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Reimagined Futures

Stories of community resilience and transformation in the face of the climate crisis

Join us for Reimagined Futures, a seven-part podcast series produced by the Sydney Environment Institute, navigating the critical questions and myths surrounding life under a climate-changed future.

This podcast series will be exploring how some of the most impacted communities in the world are engaging in collective action to reimagine a just and sustainable future for all.

Knowing the causes of the climate crisis is only part of the challenge. Understanding the barriers to creating change and learning about the actions and solutions communities can implement is the next step. There are various barriers to communities taking action, including how they imagine what the future can look like. Dominant ways of imagining the future, like ‘business as usual’, ‘technology will fix everything’ or ‘we are doomed’ leave communities feeling that action is meaningless. How can we inspire communities to imagine the future differently? What will it take for our future to be reimagined as a positive one where all life could flourish?

With a team of dedicated partners and researchers, the Sydney Environment Institute has been following five communities in India and Australia that are currently facing extreme impacts of climate change. We have been trying to better understand just this - how they are taking collective action to create real and sustainable futures and more positive imaginaries, even in the face of huge challenges.

This podcast series is produced by Sydney Environment Institute in partnership with the Social Entrepreneurship Association Auroville and the India and Bharat Together Foundation. This series is part of the Grounded Imaginaries project funded by V. Kann Rasmussen Foundation. Available on your favourite podcast streaming app.

Episode 1: What are climate imaginaries?

How can we so clearly understand the gravity of the climate crisis and what needs to be done and yet still not be acting fast enough? What gets in the way of all of us being part of making the change, or pushing for the changes that need to be made? In the opening episode of the Reimagined Futures series, Professor Danielle Celermajer reveals the barriers that are halting systemic change and the possibilities for transformative collective action.

Show notes

Credits

Narrated by: Danielle Celermajer is a Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney, and Deputy Director – Academic of the Sydney Environment Institute. She is the research lead on the Grounded Imaginaries project and Director of the Multispecies Justice Project.

Written by: Danielle Celermajer

Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright

Featuring:

Aadya Singh (India and Bharat Together)
David Schlosberg (Sydney Environment Institute)
Pragnya Khanna (Social Entrepreneurship Association)
ABC News 2019, Flames rip through towns, fears death toll will rise as bushfires rage on | ABC News, 31 December.
BBC News 2022, Pakistan floods: Government declares national emergency – BBC News, 27 August.
United Nations 2021, "Climate crisis is a code red for humanity" - UN Chief | United Nations | Climate Action, 27 October.
Guardian News 2022, Humanity faces ‘collective suicide’ over climate crisis, warns UN chief, 19 July.
Storyful News & Weather 2017, Scott Morrison Brings in Lump of Coal Into House of Representatives, 9 February.
Chevron 2022, exploration | chevron, 9 May.
The Amazon World 2018, We Must go to SPACE to Save Earth | Jeff Bezos, 28 August.
Interstellar 2014, motion picture, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy, Lynda Obst Productions, California, US. Produced by Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan, Lynda Obst; directed by Christopher Nolan.
The Road 2009, motion picture, 2929 Entertainment, California, US. Produced by Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz, Paula Mae Schwartz; directed by John Hillcoat.
The Day After Tomorrow 2004, motion picture, Centropolis Entertainment, Lionsgate Films, The Mark Gordon Company, California, US. Produced by Mark Gordon, Roland Emmerich; directed by Roland Emmerich.

Music:

About a Dream by Symphonic Collective
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Mind Game by LATG Music
Blank Space by Vesper Tapes
Creative Awakening by Evocativ

Resources

Article: ‘Grounded Imaginaries: Transforming how we live in climate-changed futures’, by Danielle Celermajer, published by Griffith Review, 2021.

Episode 2: Auroville

On the south-east coast of India in the Tamil Nadu region, we visit a living laboratory for human evolution, called Auroville. We’ll learn from their community about the power of integral yoga and integral ecology to deepen people’s understanding of their place and belonging within the larger ecological worlds.

Special thanks to Gopal, Lakshmi, Bernard and Deepika for sharing their journey with us, and to the rest of Auroville’s green workers whose work we hold in deep-rooted regard. With gratitude to the young forests of Auroville and all its creatures, who inspire us through their sights, sounds, textures, ways of being and resilience.

Show notes

Credits

Narrated by: Deepthi Indukuri is a Research Fellow on SEA’s project team and is a biomedical researcher turned sports photographer turned sports physiologist. Deepthi lives and volunteers in Auroville and is intrigued by the sacred relationships between beings and their natural spaces.

Written by: Pragnya Khanna, Deepthi Indukuri, Gijs Spoor

Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright

Sound engineer: Justin Flynn

Featuring:

Gopal is co-steward of Darkali Forest Park and is one of the earliest members of the Auroville community. He arrived in Auroville at the age of 4 in the early 1970s.
Deepika & Bernard are stewards of Pebble Garden, an eco-restoration and seed saving initiative.
Lakshmi is the founder and vision holder for Inner Climate Academy and a resident of one of Auroville’s green belt communities.

Music:

About a Dream by Symphonic Collective
Eternal Star by Kevin Maison
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Breaking and Entering by Cosmo Lawson
Mind Game by LATG Music

Resources

Film: Ever Slow Green by Christoph Pohl, 56 minutes, 2020.

Article: ‘Discover Auroville – Pebble Garden’ by Laura and Mathieu, published by D’Humain & D’Humus, 20 April 2018.

Article: ‘Auroville’s Innovators’ by Ashish Kothari, published by Vikalp Sangam, 24 January 2019.

Video: ‘Av wildlife’ by Auronevi Darkali, 16 March 2017.

Website: Inner Climate Academy - an initiative that provides spaces for inner reflection and inquiry, collaborative research, and facilitated explorations that lead to personal and societal transformation in regards to our relationship with the Earth.

Website: Auroville Repository – a collection of items pertaining to research done in Auroville and research done by Aurovilians, managed by the Auroville Research Platform, a group that facilitates research collaboration and research communication activities in Auroville.

Website: Auroville’s Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest – a database of local forest types in Auroville with a map of sites and specific details about species and their distribution.

Website: Explorer.land – an interactive digital map that connects Auroville with other international nature-based projects.

Episode 3: Uttarakhand

Moving to northern India, we gain altitude as we venture through the foothills of the Himalayas up to the mid-elevations of Uttarakhand. People here are facing the twin devastations of altered extreme seasonality and forms of so-called development that are overwhelming traditional lifestyles. Yet, in the face of these rapid change, two villages in this region are experimenting with regenerative farming practices that are also creating leadership opportunities for women in the community. Through their experiences, we'll learn how climate crises and people's survival are deeply interwoven.

Special thanks to all who featured in this episode and to the people of Sarmoli and Kewar who contributed to the Grounded Imaginaries project. Without their insights this project wouldn't have taken the shape that it has taken. Finally, we are indebted to the Himalayas which for centuries has nurtured, preserved and cultivated the Himalayan civilisation (mountain people) and provided vital resources like water to the people down across the plains of Northern India.

Show notes

Credits

Narrated by: Ishika Ramakrishna is a researcher, writer, podcaster and dancer. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies researching human—nonhuman primate interactions. As part of her doctoral research, she has been focusing on the nuances of people's interactions with the hoolock gibbon in Barekuri, Assam, through anthropological and ecological lenses. Outside of her love for all-things-monkey, she is also passionate about science communication and nature education for all ages.

Written by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Mayank Shah, VPJ Sambhavi

Edited by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Genevieve Wright

Sound engineer: Michael Irwin

Featuring:

Malika Virdi Sarpanch is from Sarmoli-Jainti Van Panchayat and is a member of the women’s collective Maati Sangthan. She is also a subsistence farmer and founder of Himalayan Ark.
Siddharth Negi is Director of Uttaranchal Youth Research and Development Centre (UYRDC) and is working on providing food security and reviving the traditional regenerative agricultural practices along with focussing on nature-based nutritive farming using natural farming techniques.

Music:

About a Dream by Symphonic Collective
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Blank Space by Vesper Tapes
A Sense of Wonder by High Street Music
Divine Breath by Evergreen
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Mind Game by LATG Music

Resources

Sarmoli, Munsiyari

Article: ‘How Sarmoli became a poster child of ecotourism in Uttarakhand’ by Archana Singh, published in Mongabay, 21 June 2021.

Article: ‘Ecotourism: Munsiyari’s women of mettle’ by Archana Singh, published in The Hindu Business Line, 16 March 2021.

Article: ‘How this border village in Uttarakhand defied migration trend’ by Prashant Jha, published in The Times of India, 22 May 2019.

Essay: Homestays as Livelihood Strategies in Rural Economies: The case of Johar Valley, Uttarakhand, India by Ian Christian Macek, published by University of Washington, 2012.

Kewar, Chamoli

Article series: ‘Mongabay series: Nature-based Solutions’ published by Mongabay.

Article: ‘IUCN organises community workshop on organic farming for farmers in Uttarakhand, India’ by IUCN, published by IUCN, 13 March 2018.

Article: ‘Community Based Response To Climate Change: Experiences From Uttarakhand’ by Archana Singh, published by Counter Currents, 31 December 2017.

Article: ‘Environment, Medicine and Rural Entrepreneurship: Lessons From Uttarakhand’ by Rana Ashish Singh, Siddartha Negi and Vidya Bhooshan Singh, published by Youth Ki Awaaz, 2018.

Article: ‘Climate change is already forcing farmers in Uttarakhand to migrate’ by Kasturi Das, published by The Third Pole, 17 May 2021.

Article: ‘Baranaja: a climate resilient farming practice’ by Down to Earth, published by Down to Earth, 18 November 2016.

Report: Climate Change Adaptation: Finding Untapped Opportunities in Uttarakhand by The Energy and Resources Institute, published by The Energy and Resources Institute, 27 February 2018.

Report: Project Inception Report: Climate Smart Actions and Strategies in North Western Himalayan Region for Sustainable Livelihoods of Agriculture-Dependent Hill Communities in Uttarakhand, India by BAIF Development Research Foundation.

Report: The Role of Nature-based Solutions for Climate Change Adaptation in UK Policy by Alexandre Chausson, Alison Smith and Nathalie Seddon, published by WWF-UK & RSPB, 2020.

Episode 4: Moruya

Flying across the Indian Ocean to Australia, we arrive in the small town of Moruya on the southern coast of New South Wales. We’ll discover how a not-for-profit community group called Sustainability Agriculture Gardening Eurobodalla (SAGE) formed, and about their dream to develop a strong community-based food system. We will also follow them through the fires and floods and hear how these climactic disasters forced them to re-evaluate their relationship to the land.

Show notes

Credits

Narrated by:

Maria Paula Cardoso Nunez is a Research Fellow on SEI’s project team and has a background in law and sociocultural studies with an interest in community action and social justice. She has previously contributed to developing evidence-based policy in Indigenous and youth education (Colombia) and domestic violence (Australia).
Josh Gowers is a Community Fellow on SEI’s project team and a landscape architect working and growing on brinja ba walbunja ngura, koori guradwaraga ya ngadjuwaraga, muryan duraya (Brinja and Walbunja Country, koori lands and waters, Deua River). He currently researches the colonial Food Landscapes of Sydney, in addition to mapping the impact of Australian diets on food landscapes, now and beyond 2050.

Written by: Maria Paula Cardoso Nunez, Josh Gowers

Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright

Featuring:

Stuart Whitelaw is an architect, artist and the co-founder of Sustainability Agriculture Gardening Eurobodalla (SAGE). In 2008, Stuart’s enthusiasm for reclaiming a place in the food system for small scale and localised food production saw the creation of the not-for-profit SAGE Project. In 2013, the SAGE Farmers Market began.
Kathryn Maxwell is President of the Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance (SHASA). Kathryn is passionate about achieving a resilient Eurobodalla in which the community generates more of their electricity and food and keeps the money local.
Fraser Bayley is a highly experienced small-scale grower and educator. Fraser is one part of Old Mill Road BioFarm alongside Kirsti, Pats and the family. Growing since 2006, they've provided reliable, good food through severe drought, fires and a pandemic and their farm has become a haven for biodiversity through tough climatic conditions.
NSWRFS 2020, 2019/2020 bush fire season comes to a close, 31 March.

Music:

About a Dream by Symphonic Collective
Untitled song by Amelie Vanderstock
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Crying Out by Firefly Music
Creative Awakening by Evocativ
Mind Game by LATG Music

Resources

Article: ‘Climate change impacts and adaptation on Australian farms’ by Neal Hughes and Peter Gooday, published by Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, 20 May 2022.

Article: ‘Climate change means Australia may have to abandon much of its farming’ by Andrew Wait and Kieron Meagher, published by The Conversation, 6 September 2021.

Report: ‘Chapter 5: Food Security’ in the Special Report on Climate Change and Land by Cheikh Mbow and Cynthia Rosenzweig, published by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019.

Podcast: Right Fire Wrong Fire by From the Embers: Stories from the Australian Bushfire Crisis, published by Community Broadcasting Association of Australia, 20 June 2022.

Podcast: ‘Bruce Pascoe at Southeast Harvest 2017’, 1 April 2017.

Website: Farm It Forward – a not-for-profit urban farming social enterprise model connecting landowners and local young people who are passionate about growing food.

Episode 5: Ladakh

Being a cold desert even higher up in the Himalayas, the Ladakhi landscape is rugged and harsh for people and nature alike. Their survival is under threat because of untimely glacial melts, altered river systems and mismanaged interventions by local governing bodies. We'll discover how this ecosystem has been altered over the last two decades, and what its youth are doing today to mitigate their intensifying water crises.

Special thanks to all who featured in this episode and to the people of Pishu who not only opened their homes to us but also their heart all throughout this project. Thank you to the city of Zanskar, which makes us realise how a region as remote as it, can become an example of how to live in this ever-changing global era thanks to people’s determination to live producing local interventions and indigeneity.

Listen to the extended version of this conversation on the podcast channel The Thing About Wildlife.

Show notes

Credits

Narrated by: Ishika Ramakrishna is a researcher, writer, podcaster and dancer. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Wildlife Studies researching human—nonhuman primate interactions. As part of her doctoral research, she has been focusing on the nuances of people's interactions with the hoolock gibbon in Barekuri, Assam, through anthropological and ecological lenses. Outside of her love for all-things-monkey, she is also passionate about science communication and nature education for all ages.

Written by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Mayank Shah, VPJ Sambhavi

Edited by: Ishika Ramakrishna, Genevieve Wright

Sound engineer: Justin Flynn

Featuring:

Lobzang Wangtak is the co-founder of Navikarana Trust and Zanskar Conservancy Movement. Lobzang and his colleagues at Navikarana Trust have worked tirelessly to provide water to the people of Zanskar by lifting the water from the nearby spring in a sustainable way through solar water pumping. In 2021, the Pishu Village finally got water lifted to their village through Lobzang’s intervention and community collaboration and now more than 20 villages are in need of his help. Without any institutional support Lobzang’s work relies on public funding or NGOs support. To support the incredible work Lobzang and his team are doing, contact him here.
Dawa Dolma is a Tibetan and independent journalist from Leh. Dawa was a Youth Fellow on the Western Himalayan team. Dawa writes on earth stories from Ladakh in local journals, NGO newsletters and digital media.

Music:

About a Dream by Symphonic Collective
Eternal Star by Kevin Maison
Blank Space by Vesper Tapes
Creative Awakening by Evocativ
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Crying Out by Firefly Music
Mind Game by LATG Music

Resources

Article: ‘Adapting to Climate Change in the Zanskar Valley: Deep in the Himalayas, lessons from local to global’ by Lobzang Wangtak and Charlie Ashbaugh, published by Think Global Health, 10 November 2021.

Article: ‘Tourist magnet Ladakh facing water scarcity’ by Athar Parvaiz, published by The Third Pole, 1 August 2018.

Article: ‘Community initiatives tackle climate change in Ladakh village’ by Rama Dwivedi, published by Mongabay, 13 September 2019.

Article: ‘Climate change is changing landscape of Ladakh’ by Dinakar Peri, published by The Hindu, 29 November 2015.

Article: ‘While climate change takes centre stage, black carbon’s impacts on the Himalayas have taken a back seat’ by Saumya Ancheri, published by Condé Nast Traveller, 17 November 2021.

Video: ‘Pishu Water Lifting Video – 2021’ by Navikarana Trust, 23 March 2021.

Video: ‘Himalayan village split in two by climate change’ by Neha Sharma and Aamir Peerzada, published by BBC News, 11 November 2021.

Episode 6: Perumbakkam

We conclude the series in Perumbakkam, a community of resettlement sites in the southern Indian city of Chennai, one of the cities in South Asia most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. As a result of the government’s response to flood mitigation, marginalised communities are displaced to the outskirts of the city. In this episode, we hear from the community members involved in the housing rights organisation, Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC). They’ll discuss how the community now feels empowered with their issues and ideas being represented by IRCDUC in government decision-making. They’ll illustrate the importance of centring social justice and community engagement in responding to the effects of climate change. Imagining a different future is particularly difficult in Perumbakkam but be inspired as we hear from the community members envisioning ways to transform sites of exclusion into homes.

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed to this episode with their voices and insights. Special thanks to Grounded Imaginaries Fellow Joel Shelton (Program Manager, IRCDUC) for supporting us with everything that transpired in Perumbakkam throughout the project. Thank you to the community fellows Mercy, Mahalakshmi, Santhiya and Kowsalya for allowing us to tell their inspiring story.

Show notes

Credits

Narrated by: Rohit Nair is a Research Fellow on SEA’s project team. He has a background in social science and is interested in questions of urban geography and political ecology. He is currently working on creating spaces and tools for environmental education through a non-profit called Project Living Cities.

Written by: Rohit Nair

Edited by: Aston Brown, Genevieve Wright

Sound engineer: Justin Flynn, Michael Irwin

Featuring:

Vanessa Peter is the Founder of the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities and a policy researcher ad social activist.
Mercy M and Mahalaxmi are Community Fellows from the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities.
Karen Coelho is an Associate Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies. Karen’s research interest include urban anthropology including critical examinations of urban collective action, urban infrastructure including housing, shelter policies and resettlement schemes.
Natasha Thomas (English translations)

Music:

About a Dream by Symphonic Collective
Moons of Mercury by Evergreen
Crying Out by Firefly Music
Eternal Star by Kevin Maison
Mind Game by LATG Music

Resources

Report: ‘Life on the Margins: Access to basic infrastructure facilities in the resettlement sites of Chennai’ by Dr. Nundiyny A D, Joel Shelton Terrance F, and Vanessa Peter, published by Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities, 2022.

Report: ‘Mapping Unsafe Spaces: A women-led initiative for safety’ by Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities, January 2023.

Article: ‘Community efforts towards climate resilience – the Perumbakkam way’ by Rohit Nair, published by Citizen Matters, 1 August 2022.

Article: ‘Salvaging and Scapegoating: Slum Evictions on Chennai’s Waterways’ by Karen Coelho and Nithya V Raman, published by Economic and Political Weekly, 22 May 2010.

Article: ‘Building Floods’ by Sindhuja Janakiraman, published by SintexTank.

Episode 7: How will you imagine our climate futures?

You’ve journeyed with us through the valleys of the Himalayas, to the humid expanses of southern India, and across the ocean to the windswept eastern coast of Australia. Despite climate change undermining their vital life support systems, the communities we’ve met are acting collectively and creatively to reimagine their future and tackle the climate crisis head on. In doing so, they are creating new imaginaries. However, we can’t escape the fact that their courageous action is set against the harsh reality of the broader economic, social and political systems that remain addicted to extraction and development.

The final episode of Reimagined Futures reflects on what we can learn from these communities. What inspires grounded imaginaries, and what gets in the way? How are communities keeping hope alive in the face of national and global systems that block transformation at every turn? And how can you become involved in driving change locally as part of a global movement towards a more just and sustainable world?

Update regarding Auroville:

Since recording this podcast, there have been devastating developments in Auroville involving the destruction of the Darkali Forest which was profiled in the episode. To learn more about the struggle of the Auroville residents against authoritarian forces here is a people's archive of events as they keep unfolding: standforaurovilleunity

Follow the Auroville grassroots resistance on Instagram: @stand_for_auroville_unity/

And support the call by Auroville residents to end the take-over of their social experiment by centralised authorities: CHANGE.ORG petition