Thinking back to the beginning of March this year, I don’t think any of us could have imagined that we would be living in the midst of a global pandemic that forced us all inside our respective bubbles for 7 weeks. 

As activists we are used to being able to come together, take to the streets and protest. When that wasn’t an option we thought, well what now??? 

Like people all over the world we decided to look to the digital space in an effort to provide a platform to stay connected and share stories and skills from across the movement. With some feedback and guidance from you, we began running twice weekly late afternoon zoom sessions with various speakers covering topics like Campaigning during Covid 19, Stories of Successful Campaigns, Solidarity Online and Effective Distributed Campaigns. Speakers have included Greenpeace staff, members of ally groups, volunteers, and well… you. Thank you.

These sessions have been a beautiful reminder of what an amazing community this is and how much work we have to do as we all stand together to fight for a green and just recovery. 

We know it’s not possible to always make it to everything, so we have recorded some of these sessions to share with you here. We will continue to upload new sessions as they happen.

Stories of Successful Campaigns

Speaker – Catherine Delahunty

Longtime activist, former Green MP and Greenpeace board member Catherine Delahunty shares her views on what defines successful activism, as she tells stories and shares learnings from her past work, including the struggle against mining in the Coromandel and the campaign to Free West Papua. She also speaks about her education from tangata whenua on Te Tiriti Te Tiriti in relation to environmental activism and how it impacted her work and the understanding of our world. 

Campaigning during Covid-19

Speaker – Russel Norman

Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown had a huge impact on environmental and social justice campaigns all over the world. At Greenpeace we worked quickly to adapt our work to this new environment. In this Zoom session Russel Norman, Greenpeace Aotearoa New Zealand’s Executive Director, talks about the changes we made and how we see it playing out over the rest of the year.

The Power of Distributed Campaigns

Speaker: Sarah yates

Distributed campaigns can be a very key part of an effective campaign strategy. Activist and organiser Sarah Yates explains the model whilst also sharing insights from her past experience, stories of success and some great tools that can be used in running effective regional campaigns.

People Power and Making OMV History

Speaker – Abi Smith

The campaign against OMV, NZ’s last international oil giant, was a major focus for Greenpeace NZ in 2019. Abi Smith was one of the team members working on the campaign and shares stories about the different ways in which the organisation worked with supporters, activists and allies all across the country throughout the course of the year to Make OMV History.

Shifting narratives with Simon Oosterman

Simon Oosterman, an organiser and activist with a wealth of communications experience, is going to share his work on the campaign that made mental health the defining issue of the 2017 election. This is a great opportunity to hear a case study illustrating the basic steps to creating and shifting a narrative through powerful personal stories and striking images.

Environmentalism and Culture with Jef Murupaenga Ikenn

Environmentalism and Culture … certainly a hotbed of emotions and potentially precarious footing. In Aotearoa and beyond, many Indigenous people have and still feel suffocated, ignored, and unjustly persecuted for their beliefs and actions. Waka captain, adventure guide, and long-term campaigner Jef Murupaenga Ikenn offers a template for how to exist at this important crossroads. Jef has been an environmental campaigner for over two decades in Aotearoa, and will discuss pathways to actively support indigenous justice as an active ally. He will be speaking from his personal experience as tauiwi striving to uphold tikanga within and outside of indigenous spaces. He will also critically assess some of Greenpeace’s work from an allyship lens.

Art not oil with Mel Evans

After six years making unsanctioned live art interventions in Tate galleries – which included live tattooing, assembling a 16.5 metre long wind turbine blade, and sleeping in the Turbine Hall overnight – Liberate Tate succeeded in ending BP sponsorship of Tate. As an artist and campaigner with the art collective, Mel shares stories from their work and the power of art to make real change happen. Mel is also author of Artwash: Big Oil and the Arts (Pluto, 2015).

Liberate Tate
http://www.liberatetate.org.uk/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFRva6aq4DD2YoOlfoq8lUw/videos

Others about artivism putting an end to oil sponsorship of the arts…
http://oilsponsorshipfree.org/oyafestivalen-against-oil-sponsorship/
https://www.occupymuseums.org/index.php/actions
https://artnotoil.org.uk/blog/irish-festival-cancels-shell-sponsorship

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