Maida Owens presented the Climate Migration and Welcoming Newcomers workshop that explores 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. This section on migration was recorded and is available on the LFS YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNLX4Rqm9fs
The section on receiving communities 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. This section, with an emphasis on the arts, was recorded as The Role of the Arts in Climate Adaptation and Migration.
The Arts, Culture and Climate Migration Resource List includes all resources used in these 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 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