Recipes for Resilience: Engaging Caribbean Youth in Climate Action and Afrodescendant Food Heritage through Story Mapping and Song

Lead Research Organisation: University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Geosciences

Abstract

RfR aims to inspire Caribbean youth to revalue Afrodescendant food heritage as a pathway to climate adaptation and resilience. Together with our partners, the CYEN, and invited Caribbean and British Caribbean youth, we will collect, map, and sing about stories of Afrodescendant food heritage, past and present, and the climatic threats that undermine community resilience. We will do so through three virtual workshops (W1-3), co-created with our partners and with researchers in climate science, ethnobotany, Caribbean studies, geography, and critical development from the Universities of the West Indies and Edinburgh.

Activities:

W1: Our Past: We will use sensory methods to trigger episodic memories of feeling, tasting, and smelling locally-produced foods, which participants will bring with them to W1. We will explore where these foods come from, the long-term marginalisation of Afrodescendant (and Indigenous) food heritage and agri-food practices, and implications for agrobiodiversity and climate change. This workshop will develop participants' understanding of food and climate heritage research and sensory methods. It will be accompanied by an information pack for conducting sensory oral history interviews with elders; stories from the interviews will be added to a Caribbean story map (with consent) and inspire songs co-created in W3.

W2: Right Here, Right Now: W2 will develop participants' understandings of climate adaptation, resilience and justice research. Using online board games and playful learning, participants will trace Caribbean foods back to their source. We will reflect on our food behaviours and their carbon/ecological footprints by identifying ingredients produced on plantations located on the global story map, e.g. palm oil, , with age-appropriate insights from scholarly work on the 'plantationocene'. Through role play we will explore present-day scenarios such as the challenges and resilience strategies of cassava farmers in the region, as well as future scenarios for a food secure, climate resilient, and climate just future. Participants will be assigned a home activity to identify their favourite stories on the maps.

W3: Our Future: We will capture the hearts and minds of young people and their vision for a more resilient future through the co-creation of calypso, soca, reggae, rap and spoken word songs. The songwriting process will be inspired by stories selected from the maps, facilitated by the Song Academy and recorded into a podcast. W3 and post-workshop production will result in one supergroup song (all participants) and three individual songs selected in a competition at the end of W3. Antiguan calypso band, Burning Flames, will be commissioned to write an additional calypso 'jingle' that utilises selected stories from the map.

Closing Ceremony: Celebrate Our Story: This will be a celebration of Afrodescendant food heritage, youth voice and key climate action messages, which will begin and end with the finalised songs. Here young participants will have the opportunity to share their journey from past, current, and future climate action through food heritage with policymakers, farmers, and publics across the Caribbean and globally. We will explore how youth perspectives can be used to identify climate actions, gaps in climate risk understandings, and pathways for future resilience building. We will close with a hashtag competition that continues the momentum of the project through social media.
The workshops will utilise materials already developed for the PI's Sugaropolis project and advance research related to her Living Histories of Sugar project, particularly the use of performance and co-creation to engender inclusive spaces for knowledge exchange. Project outputs (story map, songs, podcast) will further the PI's research into plantation legacies and alternative futures in the Caribbean, and enhance ongoing and future collaborations between the PI, Co-Is and Advisory Board.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description he results of the project provide evidence that climate action requires arts and humanities methods to appeal to youth, as opposed to purely fact-based or scientific forms of climate communication. We conclude that co-creative methods such as music and storytelling can inspire youth to engage in climate action, in this case through a (re)valuation culinary and agricultural heritage.
Exploitation Route This project has spearheaded a range of activities, in both research and practice, not least of which is the formation of our Caribbean Food for Climate Justice Research Group, which continues to meet and co-develop applications, publications, and public-facing interventions related to the initial project: http://caribbeanfood4climate.com/#:~:text=Caribbean%20Food%20for%20Climate%20Justice,climate%20resilient%20future%20for%20all.
Sectors Agriculture

Food and Drink

Education

Culture

Heritage

Museums and Collections

URL http://caribbeanfood4climate.com/#:~:text=Caribbean%20Food%20for%20Climate%20Justice,climate%20resilient%20future%20for%20all.
 
Description This project led to a follow-on impact project, as mentioned. The follow on 'Teaching Climate Justice through Ancestral Plant Heritage' IAA ESRC project inspired a project at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, to develop an 'UWI Ancestral Taino and Maroon Garden' on their grounds. A working group for the UWI Ancestral Garden has been formed, with a proposal for funds from the Faculty of Science and Agriculture's 'Campus Beautification Committee'. The Recipes for Resilience and Teaching Climate Justice projects increased awareness of the importance of Indigenous Taino and Maroon plant heritage and knowledge among a variety of stakeholders in Jamaica, including the educators and ministry officials who attended our Oct 2022 workshop. Here is some qualitative evidence about the impact of the Teaching Climate Justice workshop held in St Catherine, Jamaica, in October 2022: 'The workshop outlined what we are lacking as an agro-group and highlight how to use the resources we have. Additionally, how we can use these resources in our everyday life'; 'There are some 'bush' that I did not know were edible and that in particular amazed me. I know now that most weeds seen in my yard are edible.'; 'I learnt that every plant can [be eaten], and different ways of implementing these forgotten foods in my kitchen so that my daughters can go back to their roots'; 'Learn about some plants that I never knew could eat'; 'The knowledge gained can help us utilize the resources we have, maximize on the resources we have and improve the way we use the resources we have'; 'The strengths was the presenter, the persons from the [Taino] and the hands-on planting of the fruit trees in Lauriston'; 'I learned how to farm, how our ancestral foods impacted our country and the world and how we can make different dishes to bring back to school'.
First Year Of Impact 2020
Sector Agriculture, Food and Drink,Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections
Impact Types Cultural

Societal

 
Description 'Teaching Climate Justice and Resilience through Ancestral Plant Heritage'
Amount £20,000 (GBP)
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 05/2021 
End 04/2022
 
Description • ABS (Antigua and Barbuda Broadcasting Services) TV Interview on the Recipes for Resilience project, 4 April 2022. 
Form Of Engagement Activity A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact • ABS (Antigua and Barbuda Broadcasting Services) TV Interview on the Recipes for Resilience project, 4 April 2022.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021