WINNIPEG, MB –University of Winnipeg award-winning academic filmmaker and Associate Professor (Geography) Dr. Ian Mauro is heading to Marrakesh, Morocco later this week to speak at an international conference on Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change. The conference is hosted by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the French National Centre for Scientific Research in partnership with the Indigenous Peoples of Africa Coordinating Committee (IPACC) and Tebtebba. It will bring together Indigenous peoples, scientists and policy-makers from around the world to engage in a dialogue about Indigenous knowledge and climate change impacts, mitigation and adaptation.
Dr. Mauro’s talk is entitled: From Thief to Igloo Builder: Participatory Digital Research on Climate Change with and for Indigenous communities in Canada. He is the only representative from a Canadian University presenting at the conference.
“Across Canada, I’ve been collaborating with numerous Indigenous communities to collect, conserve and communicate their knowledge regarding climate change using documentary video,” said Dr. Mauro. “It’s exciting to have the opportunity to share this research and filmmaking internationally in the context of global efforts to implement the Paris Agreement on climate change”.
The Indigenous Knowledge and Climate Change conference is an official event linked with COP 22 (the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties) that takes place in Marrakesh from November 7 to 18, 2016.
BACKGROUND
Dr. Ian Mauro will be speaking about his trilogy of climate change films across Canada – including Qapirangajuq: Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change; Climate Change in Atlantic Canada; and Beyond Climate – which all focus on local and traditional knowledge. He is a co-director of the Prairie Climate Centre and his most recent project called Climate, Cinema and Cartography merges film and mapmaking to explore climate change in the Canadian Prairies. Mauro’s work has been featured in the Berlin International Film Festival, Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic, Royal Ontario Museum and various film festival and academic conferences worldwide.
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MEDIA CONTACT
Diane Poulin, Senior Communications Specialist, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135, E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca
