08-11-2023
How African mythology is changing the environmental movement with Atwooki
In our final conversation of Season 2, Environmentalism Reimagined, we meet with Atwooki, creator of Yuniya.Named after her grandmother, Yuniya is a storytelling platform using African mythology to educate children, parents and caregivers about climate change and Earth care.Join us in this inspirational conversation as we explore how African mythology and storytelling is making climate action and ‘joyful activism’ more relatable, empowering and culturally relevant.Through reclaiming African knowledge and building relationships across generations, Yuniya is bringing conversations on climate change, out from policy spaces and street protests into homes and community centres, where they belong. This is an episode of active hope, enjoy!Episode time stamps 00:00 - Intro to episode02:52 - Atwooki’s relationship with nature 06:23 - How a conversation with her son, led Atwooki to create Yuniya15:11 - What Yuniya do20:04 - The life-changing impact of Yuniya on children, parents and caregivers23:31 - How Yuniya has empowered a boy to lead a campaign to change the world map28:35 - The importance of community education spaces in black liberation movements30:38 - Marion shares a framework to define what growth looks like in social change 34:05 - Lessons on how we can engage children on climate change and joyful activism in an empowering way39:48 - How to support black parents and caregivers of black children to feel empowered in Earth care46:51 - Why the binary of ‘individual action versus systemic change’ limits our possibilities to engage everybody52:16 - Atwooki’s recommendations to policy-makers 54:31 - How to support Atwooki and Yuniya 01:01:00 - How to support Black EarthSupport Atwooki and Yuniya Yuniya - https://yuniya.com/pages/home Support Black Earth PodcastConnect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn and Tiktok: @blackearthpodcast Subscribe and read episode transcripts: https://www.blackearthpodcast.com/ Support us through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/BlackEarthPodcastSong creditsThe Kora music in this episode is courtesy of Malamin and Yuniya platformResource mentioned in the episodeA framework on measuring impact in social change (Scaling Up, Scaling Out, Scaling Deep) by Michele-lee Moore, Darcy Riddell, and Dan Vocisanohttps://www.researchgate.net/publication/298971574_Scaling_Out_Scaling_Up_Scaling_Deep_Strategies_of_Non-profits_in_Advancing_Systemic_Social_Innovation