Climate Migration and Welcoming Newcomers
Maida Owens presented this workshop in two-parts that explores the arts role in dealing with the disruptions in our communities due to environmental changes and cultural strategies that communities can use to welcome newcomers and foster a sense of place for both long-term residents and newcomers.
Part One introduced climate adaptation with a special focus on climate migration within the United States. This workshop challenges you to start thinking like a future ancestor and asks: What will future generations wish we had done? It covered climate mitigation and adaptation, environmental economic and political changes predicted by 2030, migration and relocation issues including level of risk, economics, demographics and cultural issues. Part One was recorded and is available on the LFS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLX4Rqm9fs
Part Two explores cultural strategies to welcome newcomers using resources from immigration, arts, and folklore scholarship in addition to efforts by the Bayou Culture Collaborative (BCC) to bring culture into the community resilience conversation. BCC offers monthly online gatherings and working groups to facilitate communication about issues and develop strategies to address them that are free and open to all. The Arts, Culture and Climate Migration Resource List includes all resources used in the two sessions.
Maida Owens is a folklorist who has directed the Louisiana Division of the Arts Folklife Program since 1988. She is a founding member of the Bayou Culture Collaborative, an initiative of the Louisiana Folklore Society. Through monthly online gatherings and working groups, the BCC connects those interested in the intersection of traditional culture, the arts and science in the face of Louisiana’s land loss and environmental changes. Her focus is on the impact of migration upon our cultures in the face of coming disruption.
Resources for the Bayou Culture Collaborative’s Sense of Place–and Loss workshops are available here.
Arts, Culture and Migration Resource List
Migration and Receiving Communities – A Plan to Plan Worksheet
An Introduction to Climate Migration and Welcoming Newcomers, American Folklore Society, November 2, 2023.
What State Arts Agencies can do to sustain culture with increasing migration