Yvonne Dudock (journalist, researcher and producer), Nicole Franken (photographer, researcher and producer), Tom Van Cakenberghe (cinematographer), Eline Prins (cinematographer), Marco Prins (cinematographer) and Pieter Huisman (cinematographer). Together we highlight the unseen and focus on a corner of the world that most of us are hardly aware of.
After centuries of colonization, oppression, discrimination and forced assimilation, indigenous people are facing climate change and globalization. Through the project Indigenous People Today, we investigate these effects on indigenous peoples, their ways of life and unique cultures.
We focus on communities in the northern hemisphere and around the equator. For example, global warming is changing the landscape and ecosystem in which they live drastically and they are facing major challenges. Not only is their food supply under pressure, but so is their emotional and spiritual bond with nature.
This multi media project Indigenous People Today will show the personal, daily stories behind the shocking statistics through features and documentaries. We highlight the irreversible consequences of climate change on indigenous people. A series of reports and videos has been published in several media such as Trouw, MO* magazine, De Groene Amsterdammer, De Morgen and Internazionale.
The communities we included in our series are the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nations (Old Crow, Yukon, Canada), the Sami (Ammarnäs, Lapland, Sweden), the Inuit (Oqaatsut, Greenland), the Khalkhas (Töw Province, Mongolia), the Loba (Lo Manthang, Upper Mustang, Nepal) and the Quechua (Peru).
“The Chinese, the people in Europe and America are the major polluters. They cause climate change. Not us. As a result, it will become much warmer all over the world, but especially here in Greenland. For that reason I will soon no longer be able to ice fish, no longer sled with the dogs, no longer hunt for my food.” – Malik Olsvig (10), Greenland.
“Floods and landslides are becoming more frequent, taking the fertile soil and crops with them. Due to the relatively short season, we only have one harvest per year, which is getting smaller and smaller. The land simply does not produce enough to provide for our livelihood.” – Lhakpa Wangdu, Nepal.
“We have been noticing the effects of climate change for more than fifteen years and hardly anyone listens to us. We are an indigenous people, a minority, and if we disappear there is no one left to understand and protect nature. That is a hard fact, not only here in Sweden, but all over the world.” – Marja Skum, Sweden.
