Joining Forces to Elevate IP&LCs’ Stories
September 22 – September 29, 2024, New York City
This year, we are focusing our actions on collaboration, co-creation, and community-driven, heart-centered actions. If Not Us Then Who champions environmental leadership from Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, fostering networks and cultivating inclusive, impact-driven storytelling. As we work toward COP30 hosted at Belem, our initiatives will center around one powerful message:
Culture Preserves Territories.
Protects Biodiversity.
Supports Us To Thrive.
Our journey towards COP30
Climate Week
September 2024
📍New York, US
Screenings and events in partnership with communities, NGOs, and donors.
COP16
October 2024
📍Cali, Colombia
Bring ‘Our Village’ to the region’s biodiversity hotspot and its intersection with movements around peace for nature and climate justice.
COP29
November 2024
📍Baku, Azerbaijan
Assembling Indigenous and Afro-descendant filmmakers and photographers to document GATC’s youth and leaders’ activities.
COP30
November 2025
📍Belém, Brazil
For IP&LCs COP30 is essential: as a leading democracy and home to nearly 60% of the Amazon, it is a key venue for climate action.
Our Goal For New York Climate Week
Raise awareness of IP&LCs issues and create a space of impact for Indigenous, black, and local community leadership where their voices are amplified, the stories of the lives of environmental defenders that have been lost are heard, and the solutions that communities are bringing to the climate crisis are given the frontline exposure they deserve in the face of diverse and strategic audiences.
Our Key Actions at NYC
We are partnering for key events and presenting a range of visual experiences at New York Climate Week. From photo exhibitions, film screenings, multimedia showcases, to panel discussions featuring Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IP&LCs) and Afro-descendant filmmakers and photographers from our global network.
6th International Rights of Natural Tribunal
Join the tribunal’s first session on the “End of the Fossil Fuel Era” event and listen to the expert panel addressing global cases where the fossil fuel industry has violated Nature’s rights, harmed human rights and environmental defenders, and pushed the planet toward catastrophe. Cases will cover false climate solutions, pipeline projects, oil spills, and sacrifice zones.
When: September 22 · 8:30 am -4:00 pm EDT
Where: The New School Starr Foundation Hall, University Center Room UL 102 63 – 5th Avenue (at 13th Street)
Panel Discussion – Climate Optimism: A Roundtable for Planetary Health featuring If Not Us Then Who
Learn how we’re scaling climate impact through Indigenous Peoples solutions, innovative financing models, cutting-edge climate science, and Indigenous-led storytelling. Together, we are transferring resources directly into the traditional, nature-centered expertise of Indigenous Peoples to protect ~460m hectares of the Earth’s climate-critical tropical rainforest.
When: September 24 · 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT
Where: Doctors Without Borders, 40 Rector St 16th Floor, 10006, New York, NY
Celebrating a partnership for people, nature & climate in the Congo Basin
For millennia, the Congo Basin’s IP&LCs have helped conserve its biodiversity-rich forest ecosystems through their traditional knowledge and practices. However, while funding for the Congo Basin has risen lately, much of it has failed to reach communities’ own organizations. This event will highlight a unique global partnership to strengthen these communities’ collective land and forest rights, particularly of women, over 3,000,000 hectares of land in three target countries (the DRC, Republic of the Congo, and Gabon).
When: September 24 · 5:00 – 8:00 pm EDT
Where: Hole in the Wall – 37 W 24th St, New York, NY 10010
Rainforest Reception
Join us for a rooftop celebration with Indigenous leaders and environmental defenders protecting the world’s rainforests. Enjoy light refreshments, drinks, and music as we celebrate our growing movement to protect rainforests, biodiversity, and our global climate.
Special guest speakers include Nemonte Nenquimo, Waorani Leader and co-founder of Amazon Frontlines and Ceibo Alliance, and Puyr Tembé, First Secretary of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil’s Pará state and co-founder of ANMIGA.
When: September 25 · 6:30 – 8:30 pm EDT
Where: PENN 2 – 2 Pennsylvania Plaza New York, NY 10121
Panel Discussion – Our Stories, Our Sovereignty: Indigenous Narratives as Climate Justice
Indigenous Communities safeguard 80% of the world’s biodiversity, and their voices are essential in shaping climate solutions. Join us for a powerful conversation on how their stories and leadership are key to climate justice. This panel is part of the Nature Temple – a multidisciplinary project by Ancient Future Labs and Chilli showcasing the critical role of creativity, effective activism, indigenous leadership, and well-being in catalyzing transformative climate action.
When: September 2612-1 pm
Where: Judson Church, 55 Washington Square, 10012, New York
Featuring: David Hernández Palmar (Wayuu IIPUANA), Ambassador, If Not Us Then Who, Kynan Tegar (Dayak Iban), Filmmaker, If Not Us Then Who, Willi White (Oglala Lakota), Executive Producer, NDN Collective, and Ivan Sawyer.
Join our Photography Exhibition
A collection of photography brought to you through If Not Us Then Who from Indigenous Photographers Edgar Kanaykö Xakriabá, Elizabeth Swanson Andi, Mikug Alba, Genilson Guajajara, Priscila Tapajowara, and Kynan Tegar.
Join us at The Nature Hub by Nature4Climate
When: From September 23-24
Where: Convene 101 Park Avenue Midtown East, New York
Featured Creatives going to NY Climate Week
To contact Indigenous filmmakers, please contact [email protected] to provide an introduction kit and schedule a meeting.
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Ambassador & Emerging Filmmakers Program Coordinator. Filmmaker, independent curator and film programmer with recognized experience…
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Elizabeth Swanson Andi is a member of the Santu Urku Kichwa community on the Napo River in the Ecuadorian Amazon. She is an indigenous …
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Profile
Kalfein Maikel Wuisan or Kale, is an Indigenous Minahasa youth from Wuwuk, Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia. Besides involvement in the youth …
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Indigenous Activist, Filmmaker, Videographer, Documentary Editor and Cultural Activist Orgún Wagua (Panama, Gunadule – 19…
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Profile
Paul Redman is an award winning documentary filmmaker whose work has involved directing, filming and editing a variety of films on a ra…
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Profile
Filmmaker, visual journalist & Emerging Filmmakers Program Director. Jaye Renold is a filmmaker and visual journalist with a backgr…
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Profile
Project Development and Outreach -Paris/broadcast Hugo is a freelance documentary producer whose work has involved traveling, producin…
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Indigenous communicator for Midia Indígena and APIB, Activist and Speaker Tukumã Pataxó is an Indigenous activist and sustain…
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