IALH seed funding recipient Matilde Cervantes looks at climate action through Indigenous Worldviews
IALH Student Affiliate Matilde Cervantes was one of the recipients of IALH's first round of seed funding for her project Aging Well in a Changing Climate: Co-Creating an Agenda for Planetary Health and Climate Action with Indigenous Worldviews. With this focus in mind, she recently organized a Summit in Mexico entitled Scientific, Cultural & Artistic Planetary Health Summit. Read on to hear more about Matilde's work in her own words:
Globally, we are facing environmental challenges, including global warming, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, waste management, deforestation, etc., and these environmental challenges can bring unstable and vertiginous changes (Matthews, 2019). Themes related to air, water, and food quality and the impact of climate change and the impacts on human health. Climate change has a global impact, and it is key to understand the unique ways in which it impacts to older adults’ lives. Especially older adults from Indigenous communities (Ostapchuk et al., 2015) With a growing aging population and the demographic shift along with the climate change and environmental challenges (Baniassadi et al, 2023), we need to find better ways to support and protect the specific mental health needs of older adults (Seritan et al, 2023). My research interest includes the relationships between environment and health and how to find ways to age well in a changing climate.
As part of our community building and community engagement initiatives, I coordinated a Scientific, Cultural & Artistic Planetary Health Summit which included a mentorship Indigenous-led curriculum-based opportunity. The Summit was held in La Paz Baja California Sur from April 7th to April 14th. This event enhanced the reciprocal relationships, knowledge sharing, and cultural exchange. We participated in ceremonies hosted by Indigenous Elders. We also attended to circles to foster dialogue and creativity around the themes of art, spirituality, climate action and planetary health.
Main components for this Summit included artistic, spiritual, and cultural aspects (supported by the Global Pax Collective members and the Corazón de Colibri teams). Ceremonies and art activities were hosted by the Mexican delegation, Indigenous led by Painama Francisco Nahualyaollotyollot who guided important spiritual, art, and cultural activities with the group along with Elders Elsa, Martha, Fernando and other local community members. Some of the academic dialogues will be co-facilitated by Antonina and Micheline at the local university (Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur (UABCS).
Our project strengthens and advances awareness on the importance of the roles of the art in advocating for decolonization and Indigenizing planetary health. Our work seeks to benefit IALH and our communities to identify, expand, and share knowledge on climate justice and health equity, emerging issues and/or priorities for intergenerational communities, including the aging population with Indigenous and global perspectives. This project is focusing on goals of the agenda 2030, United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. (SDG). besides, adopting a planetary health perspective on climate action contributes to the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People, now law in BC and Canada (Brousselle & McDavid, 2021).
Our Key Stakeholders, Partnerships and Collaborators include the Consulate of Mexico in BC, Canada, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur, Open Space Art Society (OS), Global Pax Collective (GPC), UNITAR-CIFAL, Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, Centre for Global Studies-UVIC & Institute on Aging and Lifelong health-UVIC. Ayuntamiento de La Paz: Dirección de inclusión y Asuntos Indigenas & Centro Municipal de las Artes (CMA) in La Paz B.C.S. Corazón de Colibri Temazcal.
Our Mexican academic local partners include Antonina Ivanova, Researcher, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur (UABCS) and Micheline Cariño, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California Sur (UABCS).