re looking forward to departing for Durban the next day but are also a little nervous.“I haven’t ever been nervous about any kind of environmental march or gathering before” says Kyla Davis of the Well Worn Theatre Company and a member of Copart, “But it’s just that no-one knows what to expect with COP17. It seems like it’s going to be absolutely massive.”

COP17 kicks off today in Durban. Just as Davis mentioned above, we are all curious to see what manifests at the conference, and as the Climate Train chugs its way into eThekwini we hope that the voices recorded on its month long journey will be heard among the din of the show.

The Climate Train has arrived in Durban!

2011-11-28T00:17:00.000-08:00

Amid Zulu dancers, a brass band, a pumping DJ and (my personal favourite) exploding (gold foil) confetti canons, the Climate Train finally arrived in Durban yesterday afternoon.

Photos of the brouhaha to follow shortly...

The Climate Train will be parked in Durban station until 10 Dec and will be open to the public.

If you're wondering what else to check out in Durban during the COP17 period, check out our DIARY page for a whole host of events.

MARITZBURG IN PICTURES

2011-11-26T10:36:00.000-08:00

We are close to the end of one journey, and very close to the beginning of the COP17 journey. We still have many unwritten stories in our memories, diaries and photo albums.... those are on their way. In the mean time, here is our day in PMB in pictures.

Kyla, Sbho & Oupa a giant puppet WellWorn collaboration

We have been so grateful for the donation made by ProNature Paints for the Climate Train. Guided by Visual artist Mathius Chirombo we have had 1.5x 9m painting for each town. This 180m painting painting threads together the inner thoughts, hopes and dreams of hundreds of South Africans.

MAX working on his recent installation. Created out of coal.

MAX's water words

Max: Blood Stone 2

An earth wound, a nick compared to fatal wounds created by Anglo American and the like

The Woodstock Art Reef Project guided by Zola Ndimande

Kyla packing up the Well Worn Theatre Company's Pollution Revolution Energy Bike, and the set for Planet B.... Kyla: "Do you see my life? Look how much I need to pack to go somewhere!"

The Team at the end of a very long and full day.

Kyla demonstrating how Ghandi was thrown off a train at the Maritzburg in 1893

Gillion Bosman's installation

Life after people

THE CHILDRENS CHARTER FOR MOTHER EARTH IS GROWING

2011-11-25T11:05:00.000-08:00

As some of you know a small group of us hopped off the train and traveled ahead to Kwa-zulu Natal to make room for new fellow practitioners who wanted to join the train. (We look forward to welcoming the train in Martizburg tomorrow!!). Today we visited the three incredible teachers and 60 your learners from the Corrie Lynn Primary Eco-School, as well as met Charlene Russel from the Midlands Meander Environmental Education Project and Bridget Ringdahl from WESSA (Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) who coordinates the Eco-School project in South Africa.

This school was once such Eco-School which has been a certified Eco-School for over 6 years now, with an international status. It is a small farm school with many of the learners coming from families who work on the surrounding farms. It consists of four classrooms, and a total of 60 learners. Being an Eco-School is a big achievement as the Eco-School flag is earned through the hard work of the school, the learners and the parents. In the period of time since they have been an Eco-School Corrie Lynn primary has created a veggie garden, planted a wide variety of indigenous plants, become a Health Promoting School and developed a robust environmental education curriculum. They are not alone, there are Eco-Schools all across South Africa, and the rest of Africa, with a total of 50 countries world-wide with Eco-Schools.

Dee guided us through another Earth Junkies story-telling which has been traveling the country over the past month, creating a form of children's climate charter. Earth Junkies helps children understand climate change; it cultivates a love and respect for the earth and provides skills to practically handle climate change and other environmental issues. It consists of a workshop for children, aged 4 to 14, based on the story, “The Adventures of the Earth Junkies” and a drawing exercise in which children depict their vision of Mother Earth.

Each child through the process makes a promise to the planet and from these promises the Earth Junkies Project is developing a Children’s Charter for the Rights of Mother Earth. The Earth Junkies project has been running an online competition of children’s drawings of Mother Earth, click HERE to vote for the best artworks. In addition to this “The Adventures of the Earth Junkies” will be developed into a reading series and then into an animated series.

Whats beautiful about the project is that it works with the often overwhelming concepts of Climate Change through the character of Mother Earth, a character they grow to love. It also cultivates a respect for and an interest in other children’s cultures and provides children with a kit bag of practical skills to become active ecological citizens in a climate changing world.

Climate change to the MAX...

2011-11-24T07:55:00.001-08:00

So the answer might be blowing in the wind, but the question is in the water and the soil.

I have been on the climate train now for 3 nights and it is really a dynamic challenging experience. My options of materials to work with varies form each station we pass through. I have to adapt and be resourceful, while being conscious of what waste I generate and energy I use. I wish to communicate through my works how the imagination has no limits and must be used in a demonstration of how we can address climate change through caring for the earth and water.

To see more images, works and thoughts.. check out my personal blog...
http://simontothemax.blogspot.com/

BEING WATER

2011-11-24T03:03:00.000-08:00

by Dylan McGarry

“The earth usually holds each of us, and cares for us, now I am holding his handful of earth and feel so privileged to reverse this relationship and hold earth for a change. I need to care for it as she cares for me”

These were the words of Vhonani Mnzeru who was one of ten people who participated in an Earth Forum last Friday 18th November 2011, in Louis Trichardt. Vhonani is a member of the Vatsonga Cultural Village in the Elim district. Understanding that their traditional Venda and Shangan heritage was in jeopardy, the people of Elim created a space to share their knowledge in practical learning activities, to transform this static knowledge into everyday knowing.

In the Earth Forum the group of ten concerned citizens from Elim reflected on the convergence of western, Venda and Shangan cultures, with particular concern on how capitalistic western influences where slowly eroding the empathetic relationship people had with the natural world. Hlekani (Grace) Maluleke the chair of the Vatsonga group placed her handful of earth on the cloth and said:

“We are stuck between the western world and the world we know and love. Our people are forgetting to replace the trees we cut down. I remember my childhood when there was a balance, but now we have to work hard to bring that balance back”

Musundwa Malaka stressed the importance of each persons responsibility to actively participate in ecological citizenship, with a quiet smile she shared her poignant contribution

“ Each person should plant their own tree in their garden. If I did not have a tree in my garden that means I am stealing the oxygen made from my neighbour's tree, I have the responsibility to plant my own, and farm my own air”

Members of the Vatsonga group at the end of an Earth Forum

After the Earth Forum a crowd from the train crammed in the back of the Indalo Yethu bakkie (a light-utility vehicle) and some others in a mini-bus taxi, joined the Vatsonga group to visit the village of Elim and the Vatsonga Cultural Village. The activities planned where to plant four trees with Danny and WayWord Sun from Ambush. We were taken by surprise by the dramatic beauty of this place. Standing high on top a hill with a view of sharp cliffs of the sacred Ribolla Mountain, we overlooked 25 different villages. After the planting and adding a handful of the soil gathered in the Earth Forum in Louis Trichardt to the young trees, we were taken to visit the different learning areas and practices in the centre. Here people from the community are able to learn traditional practices, and through doing so develop a new kind of attentiveness, that draws from the sacred and ancient knowledge of their people. I was so moved by this place, it was built not to attract tourists (which undoubtedly it will do in time) but its primary function was to create a place of learning and doing, and a place to become part of nature and find balance again.

WayWord Sun from AMBUSH planting a tree with the sacred Ribolla Mountain in the distance

Hlekani and I spent some time talking about circles. She shared how the circle is a sacred shape, and comes up in all their practical designs of homes, gardens, and kraals, but also is a shape that gatherings usually turn into. Reflecting on the circle created in the Earth Forum gathering she told me of a recent tree planting that occurred at the Village, she said “Everyone stood in a circle around the young tree and a young man mentioned we were helping the tree find its roots while we stand around it, and then an elderly woman corrected him and said, no actually it is helping us find ours”.

As we spoke more about the sacred nature of circles, earth and water I shared with Hlekani that I have been collecting small amounts of drinking water from each town we visit on the train. I gathering the water in a bottle. I have been carefully handling it as if the water was a child or a baby bird, and nurturing and loving it along the journey. I intend to create a social sculpture called BEING WATER where a small homeopathic amount of this water is added to a large vessel of water and then passed around for people to drink and to contemplate how we are all connected to each other through this miraculous element. Hlekani smiled and said “I have the perfect vessel for you!”

She took me to a large round hut, and began digging amongst a variety of beautifully crafted traditional vhaVenda instruments and implements, finally emerging with a Tshitemba (Shee-Tem-Ba), a dried hollowed-out indigenous pumpkin, which is used to hold liquids and traditionally shared amongst a gathering of people. She said I should take it. At first I felt hesitant to take such a beautiful and culturally significant item from their centre, and suggested that I borrow it and take the Tshitemba on a journey through South Africa and abroad to share this sacred water with all kinds of people along the way, and then in a years time return the Tshitemba to the village. And so standing in a circle the Vatsonga group and the group from the climate train conducted the first BEING WATER social sculpture. Each passed the Tshitemba filled with delicious rain water collected on the hillside to each other, when it came time for one of us to take a drink, we held a small amount of water in our mouths, and used our imaginations to see how this water creates an invisible, yet very real, bond between all people, animals, plants, with the sky, the rivers, the sea, the mountains. We each carefully swallowed the water and allowed it to become part of us, we were now all being water.

the ever-present circle in vhaVenda design

Hlekani with the Tshitemba

Zola from WARP drinking from the Tshitemba

One of the learning areas at the village

A panorama of the view from Vatsonga

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE 29TH NOVEMBER

2011-11-24T01:24:00.001-08:00

The broad sphere of sustainability oftentimes responds to the symptoms of climate change and environmental decline, or perhaps the structural or technical elements of our system, aiming to try 'fix' the problems, as if only a single component is 'broken'. Yet we all know the social and natural world is too complex and organic to be treated like a broken toaster.

While many are responding to the technological, scientific, economic and political responses to climate change, artists are working with the systemic cultural foundations that underpin meaningful social change.

Everyone with an imagination is welcome to this open exchange

HOSTED BY THE COPART MOVEMENT

WHERE: STUDIO 5 THEATRE at UKZN, DURBAN
WHEN: 29th November 2011, 9h30-12h30
Invitation to artists of all disciplines who will be at COP17.

Contact Dylan armadylan@gmail.com or Kyla kylalliandavis@gmail.com for more information

WELCOME MAX: EARTH PASSENGERS & BLEEDING STONES!

2011-11-23T23:31:00.000-08:00

Earth Passengers

By Simon MAX Bannister

The Climate Train is in JHB at Nasrec Station, Sponsored by South Africa's environmental Affairs, Indala Yetho, COP17, National Lottery, British Council, this is most certainly not the gravy train. Saving Tomorrow Today is the challenge, and a never-ending one at that. Saving the world from ourselves is the inconvenient truth that I have found in my observations. But here we are, armed with spades of progress and lashings of spicy creativity to spread awareness and hopefully keep green giant fed.

This has been my first introduction to the train team and the various workshops and activities planned for the next week down to Durban for the Big Meet. I have felt inspired to be involved with the movement, as I really want to see how effective this amount of energy and resources can be in delivering something more than a quick fix. I wish for something deeper, something that genuinely touches people and empowers them to change their inner climate of love for the earth

People always seem to be waiting, waiting for something to arrive or end. Anticipation of disaster and the ability to think ahead has been a key facet to our progress and success of harnessing the elements.

My contribution to the journey is very open in its details, this I have done with intention as to not limit my abilities and boundaries to tightly. I will create with "found materials" And as this is really about our relationship with the earth and its resources I felt that this was a good place to start. Mud.

Blood stone - Stone, Earth and Water - 50cm x 30cm x 30cm

CHECK OUT SIMON'S BLOG

COPART team on the Climate Train: update

2011-11-23T02:47:00.000-08:00

Due to the dynamic nature of the Climate Train project, and the challenges we have all had to handle in terms of planning and logistics, it emerged last week that those of us who had joined the train to provide an exchange programme throughout the journey, would, in fact, need to leave the train and make room for other facilitators from Indalo Yethu’s partners. This was a disappointing surprise to the COPART team but we have made the most of it, and have travelled ahead to work in Kwa-Zulu Natal. Four of us (The Earth Forum Social Sculpture which includes Dylan McGarry and myself, Liz Fletcher, and the Earth Junkies Project, Dee Lourens and Andrew Kayser) left the train at Joburg but are continuing to work in Durban and Pietermaritzburg. As scheduled, visual artist, Simon Max Bannister and Kyla Davis from Well Worn Theatre Co, along with Modise Bodibe and Sibusiso Sithole from the Matchstick Puppet Co. have joined the train and continue to work with the other practitioners on the train to provide deep exchange and experiential learning. We look forward to welcoming the Climate Train when it arrives in Durban on Sunday, 27 November. We are gearing up for a helluva COP17!

Dzomo La Mopu visit the Climate Train

2011-11-22T01:28:00.000-08:00

The town of Louis Trichardt had been building in significance for me since I heard that the Mupo Foundation, a group of Venda people who protect their culture’s sacred sites, including pools, mountains and forests, would be travelling a great distance to join us on the Climate Train. This stop was the last of the Limpopo loop before we returned to Johannesburg and began the last leg of the Climate Train’s journey to Durban and to COP. We have written an in-depth article for a special supplement in The Mercury however I’d like to write about what wasn’t spoken about in the article which will follow on the COPART blog shortly.

Elderly to elders

The energy around the train on Saturday morning built from early on with the scorching Limpopo sun. When the La Mupo group arrived, they shambled in, a crowd adorned in beautiful patterns and ornaments, carrying trees. Most of the group were elderly. That’s the word and impression I held at the time, however, after spending an afternoon with them, the word and its connotations left me and was replaced by the word ‘elders’ and a whole new appreciation, respect and profound care.

The group moved into the conference carriage of the Climate Train. Once everybody was seated, the room was full with the 25 or so elders plus several member s of the Train team as well as camera crews creeping in and out to capture the momentus discussions.

There’s always one…

At first I was very intimidated. These elders held ancient knowledge, they were the guardians of their cultures most valued places and we were on their turf. During the greeting to open the round-table discussion, one old woman’s phone started blaring with a piercing generic tone. She fumbled in her small purse while the whole carriage waited, dutifully. Once she found it and had prodded several buttons, she began shouting into the phone at which point her neighbours started shouting at her and grabbed the phone to switch it off. Some things never change no matter where you are.

Water to connect us

Once everyone had settled down again, Dylan humbly introduced himself and offered a calabash of water to share as a way of connecting everybody in the room. We were requested to say our name and take a sip of water. While holding the water in our mouths, we were asked to consider how much of our bodies is water, how much of the earth is water and the way this water in the calabash would move through all of our bodies that day.

One of the men raised a question I had never even considered. Giggles and consternation rippled through the room before a translation emerged. Before he shared in the water, he wanted to know if the water came from a spring or a tap. Dylan replied that, despite searching for a nearby spring, the water unfortunately came from a tap. With that, awkwardly at first, the calabash made its way around the long table.

I was squashed up at one end of the carriage partly behind some women. As it came closer, I watched each person intently. Some were a little embarrassed and mumbled their name into the pot and took a sip to get it over with. Some proudly announced themselves to the room, and others addressed themselves more reverently to the water they were about to consume. As it came closer, a fear that it would pass me by crept up in my belly. I watched a man in a full suit take off his Stetson hat and spectacles before taking the calabash from his neighbour. He said his name so quietly it was barely a whisper.

The woman in front of me tipped up the deep yellow bowl to drink and attempted to pass it on to the woman next to her instead of back to me behind her. I wanted to reach for the bowl as it passed me by but my desire to be a part of this shared ritual was outweighed by my reluctance to interfere and my awareness of being an outsider. The woman she was passing the bowl to gestured to me and the bowl swung my way at the last minute.

As I brought the calabash up to my mouth to drink like everybody else at the table, I tasted the cool, pure water and smelt the green thatch of the inside of the deep bowl. The discussions continued as the La Mupo Foundation outlined their ecological calendar, their ancestral map and the very serious conflicts they are experiencing with Australian prospectors, Coal for Africa.

During the discussions which will be outlined in our next blog post, the woman next to me removed two of her many many bangles and handed them to me with a smile. Just like that. After the round table discussion, we walked together to plant the trees the Mupo foundation had brought to plant. She talked away at me in her language and I vehemently agreed or disagreed according to the signals I could pick up. Another, younger woman strolled up alongside me and said, "she says she is your mother."

Difference to deference

There really was a sense of different worlds meeting each other about a concern dear to their hearts. Just looking at the beautiful garments of the women highlighted this for me. Bright coloured cloth was wrapped over swimming towels, Zionist church badges adorned women’s chests wearing men’s leather shoes. Necklaces made of luminous mass-made beads depicted traditional Venda patterns. This juxtaposition was within us too: artists, educators, scientists, activists living on a train in small towns most of us had never heard of. Corny as it may sound, the common denominator was a deep concern and care for our earth and this foundation of the heart enabled all of us to skip over language barriers and navigate cultural differences with relative ease.

Makaulule Mphatheleni spokesperson for Dzomo La Mupo dancing after planting trees they raised from seeds.

Home is the ground beneath our feet

2011-11-19T01:14:00.000-08:00

The Earth Forum social sculpture is our contribution to the Climate Train, and while I guide this new social learning space as a responsible participant in each town, this socially expansive artwork owes its development through the support and guidance of Shelley Sacks, Elizabeth Fletcher, Reza deWet, Maria Honig, Helia Lotz-Sisitka, Injairu Kulundu and the British Council.

Earth Forum with ten Capricorn District Municipal Councilors in Polokwane

Earth Forum instruments in its basic form consists of a large-round-unbleached-natural-calico-cotton- oiled cloth, used by participants in each town. Seated in a circle around the cloth, citizens work with the earth (soil, rocks, plant matter, humus) collected from the surrounding area; this earth plays a central role in creating the shape and form of an Earth Forum and is the tangible form that the participants are able to connect with (it is the primary connective aesthetic, which as social sculptor and reader in art Shelley Sacks puts it, refers to the opposite of anaesthetic, it enlivens our imagination, allows us to perceive shapes and forms with new eyes). The individually collected earth is placed on the cloth by the participants and combined with imaginative contemplation of the the handful of earth each person holds. Earth Forum offers a new social space for citizens of any age, gender, language, educational level or economic background to have the opportunity to unearth their own values and hopes, and to be heard sincerely by all those gathered in the forum. The oiled cloth over time collects the traces of earth from each forum and the soil mark left in the cloth embodies each participant's listening, sharing and learning.

The Earth Forum cloth with its traces from Cape Town to Louis Trichardt

So far the cloth contains traces of sincere exchanges between over three hundred people in South Africa, including: municipal councilors, teachers, learners, young activists, farmers, mayors, landless peoples, scientists, artists, train staff, children, educators, film makers, photographers, journalists, entrepreneurs, traditional leaders, traditional healers, cultural practitioners and a poet. To date the cloth embodies exchanges in isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, Sesotho, Xitsonga, Tshivenda, !Xam and English. The traces in the cloth come from earth gathered in Cape Town, Worcester, Beafort West, De Aar, Kimberly, Klerksdorp, Soweto, Pretoria, Polokwane and Louis Trichardt, with a total 305 personal contributions embodied in the single cloth. With each Earth Forum consisting of about 10 to 25 participants I try to imagine the size of the growing circle of ecological citizens after each forum, a rough calculation with each person occupying about a meter, the growing circle of people currently has a circumference of 300m, and a diameter of about 97m, the circle of people sitting side by side would not be able to fit a rugby field which has a width of 70m. It is a large gathering if you consider it has only had 3 weeks and a single responsible participant to help it grow.

What is unearthed in this space, is sometimes deeply moving, with each exchange offering new and personal explorations into the South African reality of living in a climate change era. In each town we visit, we arrive as strangers, and leave with deeply forged friendships. When I open the curtains every second morning I find that the view from my window has changed. Yet the more time I spend on this train and the more time I devote to guiding Earth Forums in each new place, the less the new towns feel strange, as I know that by the time I leave I would have had the opportunity of actively listening to thoughts and questions from individuals in each place. We would have also collectively expanded the imaginative and listening capacities of each person seated in the forum.

Along the way I have had the privileged to work with many South African children, women and men. I have particularly enjoyed working with woman from the organisation entitled “Woman in Environment” (WiE). These are either woman involved in the emerging informal or formal green economy, woman in agriculture, conservation, environmental education and/or environmental justice. As a young man, often times younger than the WiE participants, I feel somewhat out of place, helping to guide and shape such a gathering. In each circumstance I am careful to mention that I am well aware of my age and gender, and humbly ask (with the greatest respect) for the groups understanding and trust in my role as responsible participant. I am clear to mention I am neither a facilitator nor mediator, but merely a human being who sincerely would like to participate in a mindful exchange and capacity development process, with my own capacity being developed as well. Usually with gentle warm smiles the group humors me, and allows me the space and time. Something remarkable happens each time I am surrounded by a group of strong African woman, who carry much of the weight of caring for their children and the earth herself. These fora consists of a particular substance, a warm fortitude, that holds each of us, in the emergent excavation of values.

Recently in Pretoria, I sat in a circle of woman who shared the deeply intimate reflections of the place on the earth, and their hopes for the earth cradled in their cupped hands. One elderly woman shared a memory of her childhood in Lesotho, the smell of the earth took her to a day when she was no older than six years old, playing with her sister in the soil. She could here her mother's voice calling her Sotho name, her mother died when she was nine, and she imagined her mother now part of the soil she held. She said that it was not a nostalgia she felt but a peace and resolution between the balance between her mother and the earth. In a gathering of WiE in Polokwane, I felt safe enough to share my personal struggle with the my God Mother healing and the healing of Mother Earth. A few weeks before boarding the train I discovered my God Mother was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, holding my handful of earth I could not separate the healing I desperately sought after for these two important symbolic mothers in my life. The woman in the group paused the Earth Forum to pray out loud (in their respective languages) for my mother, the vibrations of their voices ululated in a harmonious chanting. Afterwards, a woman broke the silence by saying “we have prayed for the healing of your Mother, and our Mother Earth”. I could not help feeling after a tender embrace from each woman, who had arrived as strangers to each other and to me, that when I left this town, I gained 15 new mothers, within the process and also practically in their caring for me, and in their promise to call my mother to share their love and prayers.

It seems that when we hold the earth in our hands and in our imaginations, and when we offer sincerely empathetic ears to the values and hopes of strangers, we immediately turn from disconnected outsiders into intimately connected ecological citizens who resemble a family, with our home being the earth beneath our feet.

Happening on the Climate Train right now (Polokwane, 16/11/11)

2011-11-16T04:16:00.001-08:00

School children from Mitchell House school painting

School children from Mitchell House school washing their hands after painting

Photographic exhibition run by GIZ

Mbali running a poetry workshop with Grade 10 boys from Mitchell House school

Zola from WARP teaching visitors to crochet and adding to the communal coral reef that's growing on the journey.

AMbush working with Mitchell House school children

Representatives of Women in Environment who had just taken part in an Earth Forum.

Women in Environment boarding the train for a tour

Researcher and Hydrogen fuel cell expert, Junior, from UJ and our resident journalist, Sonia Koopman from the Green Times in action.

Logistics kicking ass and taking names: Riyaaz and Xolani.

THE PROJECT 90 by 2030 YOUTH FORUM

2011-11-15T08:11:00.000-08:00

Giving youth a say in the design of our future.

Project 90 by 2030 primarily aims to influence lifestyle choices among ordinary South Africans. In our research on what's required to affect change, we have found that people – living, thinking and talking about the need to live differently can be a great trigger for inspiring action. In addition, young people make strong advocates for change that can lead to the creation of a better world. So we decided to take a closer look at young climate leaders who are taking action in their communities and see how we might be able to support them and their work.

This video gives an overview of our environmental leadership program which took place in 2011, in view of the need to influence the outcome of COP17, commencing in Durban in November 2011.

Produced by Cosmos Productions

Project 90 by 2030 Youth Forum 2011 from Jacqueline van Meygaarden on Vimeo.

A Day on the Climate Train

2011-11-15T00:30:00.000-08:00

07h30

I wake up in a new place. We travelled through the night. The first thing I notice is the quiet. There is no intercom blaring above my carriage. There is sunlight and trees which makes this a fresh new word compared to the closed, noisy and smelly Pretoria station. I see Coral trees, blue sky and lush palm trees. I remember we are in Naboomspruit. I open the curtain – ‘J.T Paneelkloopers’ hand-painted on building next to the railway line. A man in an electric wheelchair swoops down the ramp in front of his house and tootles around the corner to his car. Time to get up

08h00

As we are having breakfast, the train has to manoeuvre alongside the platform so we creep several hundred metres forward and then return. Over my fruit salad, I have a laugh at Dee from the Earth Junkies Project who has been stranded on the platform, morning cigarette in hand and mouth agape.

09h00

We have 150 sapling trees and various plants travelling with us to donate to schools and communities along the way. They have been suffering in the claustrophobic Pretoria station and need to be moved out to get some sun. It's time to get dirty and do some heavy lifting. The sun is already relentless, I grab a hat at the last minute to save my face and shoulders.

We arrange them along the platform in angles to create the most amount of shade possible. The more fragile tomato saplings that Ambush! are work-shopping and giving to children, we out in the shade.

The team also talks about what to put back in the Theatre carriage after we had to rescue some sick looking plants that have been decorating the space. We salvaged a huge roll of rusted fencing from NASREC station and we’ve been planning to make vertical gardens out of it for the outside of the train. There’s talk of adding them to the theatre carriage too. For now, we look at the plants we have that will be happy inside for a bit and start moving them through.

10h30

I head to the lounge carriage to check emails and find out what’s going on for the day. Invoices, inquiries, and Sixteen members of a community affected by Platinum mining are on their way. Also, there are some school children around the station wanting to check out the train. They're in school uniform but not at school. Hmmm.

Time to get the wheelbarrow out and lug some chairs and the Earth Forum table from the storage cart of the train to a beautiful spot under some trees to work with the mining-affected group. The platform is much lower than ever before so the bottom of the carriage

It’s HOT. Time for sunblock. I run past Fabian from the German Embassy's photographic competition team who is hanging large prints along the outside of the train. He looks longingly at my blue bottle of protection from the relentless wall of heat and burn. We have a quick chat and a laugh in the shade of a tree while we lather up with factor 30.

11h30

Community members from Mokopane, a community affected by platinum mining arrive and mill about at the train station. I consider the writing work I have to do and decide to participate in the Earth Forum. I reckon this group of people, sitting together, holding a handful of earth and considering how it has affected their lives would be very interesting.

It's a relief to be still and sit in the shade. The sound of the birds high above is exquisite. I'm already exhausted and battle to concentrate in the heat with a grumbling tummy. I decide to use the time as a kid of boot camp to really practice listening actively even when I don't feel like it.

The process proves to be hard work but the exchange is heartfelt and real. Whatever else happens, I feel like we all did some good work.

The films crews interview members of Mokopane after the Earth Forum. They are keen to speak out about their living conditions and the toxic impact of the mines: the incessant noise from blasting and the processing plant, the air pollution, the toxic water and the poisonous soil.

Dylan and Kyla talking before the visitors arrive

13h00

Lunch time. We are served a finger lunch of spring rolls and samoosas etc for a change but the prospect of hunting out some fresh veg and an ice cold frozen lolly in a shop nearby is irresistible, despite the heat so intense it feels LOUD.

Walking through the streets we come across the 'Jesus Leef! Biltong' shop.

15h00

Time to rest. Most of the train team are crammed into the lounge having a breather and chilling in the air conditioning. The aircon in our rooms is down and its 38'c outside. Andrew and Dee from the Earth Junkies project are hard at work editing their film footage from previous sessions. Sonia, our resident journalist from Green Times is writing up her article about the day's Earth Forum and its participants. Junior, a University of Johannesburg student with a background in green technology talks to her about his experience of the Earth Forum.

16h30

Time to pack up the trees and load a new delivery plants. Everybody helps out, it's all hands on deck moving plants, huge bags of compost and equipment as the sun goes down and a pleasant cool washes over the station. The weavers sing.

19h00

Dinner. We're all hungry, worn-out and scratched.

20h00

The most pleasant place is outside. There is a cool, fresh breeze. People gather on platform benches sipping cold beers and having a laugh. I lie on the warm platform and feel tiny below a vast sky of stars.

22h00

The train stutters into life and gentle moves off towards Polokwane. I lie on my bed and watch the dark landscape speed by.

Time to sleep.

Nasrec and Pretoria in pictures

2011-11-14T07:08:00.001-08:00

Kyla Davis from Well Worn Theatre company working with young people in Pretoria
Tomato seedlings on their way to home gardens in Pretoria

Visual Artist Mathias Chirombo working on the collaborative ProNature paintings

An Earth Forum with the Landless People's Movement at Nasrec Station near Sowetho
Morris carrying two young trees to the train, two of two hundred

Kyla's hands after an AMBUSH planting

Mathias and Dee as part of the chain of climate train practitioners helping tend to the plants

Kyla helping with tending to one of the hundreds of plants who travel with us to be planted in each town

Danny from AMBUSH during a workshop with LoveLife participants

Johannesburg is Radioactive

2011-11-14T06:59:00.000-08:00

Since I arrived in Gauteng, I have been strangely obsessed with the large mine dumps scattered everywhere. My first encounter was in Krugersdorp where behind the train station, tall and stiff, stood a heap of yellow sand that formed an artificial mountain. Blue gum and wattle trees bravely clung to the sides of this giant golden cube, all trying to eek out a life there. Again arriving in Nasrec I opened the curtains in our coupe to be greeted by yet another giant inverted mountain. The scars of mining are so visible, yet I was unaware of the the invisible threats.

In Nasrec I was privileged to conduct an Earth Forum with a group of 20 woman and 5 men from Vosloosrus, in the East rand and some from Sowetho. The substance gathered in this exchange drew us closer and closer to each other. Holding the earth in our cupped hands most of us seemed to be all drawn to our childhoods and our relationship with the earth as children. A day later I participated in another Earth Forum with a group of 16 people from the Landless People's Movement. An elderly man confessed his frustration that those with swimming pools have the opportunity to learn to swim, while those most vulnerable to flooding in informal settlements, will only get to swim when flooding waters take their homes. A young woman spoke of how the Earth gathered in her hands was the closest she will get to her mother, who had past away several years ago. She saw her mother in the soil, and holding it close to her bosom she licked the soil, her tongue powdered by the fine ochre dust. After a long pause she said, “this earth is her and me”. I was so moved by this, and many other contributions by the Woman in Environment, the Landless People Movement, and the other two Earth Forums I conducted in Nasrec. Yet all the while I was completely unaware that the very earth we were holding was likely to be radioactive.

A day later I participate in a workshop with Marriette Liefferink on the effects of mining on the poor and vulnerable, and in fact on everyone living near mine dumps in Gauteng. Marriette is a beautiful blonde Afrikaans woman, a seasoned activist, lawyer, whistleblower, and advocate for vulnerable communities in South Africa. She fights on the frontline as a lawyer, and also works tirelessly educating communities on what they can do to fight against the impact of Acid Mine Drainage in their backyards. Holding a giant chunk of rock consisting of heavy meals taken from water pipe in the East Rand, she carefully told the shocking story of mine pollution in South Africa, from heavy metal poisoning our drinking water, corroding our soils, killing wetlands and slowly but surely snuffing our life far beyond the limits of the mines. The story got worse, when she revealed the many areas around Johannesburg, specifically the West Rand, which have now become radioactive, from uranium mining. The radioactivity is transported far and wide as dust in the wind, it also seeps into underground lakes, and radiates out into the innocent lives of those living nearby.

I look back to our Earth Forums in Gauteng, and the small mounds of earth cupped in our hands, while sharing how we could move into a new world where we are connected to the earth, the plants, the water, animals and each other, all the while we were being nuked by the very earth we were trying to reconnect to.

The Earth Forum cloth after leaving Gauteng

Welcome to Well Worn!

2011-11-11T02:59:00.000-08:00

Well Worn Theatre Company joined the Climate Train yesterday in the shape of Kyla Davis and Craig Morris. They have hit the ground ground this morning with a group of school children here in Tshwane.

Check them out in action as I type!

The First Time I was a Responsible Participant

2011-11-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

I was a responsible participant in an Earth Forum for the first time the other day with eight young school children at NASREC station, near SOWETO.

It was clunky. I went off with everyone else to collect my handful of earth before laying the cloth out so we ended up trying to shimmy it into place with our elbows while holding our hands cupped, full of earth.

Some kids were forthcoming with beautiful offerings like one boy who just stared at his soil and said that he loved it because it was his future.

Another girl kept trying to speak but cracked every time into giggles. I could see she was really trying but was just paralysed by fear. I gave her a break from trying and explained to the group that we were there to help each other and to hear each other. I spoke about trust and respect for each other. They could only have been about eight years old but they got it.

So we tried again. We were there to listen to each other and, for this little girl with huge eyes, we would close our eyes to help her. She got as far as "This soil... (deep breath)...This soil..." until she collapsed into giggles. This time her school mates didn't giggle along or shift in their seats. They sense she was closer to speaking, that she wanted to speak and they wanted to help.

For our next try, we closed our eyes for her and she whispered to us, "I love this soil because is makes fruit and vegetable trees for us to eat and we must love it...". The rest of her contribution was so quiet it was mouthed with almost no sound at all. But she had shared with the group and broke it a huge grin.

Space and Time

2011-11-11T00:27:00.000-08:00

I found myself lying on the boardroom table the other day. Perfectly still, I lay on a large piece of canvas looking out at the dinky station with sunny yellow boarders. Dylan was sketching my body’s profile.

Dyl wanted to use a woman’s silhouette cut out of used canvas to form the shape of Mother Earth. The idea was to create a space for people to sit together and hand-sew together.
There had been some serious communication problems that day so we had no school groups to work with but the railway station’s cleaning staff came to have a look at the train. After a tour of the train, they started by adding to the Krugersdorp canvas and then I invited some women standing in the shade to join me in the cool of the boardroom.

The women in the room all knew each other and I felt like it was much more important to just make a space to talk amongst us than trying to start a discussion about climate change. Another factor was the language barrier. The women spoke Tswana and they were cracking jokes and having great banter so initially I felt quite isolated. Then I remembered Dyl talking about listening with his heart in an Earth Forum. So I tried to listen around the language. I picked up the word in English but mostly I just kept myself busy sewing and chatting to Teboho (teh-boh-gho), the woman next to me, about her journey to work and her children, and just listened to the tone, the emotions of their conversation. I just felt like there was no easy way to infiltrate their conversation to steer it

Suddenly, Xiluvani (shi-loo-vah-nee) exclaimed, "Twelve thousand! I'm telling you!". This drew Teboho out of our conversation and into the eruption of disbelief and jeering. After a while my curiosity got the better of me and I asked Teboho what they were talking about. She said, "This woman's friend is collecting plastic bottles and cans for recycling and she is making twelve thousand rand this month!"

And it suddenly struck me. Without any lame attempts draw out a fulfilling discussion about living in a climate changing world or trying to force any condescending lesson on these women, a practical, relevant and environmentally conscious conversation had emerged. It was the subtle draw of working together on a portrait of Mother Earth that had gently brought environmental concerns into our minds and it was the time and space given to talk to each other that allowed the conversation to emerge.

WE LOVE THIS PLACE

2011-11-07T11:45:00.000-08:00

WE LOVE THIS PLACE, is what I painted on the pavement in Krugersdorp today. In the cooling shadows of the afternoon, the whole Climate Train team came together to collaborate on a massive AMBUSH on a corner of Krugersdorp. This particular corner was stacked 2m high and covered about five square meters. On this corner sat Maggie the daughter of fruit sellers. She eight years old, after school manages her parents stand selling fruit and doing homework. It seemed a no-brainer to Sun our AMBUSH leader that we needed to clean this place up and create a guerilla garden. Together we began clearing the garbage bags, and the waste collected around it. After speaking to some local shop owners and taxi drivers, we learned the municipality had forgotten to collect this garbage, and so rubbish began to pile up and turn into a massive dump on the corner of this very busy space in front of the train station and adjacent to the taxi rank.

It was no easy task, with many of the garbage bags ripped open by dogs and rats, the contents had spilled onto the pavement. We used a total of 15 green garbage bags to clean it up. While cleaning Mr Sithole from Angus tours drove by and saw us cleaning the corner. He stopped his car, and joined us for 20 minutes sweeping and cleaning alongside the train team. Shop owners offered more garbage bags and we collected a total 25 rubbish bags and placed them outside the Police station down the block. We spoke to a policeman, Willy who offered to ensure the garbage would be collected tomorrow by the municipality, but also to water and tend to the AMBUSH guerilla garden.

Once the space was clean, and AMBUSH had planted the garden, we began to offer our different gifts to the new space. Mbali composed a poem and wrote it in coloured chalk on the pavement. Sonia interviewed local shop owners, taxi drivers, commuters etc. While Janet, young Maggie and I used white ProNature paints to paint the pavement: A view of a tree from above, that reclaimed the discarded space. Maggie had admitted this was the first time she had painted, and while running between managing her parents stall and painting, she spoke with Sonia about her thoughts (I will ask Sonia to share her interviews here tomorrow).

As we worked into the evening, and new space began to take shape people began to crowd around and share their thoughts. One young gentleman said “they will have to be blind to dump here now” after we asked him if people will still use this space to dump. It was a good day, we hope Policeman Willy will tend to the plants, with help from young Maggie, and people will think and feel differently about this little corner of Krugersdorp, a little corner we cared for and loved.

This train is many things.

2011-11-07T09:29:00.000-08:00

Artwork by Dylan McGarry (excerpts from his train journal)
Words by Elizabeth Fletcher

It has been a dream and a battle waged by many people for a long time. Now that it is miraculously on the tracks, it is an experiment. A huge experiment. It's also logistical and organisational beast, constantly having to please its diplomatic powers that be. Everyone wants a piece of the action and the shift between the reality of the work happening on the train and what is spouted in self-congratulatory speeches is surprisingly quick and effortless.

I walked past Dyl having a chat with and Mama Lillian, one of the staff, while she was cleaning windows. He remarked that the train was become less like a machine of steel and more like a living thing; an organism travelling across the country like a shongololo. She agreed and said that this project had changed the train for her.

When this team gets together, it really does feel like the train is alive. Ideas and possible projects fly around like lightning, laughter and love pour out of conversations and when people are invited onto the train and experience something for the first time, like the policeman in Kimberley who had never painted before, or the children who hear about Mother Earth for the first time and start to love her, the train really does feel like its scooping people up with friendliness and creativity.

On today’s platform in Krugersdorp, the train feels like a goldfish bowl with its inhabitants on display to bemused onlookers. When I woke up this morning and flung open my curtains, I was met by with the blank stares of passengers waiting for other trains a couple of metres away.

This transparency, the fact that a person can watch you make your way down the narrow passageway to the shower, can see you checking your emails in the train lounge, can tap on the window, wave and stare at you while you eat your lunch makes one acutely aware of the positioning of the train on the towns we visit. The last thing we ever wanted was to roll into town like a PR circus however, in several places, it has been the catalyst for events, gatherings, exhibits and meetings around climate change and green development in that town. The train is a reason to engage with issues around climate change in South Africa and so for that reason, the train is a held with regard.

This word ‘regard’ is worth looking at. It evokes qualities such as respect and esteem. As I’ve said, in many places the train has been treated with these qualities, even with gratitude by some people. However, the word stems from the French ‘regarder’ which means to look at or to watch. So along with this esteem is the position of being in the public eye. Finally, this train is a gift to us which comes with a great sense of responsibility.

Meet Lindile from Khayelitsha

2011-11-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

It's been a long, hot day in Klerksdorp. The air is so dry. In the heat of the day it's hard to think straight under the hard, harsh sun. After the sun finally retreated behind the station and the weavers felt they had the energy to sing in the sunset, I went for a walk on the platform.

The breeze felt clean and cool. I walked the length of the platform and found Mathais Chirombo, our resident visual artist, filling in the background landscape of a canvas populated by Krugersdorp school children's animals and plants.

I was glad to do something with my hands after a fitful and picked up a brush to join him. Soon Lindile Yolelo strolled past. He's part of the hospitality team on the Climate Train along with Avril, Thembela, chef Alfred, and the Train Master General, oom Winkie. Lindile peered over the 17 metre canvas, admiring the handiwork.

Eventually I coaxed him into joining us. It came out he had never painted before.

We got chatting about his home and his family.

I live in Khayelitsha. But it's a boring place there. There is nothing like this there.
You call them human beings but the people there are animals. They just want to kill you.
But they are trying to make it better. It is much better than the mid nineties. There are much more police now.

Lindile care for four children aged twenty one, eighteen, thirteen and twelve. None of them are his own children but rather orphans of his siblings. I asked him how he feels about his work on the train.

I'm not stressing when I work with Winkie. (the train manager) I like to make sure nobody is suffering on the train. I want to serve people well so that they enjoy the train. Not just South Africa, but the whole world.

He's got big plans for the passenger trains. He wants to work his way up from passenger assistant to train manager, and onward to head office. He's also got hopes for his own family one day.

I want to have my own children. When I think about the earth and our future, I think about my children that are still to come. I'm still looking for my woman. It has been very hard. They are sometimes very tricky.

A letter from Earth Junkie, Dee Lourens

2011-11-05T05:43:00.000-07:00

This post is appears with thanks to Dee.

Check out the Earth Junkies blog here.

I wish I could do the experience of the Climate Train justice in one single story; that my words could capture the feeling of waking up to a new view outside my compartment window every morning; that I could describe what it is like to have a carriage designated for solely plants and performance, to be given the opportunity to hone your craft and make it better on a daily basis, and to say exactly how amazing it is to focus just on that. I want to write about the joys of a shower when the train is moving at night, they way the movement of the train rocks me to sleep, the children and their innocent expectations of life and how they, regardless of everything outside the carriage, believe that we can save this world in a blink of an eye.

This is Earth Junkies’s 7th day on the Climate train.

We woke up in Klerksdorp this morning after leaving Kimberley late last night. I stood on the platform after my evening shower and heard Oom Willem, the train manager, blow the whistle. I rushed to the nearest door and, once safe inside my compartment, I felt the train slowly gaining momentum and beginning to move across the dark landscape, this land that we all love so dearly. I got into bed thinking how tomorrow we wake up in a whole new town.

There are such open and brave individuals on this train. Most people, in all their diverse projects, are trying to create spaces for communities to understand what it means to be living in a climate-changing world. The COPART creative education projects on the train are developed and sculpted to help individuals to imagine ways of living better and to listen to each other to change their cultural climate collectively. The Earth Forum is one of the projects whose approach has particularly influenced me and I would particularly like to incorporate some of its fundamental methods in the Earth Junkies’s Enviromental education. The Earth Forum allows for intimate conversations to become a ‘social sculpture’, an expanded form of art that Dylan McGarry is researching. The space and time given to each participant to speak and the respect and active effort to listen given by the rest of the group is seen as an artwork in and of itself. The social sculpture is the space between the participants; the empathy holding the group. I particularly like how this technique combines imagination and listening, and each person in that circle can really imagine what it means to be in someone else’s shoes. It chisels empathy into a recognisable work of art, right in front of our very eyes.

Dylan in collaboration with artist Shelley Sacks at the Social Sculpture Research Unit, at Oxford Brookes University are working towards creating new spaces for empathy to grow. It is almost as if he would like to exercise this new organ called “empathy”, as they believe it is innate in all of us.

He says that “the more I work in this field; with issues around the environment and people being disconnected from nature, I discover that people are divorced form each other and they are divorced form the world, because they have lost empathy.”

Dylan moves into a more comfortable position.

“We can have all the technology, do all the fixes, but it is useless if we don’t choose to use it. If we don’t have the heart, the real essence to back that technology and that science, they are nothing without love.”

Arthur Zanjoc is a physicist that teaches undergraduates and writes about his realization that you cannot separate love and knowledge. Love, for him, is defined by four precious elements: the first is respect, the second, being vulnerable and open to learning and adapting, the third being gentle, and finally, having the willingness to transform. He realized that he could not expect his students to learn something that they didn’t love.

Love and empathy are not air-fairy concepts limited to churches, romantic comedies or mothers. They are fundamental instruments to change the way we live in this world. We can only save this planet for our children if we show empathy not only to people in our lives, but also to the world around us. We need to care for not only ourselves, but we also need to show empathy to a bird or an insect or to nature in general. I believe Earth Junkies does just that, it nurtures children’s personal connection to Mother Earth and allows her to become a character that they love. I also cannot expect the children I work with to learn to live in a new way if I don’t help to cultivate this love for the planet.

Whenever I get depressed about the condition of the planet and I start to feel that the task of changing cultural climates is an impossible task, I remind myself that when I walk into the classroom-carriage to read the Earth Junkies story and help the children draw their vision of Mother Earth, the seats will be filled with wide eyes who still depend on a gentle touch, a re-assuring smile, a dream within a story. I jog my memory until I again see that the children still identify the beautiful green in the branches of a tree that they draw and will put extra love into the layers of blue in a river. I take myself back to the way they look at me in anticipation to hear what will happen next and how, when I finally speak in the voice of the character of Mother Earth, they truly fall in love with her and believe that she does exist. It is then that I realize we still have love and empathy. As Dylan says, it really is an organ that we are born with, and that we should somehow look at our problems with the sheer devotion and imagination of a child. It is only then that creating a kinder way of living is possible.

Love,

Dee

PS: Please ‘Like’ the EARTH JUNKIES PROJECT on Facebook and vote for your favorite vision of Mother Earth. It would be super if you’re keen to share our page. We really look forward to more entries.

Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Earth-Junkies-Project/270252406349525

Meeting Mofokeng and Dieketseng in Klerksdorp

2011-11-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

Mofokeng and Dieketseng

I have been working on several activities on the Climate Train, often also scrambling in the background to ensure things run smoothly for the COPART team but I haven’t had my own process or activity. It happened by accident yesterday that I found the one activity that I want to make my own on the train.

I had worked on an imagination exercise with a group of about 12 grade 6s before they painted a large canvas together with Mathias’s help. Each town gets a canvas and, in Klerksdorp, I met Mofokeng Boitumelo and Dieketseng (pronounced dee-eh-ke-tseng) Mosolotsane from Are-Bokeng Primary School.

Mofokeng painting

Mofokeng's image

After imagining, drawing in charcoal and then painting in our natural paints from ProNature, the group moved on to the Forest theatre carriage to watch a documentary. Several children in the group had asked if they could go to the loo and when they returned, one girl, with hair so short it revealed the shape of her head and long neck had large tears in her eyes. Her friend informed my with gravity that the railway station gate had hit her on the forehead and she was very sore.

I started the documentaries for the other learners and took to the pair into our dining carriage for a glass of water and a chat to help Dieketseng feel better. The pair marvelled at the soft carpet and the deep purple fabric of the Premier Classe eating lounge. The pair shimmied close to the window and peered out at their friends walking and working on the platform.

While we were painting, I had tried to start conversations with questions like “what’s it like to live in Klerksdorp?” and “Is there anything you would share with the leaders of the world about climate change if you could?”. These weren’t the right questions and the opportunity to sit of a glass of water with the pair taught me to just listen.

Sitting up straight and holding the glass of water to her face as her friends passed the window, Mofokeng said that she loved the train and asked if I was the train driver.

Liz: “Me? No, I’m just one of the team on the train.”

Mofokeng: “But does this train have a driver?”

Liz: “Yes it does, he sits up in the front.”

Mofokeng: “Where is he now?”

Liz: “I think he’s sleeping, we travelled through the night last night.”

Mogokeng: “So does every train have a driver?”

Liz: “Yes. Would you like to drive a train when you’re older, after high school?”

Mofokeng: “I would like to be here on the train. I love the train, I want to stay here.”

Liz: “Why do you love the train?”

Mofokeng: “Because it’s so nice. We can do all these things. It’s better than home.”

Dieketseng: “Yes, we are bored at home.”

It soon emerged that the girls had had nothing to eat and were hungry. In each town, lunch is normally provided for schools either by the municipality, the mayor’s office or the train. There had been problems before with late payment and miscommunications and I wasn’t in the know so I wasn’t sure if these little girls were going to be fed. I asked what they usually got for lunch from home. Mofokeng said that sometimes she didn’t get lunch from her mom because there was no money. I grabbed an apple and cut it in half for the girls. They munched while we talked.

I was amazed to learn that theirs is one of the only schools to do drawing, painting and dance. It showed that they came from a good school just in the way the children listened to instructions. I asked if they had learnt anything about our earth:

Mofokeng: “Yes, we have learnt about the 9 planets but they don’t tell us what is happening on Earth.”

Dieketseng: “Mercury and Jupiter..”

Mofokeng: “Venus. Also Mars but Eish! That one is hot and burning”.

Liz: “Ok, great. Which one is your favourite?”

Mofokeng: “I love Earth. I will stay here and live here. There is nothing wrong here.”

Dieketseng: “Even though there are tsotsi’s (gangsters) I want to stay on Earth. I don’t want to be at those places which are burning and fighting. I don’t want to die. When you get there, they just beat you up. I don’t like that place, India.”

Mofokeng: “I like their clothes, there. The bright colours.”

Dieketseng: “Also China. You get there and they just hit you.”

Liz: “Where did you learn about these places?”

Mofokeng: “We see them in the movies.”

We got chatting about Mother Earth and what they had learnt on the train. I asked what they thought Mother Earth likes.

Mofokeng: ”She likes clean air.”

Dieketseng: “And the planet.”

Mofokeng: “And flowers.”

Dieketseng: “And us. She likes us.”

Liz: “Yes she does. And you know when you look after her, you are loving her.”

Dieketseng: “Yes. And if somebody says, ‘I hate you. You are my enemy’, then you must say, ‘I still love you. I will always love you.’”

Liz: “Where did you learn that?”

Mofokeng: At church and when we pray at school. In the morning before we work and in the afternoon before we go home.”

Dieketseng: “We love God and we want God to stay close to us. We don’t want those Satansisms”

Liz: “Who are they?”

Mofokeng: “They are people who don’t pray to God, they pray to Satan.”

Dieketseng: “And sometimes they stand in the road and cause accidents.”

Mofokeng: “Yes, when they are drunk and fighting and killing.”

Dieketseng:”It is even in our school. There is a girl in the class next to mine, Tsepo. It happened last of, last of, last of…”

Liz: “A long time ago?”

Dieketseng: “Yes. She was standing in the classroom holding a peach. And she stopped and dropped the peach and just stood. We went to her and did this [jerked Mofokeng’s shoulders with bother her hands]

Liz: “Shook her?”

Dieketseng: “Yes. And she didn’t move. So we called the teachers to come pray for her.”

Liz: “What happened next?”

Mofokeng: : “They told us to go outside but when they prayed she fell.”

Dieketseng painting

Dieketseng's image

A windy day in Klerksdorp (Day 7)

2011-11-04T23:51:00.000-07:00

On a windy dry morning we welcomed about 200 children onto Klerksdorp platform. The platform has been reclaimed by a variety of plants pushing their way through cracks that have formed between concrete and asphalt. I set up an Earth Forum table at the end of the platform, an island with steel rails running parallel towards Kimberly on one side, and Krugersdorp on the other. The stoic stone station, build in 1897 seemed more like a church than a station. Standing looking at this building I thought of how I am seeing the railroad and the stations as sacred places. They are our gateways into each town, and act as the threshold where we all are able to meet, share, exchange and transform our minds and move our hearts.

The first group in Earth Forum Klerksdorp included 12 children (between 10-15 yrs) and two adults (mid 20's). The adults were from a community dance project who are exploring dimensions of climate change through the movement of their bodies. They perform and run workshops in schools in and surrounding Klerksdorp. I was later privileged to see them perform outside the station. Their production consisted of three movements, wearing oxygen masks each dancer seemed to be particularly mindful of their breath, as if every breath they used to enrich their bodies was sacred. Using a combination of physical theatre and dance, they explored the relationship with we have with the earth and air to feed our bodies, mind and spirit. While being limited to the confines of the platform and the people crowded around them, they miraculously managed to widen the space and change how I viewed the station. It made me think of how any action in a place changes how you see that same place. The platform they danced on and the platform where Earth Forum stood, are now forever in my mind, significant sites.

Before the second group arrived, I took a moment to looked up and watched the clouds darken and felt the wind turn and the outdoors seemed far less forgiving than when we started. I relocated Earth Forum into one of the storage cars at the end of the train, and worked with a group of 13-15yr old boys from a local Klerksdorp school, who arrived unruly and and overexcited, it was amazing how this new social space quickly altered the dynamic of the group into something gentle and trustworthy.

My final group of 16 young learners (age 13-16yrs) was particularly inspiring, a young girl shared how the sky and air can be held in her lungs and keeps her alive, she contemplated how the air and her lungs were one, and climate change is not only in the skies but also inside her own body.

AMBUSH worked with a massive group of young people, who were planting butterfly and bird attracting plants around town. The handfulls of earth gathered in the Earth Forums, which embodies the empathetic capacities that where expanded in the Earth Forum were offered to the plants as a promise of goodwill to Mother Earth. It was a great day, the train team is becoming more and more like family each day.

Listening to the feeling in Kimberly

2011-11-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

Today, under the eves of the beautifully preserved victorian station at Kimberly I worked with 25 young men and boys in an Earth Forum Social Sculpture amidst the chaos surrounding the train. The chaos of today was somewhat expected. We had the Premiere of the North Cape and the MEC at the train, for a huge welcome and speeches which took up most of our schedule and so left us a brief hour and a half to work with the 600 youth who came to the train. We could not work with all of them of course and between the COPART team and Indalo Yethu's volunteer environmental educators from Kuruman, we managed to work with about 100.

I worked with 25 of that group and I was so moved by their contributions in the Earth Forum. As we are travelling from town to town, we are traversing different cultures and languages, and so I feel it is important that participants feel free enough to speak in their mother-tougue. When I suggested this to the group in the Earth Forum, they said “Maar Meneer, jy sal nie verstaan wat ons se, ons praat Boesman Taal by die huis, !Qong !Qwe” (“But Sir, you will not understand what we say, at home we speak the Bushman (!Xam) language, !Qong !Qwe”) I took some time to think about this and assured them that I might not be able to understand the words, but I could listen to the feeling of what they were saying, and whats important is that the rest of the group will understand and also listen to the feeling of what we all have to share. The group seemed fascinated by the prospect of someone listening to the feeling of what we are saying, and once we agreed on this plan, it amazed me how the circle of seated young men softened, became warm and receptive.

At the end of the forum some of the participants where kind enough to translate the substance that emerged. One young man explained that when he held the earth in his hands he felt closer to his family who had passed away, and where now part of the earth. One said that when collecting their handful of earth they struggled to hold it as the sun had made the dark dry gravel so hot. He went on to explain that the longer he gave himself to hold the earth the cooler the earth became and they were eventually sharing the same temperature. His hope for the earth was that if we are going to help the earth we need to take the time for ourselves to cool to match the warmth of the earth. There was a clear thread emerging from this group, they all spoke of the space and time needed for that feeling, connection and love for earth to emerge. After this session I contemplated how little time we make for ourselves for this vital contemplation, there is of course an urgency to respond to climate change, yet the speeding up of our lives, and our busy schedules that have contributed to the disconnections that we now face. I have heard it emerge before in other Earth Forums, that as things become more urgent, the more time we need to take to be mindful.

Worcester and Beaufort west (Day 2-4)

2011-11-02T23:34:00.000-07:00

So I have been promising to update this space since Worcester, but with such full days and so little time I have struggled to find a moment to write. Each town is so unique, yet the humanity we encounter is encouragingly similar. I was so moved by the sensitivity and lightness of touch of the Zwelathemba Youth Council in Worcester, who were struggling with the dichotomy of needing the wine farms, yet finding it difficult to cope with the subsequent alcoholism in their town. The Earth Forum I conducted with this group gathered incredible substance which we then took into a round table exploration into the “People's Charter for Africa” an African contribution to the 'Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth'. We worked specifically on the section of the charter which discusses the idea of living well as apposed to living rich, where similar sentiments were expressed with the Breede Valley's Woman's Land Rights Movement who I also conducted an Earth Forum with on the Sunday. They all shared that living well for them was simple, it was spending time with their families, having access to healthy food and a healthy life, being able to grow their own food and having the opportunity to express themselves. The real tragedy is that these women and the Zwelathemba group all have access to the knowledge to live off the land, yet just do not have the land to actually go about living well. On Sunday morning some of us visited the Worcester NG Kerk, and met with the Dominee who has had environmental services where he filled the church on a sunday with litter and rubbish. Before the congregation can sit they needed to clean the church, a powerful connective aesthetic. After Dee, Taryn and I had finished at the church we had found ourselves locked within the church grounds, a great irony for Dee who was glad to escape the confines of the NG kerk at the age of 18. We carefully negotiated the church wall's spikes, a formidable obstacle! We got her in the end, and she finally feels wholeheartedly emancipated! I was particularly impressed also by the effort the Worcester Mayor Basil Kivedo made in participating in the learning activities within the train programme. He enthusiastically listened to his citizens. I also found working with the Worcester Klein Plassie outdoor agricultural museum really stimulating. They took us back in time to explore how people lived not so long ago where the earth was never excluded from their daily actions to live well. I conducted a small experimental social sculpture with a group of about 30 at the museum exploring living well as opposed to living rich.

We left Worcester on Sunday night and headed to Beaufort West and the two towns could not have been more different experiences. Mbali, Xolani, Sonia, Rafik, Chris, Zamo and I from the Train participated in the Climate Change mini Summit organised by the Department of Environmental Affairs for the Western Cape, which was somewhat strange as it was hosted by the Disaster Management Centre, situated several kilometers out of town, and on the Truck Stop route for the Traffic Dept. So while we sat and spoke about our severely transformed climate, we were surrounded by a long queue of freight trucks snaking its way down the N1. With transport being the second biggest emitter of carbon dioxide in South Africa, I found it fitting.

The department was focusing on a baseline study they were planning on what forms of renewable and sustainable technologies and development will be needed for municipalities. I shared what we were doing on the climate train, briefly went through the People's Charter for Africa, and explored the cultural concerns of climate change. Mbali as always captivated the whole room with where performative poem entitled “There is no Xhosa word for Climate Change”. Her powerful delivery full of love, insight and mindful consideration of how the jargon and language of climate change alienates, disempowers, confuses and separates, the very forms of language that lead to cultural disconnections that cause climate change. There is a line in her poem which moves me so much.... “What will we say to the Khoi San?”

Mbali and I are a great team in these high level board room meetings with local government, we cut through the jargon, through the language and through the obstacles of confusion around climate change and get to the heart of what we are struggling with here.... the disconnection in our cultural climates. Afterwards we had a great conversation about how we need to move beyond the purely technological, scientific, economic or political approaches to climate change and really work with the cultural fabric that underpins all of this. We realised how important our work is on the train, as all of us are working deeply and carefully within the culture in each town. We are not trying to change existing culture, but rather create the spaces within which new cultures can emerge.

Children at the Immanuel Creche after guerilla gardening with AMBUSH

Mathias and I painting an impromtu painting at the Immanuel Creche in Beaufort West

Our day today at the De Aar was unbelievably busy, we managed to have some incredibly opportunities with many young people, but struggled to cope with the shear numbers. De Aar however is a switched on town when it comes to being green. They are working really hard to develop a viable solar economy in this town, with other sustainable, local climate relevant agriculture linked to the processing plants that would be powered by solar. I got the strong impression that this was not just a pipe dream, but something locally municipality are taking really seriously.

Mbali performing her poem in front of hundreds of people in De Aar

Tomorrow we welcome Kimberly, where we will work with the Premier for the Northern Cape and the MEC, 600 young people and whole knows who else. As write this the train rumbles along the tracks into the starry night of the Karoo.

A moment in Beaufort West

2011-10-31T12:25:00.000-07:00

The last pastel colours are washing over Beaufort West. It’s chilly in the shade.

I’ve just come inside from an Earth Forum with the whole train. I’m talking upper management, artists, kitchen staff, security, film crew, journalists, the works. While it’s impossible to describe an Earth Forum until you’ve participated in one, I’d like to offer a few thoughts that I had about the exchange.

When the 26 or so participants, sitting holding their hands cupped and full of earth, were asked to reflect on it, most of them spoke of their families or the major arcs of their personal lives. One person shared a mother’s warning not to carelessly destroy their vegetable garden at home because she would be buried in the ground one day and these plants would grow above her. Another person spoke of three recent deaths in the family, all within three weeks. The earth was a reminder of our creation and our inevitable destruction. It struck me that when we are given the space and time to speak about the earth; the world we live in, we speak with such intimacy and such profound care.

I once remarked to Dylan that the Earth Forum is one of the closest things I’ve come to spirituality. I’m not sure if I still agree with myself because I think spirituality requires an outside and mystical presence. But I think what I was feeling when I said that was the powerfully theraputic nature of the Earth Forum. We face up to the Earth we inhabit, we listen to other people facing up to it and we share how we feel about it.

It made me think about how we are dealing with climate change and why it’s so difficult to get our lazy selves to consume fewer resources and to look after what we have. Part of it, I’m sure, is our selfish nature. But I think it’s more than that. I think we are terrified. Climate change points directly to the prospect of our word becoming steadily less hospitable to our species. To talk about Climate change is to talk about an existential crisis.

But we all know we’re going to die eventually. It’s part of being human. The death of a grandparent or the discovery of a dead animal in the garden jolts this idea into fact within us from a very early age. So why does the idea that the planet cannot no longer sustain us affect us so much more deeply? I think it’s because we’re better people than I initially thought. We love this planet and all its richness more than we realise and the thought of not being able to give it to our children and their children is heart-breaking and devastating.

One night on a train

2011-10-31T01:02:00.000-07:00

This is an email sent out by all-round determined and fabulous creator, Dee Lourens, to her friends about a conversation we had the other night. I thought it was just so beautifully written and insightful and a great way to introduce her venture on the Climate Train, The Earth Junkies Project..

Dear friends and colleagues,

There is this Afrikaans song, “een aand op ‘n trein na Pretoria” (one night on a train to Pretoria), sung by ‘Die Briels’, a very drag-every-last-word-out-band-of-the-I-don’t-even-know-what-age-in-old-South-Africa… Last night, as I sat next to Elizabeth of COPART on the South African Climate Train’s bar-carriage on a station in Worcester on our way to COP17 in Durban, I could not but wonder what she would have thought of the song, or if she even knew it. Our compartments are right next to each other, so I thought to myself that since we will spend quite a lot of time together in the following 6 weeks, this ‘boeremeisie’ (Afrikaans girl) actually needed to sing her the song. Let’s be honest, I can’t ride any train without thinking of this song at least once. I guess it is a part of my culture …

At first she didn’t recognize it, but then I noticed a glimpse of familiarity, a funny look in her eye, as if she had indeed heard it before. “Ah, ja …I actually have heard it before, but didn’t recognize the title … I am English remember…”

It was the end of Earth Junkies’ first day on the Climate Train that departed from Cape Town on Friday night. I can almost immediately hear you saying, “Climate what? Train? What do you mean?” Well, the Climate Train is touring SA with a posse of journalists, artists, filmmakers, academics, researchers, teachers and government officials; its destination COP17, the international climate change conference in Durban. We travel by night and spend the days in small towns across the country to raise awareness about global warming and climate change (two different concepts, but more on that another time). More specifically, we try and work with members of these communities in the small towns to understand how climate change will affect our collective lifestyles and how our current lifestyles could affect climate change.

“Climate change”, I said to Elizabeth, “maybe we can actually talk about that, and you can give me a piece of your mind, just a little piece, as I have only embarked on this journey very recently. For me this whole ‘green thinking’ thing makes me feel yellow. I know absolutely nothing about it.”

I’m not sure whether she smiled because she thought I was funny, or whether she felt a little flattered, or if she was just one of those great listeners who nod and smile and just give you the right answer… “It is a bit like your train song actually” she said, “You sang that song, and even though I think I have heard it somewhere, you cannot expect me to just sing it all of a sudden. It is not in my culture. I was taught different songs.” She took a sip of her drink, “Climate change is a cultural problem actually…”

During our talk I was introduced to the idea that the human race is indeed in need of a whole ideological climate shift. In other words, the climate is more than the weather, it is more that current ideas and events, it is the prevailing set of attitudes that a group of people holds, like the economic climate and cultural climate … we basically have to change our ideological climate. We have to change, or at least adapt, our way of thinking about the world, the earth, the way people live in and relate to it and each other; we have to adapt our cultures. In essence, our biggest challenge in overcoming the threat of climate change is changing our social systems. We have the technology and everything, but we have not taken the steps to change our habits. Our habits say everything about our ideology… our actions speak louder than our words.

Confronting climate change is psychological and emotional. It is facing possible human extinction head-on, it is a huge challenge for the human race, for the planet, it is overwhelming. It will take the whole of humanity to make a difference, so dealing with it as an individual is terrifying …“I hate to say it, but maybe we are screwed, not the earth, us, we are the problem, we won’t stop … It’s asking us to face that we are a small minority that cares, and that the majority does not care. I mean, imagine we all had to stop living the way we are now and become hunter gatherers tomorrow…”

At her last sentence I laughed out loud. One always laughs loudest when someone strikes a chord close to you, one that you have not been able to articulate, out of inability or unwillingness, out of the fear of facing an overwhelming truth. I decided right then and there that if there is one thing that we are going to try and capture on this trip, it will be the simple ideas of individuals about the need to change an ideology, an outlook, a culture. Maybe in some way we can answer why so many people out there, including ourselves, have been feeling yellow in the presence of all these over-published ‘green’ ideals.

Love,

Dee

Climate Train day three: Worcester on a Sunday

2011-10-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

I will have some time this afternoon, to catch you all up on our time in Worcester! In the mean time here is our Sunday in images. We arrived in Beaufort West this morning, and are looking forward to a great day!

A Tour of the Climate Train

2011-10-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our trundling home!

This is my and Dylan's sleeper cabin - (please note the oranges!) complete with cotton sheets, basin, table, cupboards, bookshelves and mirror!

Our little cabin

Our bookshelf!

Next up, allow me to lead you into the Forest Theatre where you can watch documentaries, movies and theatre in a beautiful forest of indigenous trees, succulents and bushes carefully and beautifully arranged and loved by AMBUSH!

Here's Alfred and Clarence in the kitchen!

The lounge bar is our hub for internet so there's always someone writing story, blogging, editing photos, reading, emailing or dealing with a crisis.

It doesn't stop inside - here's Mathias painting outside on the platform with kids.

Tonight we depart to Beaufort West!

Town 2: Worcester in pictures

2011-10-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

Photos by: Dylan McGarry

Hello Worcester! 29 October 2011

2011-10-29T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Climate Train parked at the Worcester train station

"Keep it rollin'!" has quickly become a way of life on the Climate Train. Today was our first day on the journey and we had unexpected a ceremonious welcome by the mayor of Worcester, a lot more school kids to visit than planned and the first run at suddenly being this thing we've all heard so much about - the Climate Train.

I woke up this morning peering out into the fresh bright blue morning of the Worcester train station, woke up by my parents babbling over the phone to me with glee - the train was on the news! I had slept like a sedated camel. It could have been the hype of the Cape Town send-off, the end of a day careening in various directions, the excitement of finally pulling out of the station and beginning this epic voyage of 44 days or the buzz of meeting a whole team of amazing people to work with. By the time I packed my gear away into the nooks and crannies of my cabin, had a shower gazing out at the landscape flying by, snuggled into my bed I was filled with that giddiness of school trips that hasn't bubbled inside me for years. Then I slept.

The day started with a meeting for all the COPARTists on the train to get to know one another and the setting out the schedule for the day.

Chatting at the beginning of the day

We were busy through the day with Worcester school kids planting with AMBUSH!, painting with Mathias, doing Earth Forums with Dylan, working with a story with Dee, crocheting with Leonie and watching and discussing short films with me.

Sun talking to some school kids

Also, the Zwelethembe Youth Forum joined us for an Earth Forum and a discussion of the Universal Declaration of Rights for Mother Earth. It was a really rewarding session hearing these young leaders' hopes for themselves and Worcester as well as their determination to bring climate change to the fore of local politics.

Mathais painting with ProNature paints

The heat and dust of the afternoon lulled the train into a quiet pause before the team went to the Kleinplasie open air museum. I have it on good authority that it's believed to be the second largest open air museum in the Southern Hemisphere "only just smaller than the one in Australia". After a time travel presentation, the group, including museum staff, the COPARTists and the Zwelethembe Youth Forum discussed the Africa charter of Rights for Mother Earth.

A tour of the train will follow later today!

Day one of our Journey! CAPE TOWN

2011-10-29T00:14:00.000-07:00

The Climate Train began its journey yesterday. The first arrivals of the COPART cultural practitioners arrived to a busy Cape Town Train Station. Amongst the mad friday traffic we had managed to have three different COPART events in Cape Town. Linzi, Taryn and Sun, from AMBUSH are taking gardening into the realm of creative land art activism and planted a small garden within the uniform granite stones of the Cape Town Train station, when the security guard came to check what we were doing, Taryn and him agreed that this was a great plan, and the guard alongside Johnny (a daily commuter on the metro rail line) both offered to water and take care of this new guerilla garden that sprouted in Cape Town.

Claire Homewood and Sergio, alongside fellow visual artist Mathias Chirombo, working with children from various different schools and train commuters to begin working on massive painting (on a 9m long canvas), that we will be traveling with from town to town.

Finally I began my first Earth Forum for the climate Train, which was a welcome moment of stillness among the chaos, Solomon called it an “active pause”. We found a quiet harmony with the busy, concrete world of the train station, and connected with the different green spaces in the courtyard. I personally gained wonderful insight from a tall, stoic fig tree that stood quiet and profound amidst the bustling friday traffic. As a group we gathered a communal substance of considering healing, health, active stillness and contemplated our preparations for this this journey!

We ended the day at the Climate Train Opening, with a beautiful service from different faith leaders. An a warm send off by June Josephs-Langa (CEO of Indalo Yethu), PRASA rail, The German High Commission, British Council and the City of Cape Town. All while this was happening the Woodstock Art Reef Project (WARP) where adding to their growing crochet coral, and a very special peculiar new coral addition to their reef, entitled COP-CORAL which will grow in each town!

We have arrived in Worcester and will update you one what we shall discover and share with the citizens here!

THE CLIMATE TRAIN LEAVES NEXT WEEK!!!

2011-10-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

Hi EVERYONE! sorry we have been so quiet here... we have all been busy working hard to prepare for COP17. As most of you are aware the Climate Train is a collaborative social mobilization project that will be traveling to 17 different towns in 7 different provinces from the 27th October to the 27th November, starting in Cape Town (and after a long round about route) will end up at Durban. The train will be parked (for the duration of COP) 900m away from the COP17 negotiations, and will be a vibrant, creative, cultural platform not only at Durban but in many towns around South Africa. From the calls we put out 8 months ago, we have a team of 12 COPART cultural practitioners who will be working hard to create meaningful creative exchange, from theatre/performance, poetry and spoken work, land art, environmental art, film, social sculpture and visual art. The central ethos and goal of this project is to create meaningful exchange and dialogue around the Universal Declaration for the Rights of Mother Earth, which we have focused into the People's Charter for Africa which aims to support the Universal Declaration. We are really looking forward to this trip, and are so grateful to everyone who made it possible, particularly Indalo Yethu who have steered this ship, or should I say train with incredible integrity! We look forward to seeing you on the trip and at COP17. Watch this space for updates and follow our journey!

Khayelitsha Cock-Tale Arts Festival

2011-09-23T08:09:00.001-07:00

African Tales will stage their first ever Khayelitsha Cock-Tale Arts Festival on the 23rd - 25th September. The festival aims to create more awareness about the area, boost cultural exchange, use arts as a tool to promote dialogue and advocate for resources for theatres and arts centres in Khayelitsha. Poetry Slam performers will perform at 12h00 at the Look Out Hill Tourism Centre as part of this exciting festival. RSVP via our facebook page

As part of the OPENBOOK Festival in Cape Town we are hosting a poetry slam on Saturday 24 September 2011 at 16h00-17h00. It is free. Please rsvp on the facebook event page

Poetry slam gives young people the opportunity to take their poems from the page to the stage. The British Council in partnership with South African and British poets are taking groups of young aspiring poets from Cape Town, Durban and Mafikeng on a journey where they explore their creativity, embrace their literary, performance talent and learn more about themselves, their environments and their shared history. The project forms part of the Young Leeds Authors- Poetry Slam, UK.

THRESHOLD

2011-09-23T08:02:00.000-07:00

The Michaelis Galleries and Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA) presents ‘Threshold’ from 24 September to 19 October.

Commissioned for GIPCA’s Hot Water symposium in October, ‘Threshold’ is an exhibition of environmentally conscious art curated by Michaelis Senior Lecturer Virginia MacKenny in the Michaelis Main Gallery. MacKenny is a 2011 Donald Gordon Creative Arts Award winner.

This year COP17, the United Nations Earth Summit meeting on climate change will be held in South Africa. Hosted in Durban in December, it is of vital importance that the country as a whole is aware of the concerns of this COP17 meeting. Given the particularly susceptible Western Cape eco-system, it is here that South Africa will most feel the effects of climate change. Already warmer winters are threatening Elgin’s apple crops and our unique fynbos floral heritage is under threat.

Threshold implies an upper limit to tolerance levels as climate change shifts the balance long established in ecosystems. This is a tipping point moment when environmental change is happening dangerously fast. The exhibition engages environmental change through the remaking of traditional genres such as landscape and flower painting. It presents work that calls viewer’s attention to things often overlooked. Major South African artists such as Thomas Mulcaire, Jeremy Wafer and Lucas Thobejane and Lien Botha plus younger emerging artists such as Claire Jorgenson and Nina Liebenberg, will be exhibiting work.

September 24, our National Heritage Day, is also Global Moving Planet Day – a day when artists and those who care for our environment around the planet will be protesting the continued use of fossils fuels as unsustainable. Michaelis Fine Art students are contributing to this global event with an intervention that will commence at the Cape Town Central Station at 10a.m. and continue throughout the day. It will finish at the exhibition opening on Hiddingh Campus at 6pm.

Brendhan Dickerson will activate a kinetic fire sculpture/performance at the opening when darkness falls. All welcome.

The Michaelis Galleries are at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, on the University of Cape Town’s Hiddingh Campus, 37 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town. Opening hours are: Tuesday to Friday 11:00 – 16:00, Saturday 10:00 – 13:00 or by appointment.

For further information please contact Nadja Daehnke on 082 316 5272, or 021 4807170, or nadja.daehnke@uct.ac.za

Image sourced from http://www.michaelis.uct.ac.za/ work by Lien Botha - Sociable Weaver's Nest, South African Museum, Cape Town (2009)

National Planning Commission Jam - going 4ward 2030

2011-09-11T23:51:00.000-07:00

Here is an opportunity to join the nation and the National Planning Commission to discuss our future - especially those of us between 16-35! They encourage young people from the environmental sector to join the discussions? Environment is not mentioned as a topic of discussion but Education and Training is, and look at the Vision, too.

Here is the link:

National Planning Commission Jam - going 4ward 2030
CLICK HERE

28th September to 1 October

The National Planning Commission has been established by the president to develop a vision and plan for South Africa towards 2030. The Jam is your chance to input into that plan. The NPC Jam is one of the important instruments that will assist us to engage with the people of SA. In particular, we are reaching out to our youth, NGOs, community based organisations, associations, government officials and academics in a national dialogue about the challenges facing South Africa, vision 2030 as
well as plans to reach that vision. The NPC needs your ideas, your dreams, your solutions to our challenges. Register by clicking on the link above.

Let's make ourselves heard. We have lots of issues that require cross sectoral planning. Give tangible suggestions in language that can be understood by the rest of the country.

WHO KILLED ECONOMIC GROWTH?

2011-08-16T02:14:00.001-07:00

Conservation is an old word, but what does it mean when we need to conserve humanity?

2011-08-05T13:14:00.000-07:00

JOIN the REVOLUTION! Become a United Conservationist! from Built By Wildman on Vimeo.

URGENT call for contributions to OUT THE BOX in Cape Town, Sept 2011

2011-07-26T00:13:00.000-07:00

Dear all

COPART has been given space, facilities and opportunities in this year's UNIMA South Africa's annual Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance. This groundbreaking event is a 9-day multidisciplinary event celebrating innovation, diversity and sustainability.

The audiences to this prestigious festival have grown steadily year on year with 2010 boasting 10 000 visitors attending the adult, family and film festivals as well as exhibitions, participatory workshops and talks that run throughout the day and evening at selected venues in Cape Town.

This year's Out the Box festival has incorporated a platform which embraces our values. The 'Arts for a sustainable earth' platform creates opportunities for interaction with the public to explore and inspire new behaviours for sustainable living and to re-imagine possibilities for our collective future.

While COPART did not receive the funding we were expecting to hold a fully-fledged festival at this amazing platform, we still have the opportunity to contribute with the assistance of Out the Box in terms of facilities and venues. There is so much scope to make something incredible happen on this platform and so we are sending out a call for contributions to this festival which will offer huge exposure. With the success of this festival, we will be able to guarantee funding to commission work and hold a full COPART festival at Out the Box next year.

COPART has been given the opportunity to contribute to 4 areas:

1. Film

2. Workshop

3. Visual Arts

4. Interactive sculpture

1. Film

We are looking for films to contribute to the 'Moving Things' Film festival which will showcase puppetry and stop frame films. We are also looking for films to show 'green film' hubs during the festival.

2. Workshops

There is a great opportunity to reach adults and children alike through the festival's adult, family and schools' festivals. We are looking for contributions of workshops to be run over a period on 1-1.5 hours. We will do what we can to contribute to materials and spaces will be guaranteed.

3. Visual Arts

We have been offered amazing spaces throughout the festival venues to showcase visual arts. You will have the exposure of large audiences before and after the shows at major theatre venues throughout Cape Town.

4. Interactive sculpture

If you have a great idea that is low-cost and interactive, we'd like to hear it and potentially contribute it to the festival. With 10 000 people attending this year, it could be a perfect space for this kind of project.

Please email Gillion at British Council: Gillion.Bosman@britishcouncil.org.za TODAY. We are under some very tight deadlines for publicity and if your contribution is accepted, we'd like to get it on the Out the Box programme which is being finalised tomorrow.

More information on the festival at: http://www.outtheboxfestival.com/

WESSA Climate Change Discussions

2011-07-21T11:32:00.000-07:00

WESSA is hosting discussions around Climate Change. The first session – taking place this Saturday 23 August 2011 - is on Energy.

The next discussion will be followed by discussion on Water (Tuesday 2 August 2011), Wastes (Tuesday 23 August) and Biodiversity (Tuesday 30 August).

This is open to the Copart network for more information contact catherine@wessa.co.za

http://www.wessa.org.za

EXIT NUCLEAR

2011-07-15T03:30:00.001-07:00

OPEN CALL FOR FILMS & PROPOSALS (South Africa & international)

2011-06-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

experimental film, artist's film, video art, microcinema, animation, screen dance, video poetry

Objectives

How does climate change affect your habitat? Participating artists should respond to the brief and the theme of evidence of climate change. In researching a personal but informed response to the topic, dialogue/collaboration with scientists is encouraged. Using film as a medium, the complex issues at hand should be transformed into dynamic but simple audiovisual experiences with both popular and critical merit. The work may not be longer than 4 minutes. Brevity is strongly encouraged.

Please e-mail a brief proposal of what you are planning to do (or documentation of existing work that fits the brief), along with any images and online links to relevant previous video works by July 30 2011. Proposals are to follow the format provided below. Postmark deadline: 20 September 2011. Final video works must reach us no later than 30 September 2011. Entry forms will be sent to artists who have made it through the first round (proposals).

The films will be screened in a mobile cinema in local communities and on the COPART Climate Train, travelling by rail through South Africa and resident at the COP17 global climate conference in Durban in November 2011. Thereafter, selections of the programme will travel to international film festivals.

A cash prize is intended for the top entry, as well as an artist's fee for all selected work by African artists. These details will be finalized in August/September 2011. It is confirmed that the COPART climate train has been allocated a significant amount in government and corporate sponsorship. This call is an extension of the call for contributions to the climate train sent out by COPART in April 2011.

For queries and submissions, please contact the curator, Kai Lossgott (kai.lossgott@gmail.com / +27 (0)721198300).
For more info, click here

Curator's brief

Millions of people and animals will lose their habitat due to extreme weather events like hurricanes, droughts or flooding. Daily, people around the world are observing evidence of climate change in plant, insect and animal life. 'Letters from the Sky' collects emotional data about your inner and outer climate, your home, values, and how that affects the environment we share. The earth is talking to us. Talk back. Send us your weather report from home.

Fueled by news media spectacle, we have entered an age of uncertainty. Collectively, through international media, we have seen a dramatic increase in droughts, floods, heatwaves, coastal storm surges, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis. Raw oil and nuclear radiation has leaked into the sea. These earth changes, while not all strictly linked to climate change, resound in our global awareness.

Many of us feel powerless about these situations. But it is not all bad news. Climate change is the one social movement that touches all of us, regardless of ethnicity, gender, class, age or creed. Climate change is the youth movement of the 21st century. Artists are asked to respond with their hopes, fears, dreams and nightmares. 'Letters from the Sky' seeks the problems, the evidence, the solutions. How does climate change impact on your home and your community, now and in the future?

Please ensure you submit the following for your brief proposal:

name:
country, town:
e-mail:
skype:
phone:

creative objectives (what you wish to produce and how):
personal message (maximum 250 words, please be specific):
climate change in your local context:
film language:
(All languages are welcome, but English subtitles will be required.)

Links to online video previews (maximum 3 each)
for completed work relating to the theme:
for examples of previous work:

Any relevant images.

Please note that any soundtrack or music used in the final video must be original, or copyright held/secured by the artist.

Selection process:

1. Call for brief written proposals/creative treatment (deadline July 30 2011). Feedback will be provided on successful proposals.
2. Submission of films & final selection (deadline 20 September 2011). The first screenings will be in November 2011.

FREE ACCESS TO THE RE-IMAGINING FESTIVAL AT THE NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL!

2011-06-22T02:05:00.001-07:00

Click here to view the programme

Re-imagining creative practice in sustainability is the theme for this years Environmental Hub at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown South Africa. The Sustainability Commons and the Environmental Learning Research Centre are hosting the first COPART mini-festival from the 2-10 July at the Eden Grove Hub. We aim to make this an annual event at the NAF, where citizens are able to participate in the vital practice of re-imagining our future through a variety of different activities, which include a lecture series, the eco-logic studio, exhibitions, performances, workshops, a sustainable craft market, educational food gardens, and social sculptures. All of which are freely accessible. The lecture series will include Executive Director of Green Peace Africa, Ann Lamont, Creative Director and Performer of the Well Worn Theatre Company, Kyla Davis, CEO of of WESSA Mumsie Gumede, CEO of SAHRA Sibongile Masuku Van Damme, Environmental Artists Simon (Max) Bannister and more. These lectures explore everything from Environmental Justice, the role of artists in responding to climate change, heritage and social cohesion, creative practice in public participation and Urban Food Forestry (see attached programme for details).
The Ecologic Studio will be hosting two dynamic events: Mona Betour El Zoghbi from the University of Gloucestertshire will be offering a presentation and workshop which looks at the engagement of South African University Students with Climate Change and Wellbeing; and The Rhodes University Young Royals in conjunction with the Dept. of Chemistry at Rhodes will be offering a lecture and demonstration titled “A Pollutants Tale”. Free workshops and social sculptures will be accessible at the Re-imagining hub. Workshops include Eco-Schools paper making and collage lessons, Gordon Maclellan one of Britain's liveliest environmental educators will be hosting various different workshops in collaboration with the Eco-schools project and the Children's Festival programme. Also there will be a permaculture workshop hosted by GRASS ROOTZ an environmental society based at Rhodes University.
The intriguing field of social sculpture will be accessible through the drawing to understand process with Lara Kruger from the University of Stellenbosch and the Earth Forum lead by Shelley Sacks from the Social Sculpture Research Unit at Oxford Brookes University. The Earth Forum project will also be working with 20 young climate champions from around South Africa, who will be hosted by Project 90x2030.
Also don't miss the fantastic eco-conscious theatre performances offered the Well Worn Theatre company: a children's show “The Pollution Revolution” (Venue: Memory Hall, dates and times:2 July-10h00; 3 July 14h00; 5 July-18h30; and the powerful, provocative and moving theatrical performance “Planet B” (Venue: St. Andrews, Dates and Times: Hall: 30 June -11h00; 1 July-17h30; 2 July-20h00; 6 July-17h30; 7 July-10h00; 8 July 12h00; 9 July 20h30). The Sustainability Commons will also be hosting a collaborative exhibition between South African Environmental Artist MAX and the Woodstock Art Reef Project (WARP), where an installation including sculptures and projected animations will be exhibited. Also look out for the Arkwork Collectives recycled 4X4 car around town and the devised street theatre piece titled “Quickly Car Wash”. Finally the Re-imagining festival at the Sustainability Commons within the National Arts Festival Eden Grove HUB, will also contain a craft market showcasing exceptional artisanal works from around the Eastern Cape.

We would like to thank the National Arts Festival, The Environmental Learning Research Centre, Rhodes University, the COPART network, the British Council, Toureg Tents, and Fishwicks printing for their support. So please don’t miss the Re-imagining Creative Practice in Sustainability, from the 2-10 July 2011, National Arts Festival at the Eden Grove Hub, Grahamstown. For more information please see the attached Re-imagining Programme and visit the following sites:
http://www.ru.ac.za/elrc/
http://dontcopoutcopart.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Copart/148551811870035
or for further information contact:
Injairu Kulundu injairu.kulundu@gmail.com
Dylan McGarry armadylan@gmail.com

350 Africa Volunteer Needs - 2011

2011-06-14T02:34:00.000-07:00

1. Moving Planet
This year, we are focusing on 24th September for a global day of action called “Moving Planet.” Our goal is to combine the widespread nature of our previous days of action with a more concentrated effort to organise massive demonstrations of at least 5,000-10,000 people in 15-20 key cities around the world. The theme of the day is moving away from fossil fuels and in each location, organisers will have key, specific demands for their national governments.

a) Research and info organising
Months: June/July
Researching main climate impacts/issues for different African countries, plus what their negotiators are doing at UN level – to help inform what organisers go for re political demands, and localising what 350 target would mean in each country.

b) Phone banking – English & French
Months: August & September
Phone banking (contacting grassroots organisers via skype, phone and email) smaller events and schools, identifying good pre-GDA stories and blogging these, and coaching organisers in media strategies.

c) Media support/phone banking
Months: September
Phoning media outlets after press release distribution to chase journalists, helping with web blogs, facebook updates, tweeting, etc

2. Organiser Capacity Building/Workshops
Build greater capacity among African climate activist organisers and respond to call for longer term climate projects support.

a) Research and info organising
Months: June/July
Links to 1.a above, but with additional focus on what useful climate projects local organisers could initiate (from small/short-term to medium and longer term projects). Includes identifying useful networks, organisations, resources for organisers to access.

b) Research and info organising
Months: July/August
Researching potential funders for organisers to access and developing database with contact details, funding focuses and application requirements.

c) Materials development
Months: July/August
Taking info above (a & b) and putting into easily accessible materials (online, downloadable). Link to partners/our translators for translation support.

d) Technology
Months: July
Conceptualise, research and propose best system for presenting above information to organisers and enabling platform for organisers to share experiences with each (internationally).

e) Workshop organising logistics support
Months: June/July
Help with logistical arrangements for ‘climate leaders’ workshops (lots of liaison with multiple role players and creative digging to figure out transport, catering and other issues in different countries).

3. Sauti -- climate change stories from Africa
Partner with five exceptional climate activist organisers from different regions in Africa to broadcast their stories to an international audience via various media methods. The aims of this programme are to raise awareness, to present successful role models to inspire other young people, and to encourage the world to recognise the climate vulnerability of Africa that requires international championing, as well as witnessing the strength, courage and creativity of young Africans facing the difficulties.

a) Media support
Months: August
Find additional networks willing to disseminate stories, write articles, push stories via various media outlets.

4. Radio Wave Africa & Song
In mid-October, we’ll ask all our organisers to start planning to get an interview set up with their local radio station – to take place during a particular week in November before COP – a ‘wave’ of radio interviews rippling through the airwaves! At the interview, they’ll talk about how climate change is affecting their local area, what they are doing about it, the international negotiations in Durban and what the world leaders need to do. They’ll also share the totally awesome climate song that Africa musicians have created for us.

a) Technology
Months: Aug/Sept
Conceptualise, research and propose best system for linking non-African organisers to African organisers, to support ‘buddy’ relations developing between organisers in October (to inform stories for Radio Wave).

b) Materials development
Months: September
Collate and organise materials to support organisers for Radio Wave. Liaise with partners/translators for translation support.

c) Media support/phone banking
Months: Oct/Nov
Phoning organisers to help them develop Radio Wave action, and promoting Radio Wave stories via various media outlets, plus pushing Africa climate song to different radio stations/DJs.

5. COP 17 / COY 7
Strategically engage in COP 17 and COY 7 to grow movement and influence political debate to transition our world on pathway to 350ppm.

a) Workshop organising logistics support
Months: Oct/Nov
Help with logistical arrangements for 350.org team to participate in COP 17 & COY 7.

b) Research
Months: Oct/Nov
Research COP positions of various countries to inform our strategising pre-COP.

6. South Africa Policy Lobbying
Strategically lobby South African decision makers on energy and climate policies to transition country to pathway back to 350ppm, and share this experience to inspire others in policy lobbying efforts.

a) Research and info organising
Months: June – Dec
Research status of various policies in South Africa impacting on climate change (national climate policy, IRP electricity policy, etc), and collate information into accessible format for online dissemination to our organiser network. Also research other climate-related policies in other African countries as well as stories of local advocacy efforts.

b) Media support
Months: June – Dec
Where strategic, blog on Rewire South Africa website, help develop press releases and liaise with media re various campaigns or issues arising from policy processes.

c) Fundraising support
Months: June – Dec
Help develop proposals to raise funds for climate-related advocacy efforts in South Africa.

As much of this work is web-based, volunteers can work from home. Alternatively, if convenient, volunteers can use the 350.org Africa office in Kalk Bay, Cape Town.

Contact:
Samantha Bailey
079 744 0525
samantha@350.org
www.350.org

Photographers!

2011-05-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

Invitation to photographers to apply to produce a Photo Essay on Water and Climate Change.

Environmental Monitoring Group (EMG) is in the process of producing a Water and Climate Change Handbook that provides both insight and practical tips for water activists, government officials and interested members of the public. The handbook has an urban bias and focuses on the provision of sufficient affordable quality water to all, with the added complexities that climate change brings. The intention is to produce something beautiful, helpful and challenging. The reader should not feel bored or complacent after looking at it.

To bring some new ways of seeing to the subject, we would like to include a photo-essay as part of the handbook. The essay would not be to illustrate points made in the text but to create a visual story of how the dynamic of water and climate change is (or will be) experienced in South Africa. It will be important for the essay to include both people and the environments in which they live, or which support them.

The essay would comprise 20 to 30 images, provided in print-quality digital format. EMG will pay up to R10 000 for the essay and rights to use the photographs in our work.

Deadline for completion: 14 July 2011.

Interested artists are invited to send a short (approx 1 page) motivation on how they propose to approach the photo essay, as well as samples of their work. EMG will work with the successful artist to fine-tune the essay.

Deadline for application: 3 June 2011.

For more information or to send a motivation, contact Jessica Wilson, jessica@emg.org.za 021-448 2881

Information on EMG and our water and climate change work can be found at www.emg.org.za

Call for Abstracts: Student Conference: Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)

2011-05-24T12:30:00.000-07:00

Dear All,

I would like to inform you about the upcoming conference from the African Young Scientists Initiative on Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge (AYSICCIK) is organising an International Student Conference: Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS), (CCIKS2011) from 15th to 17th August 2011, in Johannesburg, South Africa,

Website: http://aysiccik.blog.com/ev/cciks-2011/. (All documents are available at this website)

Kindly assist me in disseminating this conference abstract call to people who may be interested to participate or support.

Best regards

Anke

Ms. Anke Weisheit
(PhD Fellow, M.Sc, B.Sc. Eng.)
Uganda Country Coordinator, Young Professionals' Platform for Agricultural Research for Development (YPARD)
Task force member for the establishment of the Institute of Indigenous Knowledge (IIK)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Faculty of Development Studies Mbarara University of Science and Technology
PO Box 1410 Mbarara Uganda
Tel: +256-772-888096 / +256-702-888096
Fax: +49-3212-1921970 (FAX to email)
E-Mail (1): ankeweisheit@web.de
E-Mail (2) (alternative): ankweis@yahoo.com
Web: http://www.must.ac.ug/
Yahoo Messenger: ankweis | SkyPe: ankweis
http://www.linkedin.com/in/aweisheit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Traditional Knowledge and Science
Our Culture - Our Basis - Our Future" Anke

Call for applications to Project 90x2030's Youth Forum

2011-05-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

Call for applications: Youth (ages 17-21) forum – August 23 to 25, 2011.

Executive summary

South Africa will host the 17th Conference of the parties later this year. In partnership with the

Goedgedacht forum, Project 90 by 2030 and others propose to co-host a 3 day forum connecting young climate leaders with government, business and civil society climate leaders in August 2011 to share perspectives on how South Africa should demonstrate leadership at COP17.

Presentations (theatre, art, verbal presentations) on Climate related themes will be prepared during June and July and finalised as a group on day 1 and 2 of the forum, with a view to providing space for youth to prepare to engage with current leaders on day 3, drawing their attention to how youth believe South Africa should be showing leadership at this crucial time.

Objective

Project 90 has a vision to drive and inspire significant lifestyle change – 90 by 2030. The Goedgedacht forum for Social reflection seeks to promote reconciliation and to help develop a humane, peaceful and democratic society in South Africa. Together we propose to identify 25 dynamic youth climate leaders who currently advocate lifestyle change in their communities. These 25 young leaders will be provided the opportunity to engage with one another to exchange perspectives on the mindset, policy and legislative changes needed today, in order to preserve the environment for future generations; and present these views articulately and creatively to government, business and civil society climate leaders.

Themes to be covered in the Forum will be:

 Mitigation (emissions reduction) – Energy, Water, Transport

 Adaptation (preparedness) – Vulnerable communities (infrastructure), food security, Energy

Who are we looking for?

Participants will be selected from among Project 90 and Goedgedacht Forum partner networks and based on their current & visible leadership in the areas of climate mitigation and adaptation. Particular attention will be paid to diversity of culture, gender, economic sector representation and age. It is anticipated that participants will be able to share their knowledge and experience with one another in the period leading up to August and so that ultimately we will have 25 leaders who also have expanded their knowledge on areas of climate change and South African society beyond their current interests.

How will the messages from young climate leaders be conveyed?

Communication via various mediums will be possible e.g. live theatre, poetry, artwork or formal speeches. Areas of interest and preferred mediums will be chosen by participants early on so that preparation can begin prior to August. Social media platforms will no doubt be utilised in the run up to August.

The process

Project 90 will coordinate facilitation of the forum and will identify an organising committee to manage the programme which will extend from May to August. Once participants have been identified toward the end of May, areas of interest and preferred medium of communication and groups will be finalised. An internet communication platform will be arranged so that participants can begin to make contact with one another and with the facilitators.

An interim meeting of participants will probably need to be arranged by June/early July so that

they can workshop any collective pieces of work and agree on how to collaborate between then and August. Alternatives to meeting face to face will be considered if sufficient funding is not available by June. The forum will begin by mid-day on 23 August. Thematic groups will split up and work on their presentations on this day and prepare to present these to one another by 12 noon on 24th August. On the evening of the 24th, the government, business and civil society climate leaders will join the group for dinner. That evening the young climate leaders will present a ‘taster’ of what they have prepared for August 25th.

On the 25th presentations will begin at 9am for 3 hours. The government, business and civil society participants will then have 1 hour to respond. After lunch a facilitated discussion will seek to lead to consensus on the points of leadership that all commit to. A means of sealing this commitment will be identified by the facilitators. The joint meeting will end by 15h30 so that the young leaders have a chance to connect prior to formal closure by 17h30.

Participant costs to be covered by the organising partners:

Accommodation & travel to preparatory meeting and the 3 day forum

What form should applications take?

Applications motivating why you should be selected can be prepared in writing or via voice or

visual recording and submitted to Project 90 by 2030 by no later than 4pm on 27th May.

Applications should be sent to Olivia Andrews (olivia@90x2030.org.za). Olivia can be reached at

tel. 021 674 5095 for any queries.

Earth Forum - Laingsburg Election Day

2011-05-20T05:16:00.000-07:00

Election day! Earth Forum day! Finally, our chance to work with the Earth Forum process and have a dialogue with people who would not usually be familiar with processes like this.

Our host's daughter, Yolanda complained about the noise and disruptions in Laingsburg and reckoned it was the worst day of the year to be in the little Karoo town. To our ears, this disruption was no more than the daily traffic past our homes in Cape Town. Cars cruised down the streets with party flags flying and music pumping. Although we had only arrived in the town the day before, it was clear that there were more people in town today, especially more people from outlying farms who came into town to vote.

We chose to experiment and do two different types of Earth Forums on this day and the flexibility really paid off.

First, in the morning, we set up the table in a busy part of town and welcomed passers-by to joins us for an open conversation if they wished to. Through the morning we sat around the table with many different people from an eleven year-old and his dad who love to walk the dry Karoo river beds to a group of teenagers who were soaking up the day's festivities on the side of the road. The concerns about the town ranged from the increasing drug and alcohol abuse, the increasing difficulty to farm in the area, the future of tourism in the town and the youth moving away from the town.

Later that day we had a more structured dialogue, set up in the very river that flooded the town thirty years ago. This was a longer process with invited participants which allowed all of us to work more deeply with our questions.

Clickety clack clickety clack, onwards to Joburg.

Earth Forum - Laingsburg

2011-05-20T01:53:00.001-07:00

As we piled off the train in Laingsburg, our first thoughts were far away from the work ahead of us and more concerned with making sure we had all of our kit including the whole team, our bags and bedding as well as Maria's easel and bicycle from the storage carriage of the train.

We were the only people to get off at this stop and once the train had moved on and its clickety clack had faded further into the Karoo, the town's warmth and silence settled into all of us. Before long, we were sitting around on the warm concrete joking around with Ferdie, the station master. One thing you quickly learn about Laingsburg is that it's friendly and it's small. Here's one story which taught us this.

One of our team forgot a small document case on the platform in the mad scramble to load our belongings in the car of the eminently lovely Ingrid, our perfect hostess. By the time we had settled into our beautiful little guest house, the station master had phoned Ingrid's father who had found Ingrid shopping in the local OK Bazaars. She then took the case to the guest house and thereafter bumped into two of us getting to know Oom Piet, the town's 'Green champion' in his liquor store. Within the next hour, while we were having a walk around town and watching the sun set, we saw Ferdie, the station master, Ingrid's father and Zeena from the guest house who all stopped us to check that we had got the infamous case. The funny thing is, Maria only realized she's left it on the platform when it was returned to her!

The major flood in 1981 destroyed the town and took the lives of 140 people. Walking through the town and seeing the flood line on signs, the churches and the houses you can feel how it still identifies with the flood thirty years on.

We came across this this ensemble of names of major places, arrows and distances and thought is was another clichéd tourist totem of "How far are we from Los Angeles?". But on closer inspection, each of the places indicated with an arrow also feature the year they were devastated by a flood and, on the back of the arrow, the number of people who lost their lives. This simple public this sculpture embodied the COPART principle of connecting in how the town reaches out with other cities who have lived through other floods. It was a real eye-opener.

When I was asked why we chose to visit Laingsburg for an Earth Forum which considered our questions about living a climate changing world, my response was that, even though the devastating flood was not a direct consequence of major climate changes around the world, this small town had been destroyed by a natural disaster and had the community had rebuilt it's homes, farms, shops, schools, churches, roads, bridges as well as its courage and hope. Aside from this, it's in the Karoo which has been the hot seat of environmental discussion over the last few months and we could get there by train - the best way to see the countryside and the most rejuvenating way to travel.

The town's Flood Museum is a journey of another sort. To see pictures of the devastation and total chaos of place you have stood in the town is absolutely incredible. Outside, there is a memorial made of mangled water meters and just a couple of metres away you can stand in the now bone-dry river bed that ushered in the sheer overwhelming volume of water that overpowered the town.

As you enter the town, these public sculptures, symbols of incredible stories from the flood stand watch over both the town and the river. I only got to hear briefly about a cat who survived by floating on a stool, and a man who clung to life and a gas bottle but when I return in August, I plan on digging around for the story of the book and the suitcase.

Tomorrow is election day and our one day in town to hold Earth Forums and to sit arouns the table with the people of Laingsburg and hear their picture and questions.

Photos courtesy of Elizabeth Fletcher