A Creative Workshop Model: For Understanding Climate Activism as Custodianship of Country

This reflective case study offers practice-based evidence for the amplification of Indigenous voices in climate action conversations and the Indigenisation of design-based approaches to conceptualising environmental responsibilities. Whilst we are all impacted by the Climate Crisis, First Peoples are disproportionately affected by climate change. Respect for the place-based knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples is essential in educational approaches for healthy climate futures and can help us understand and advocate for protection and care of Country, enact immediate positive change, and advance the call for climate justice.

Reflecting on a First Nations’ artist-led workshop approach, this chapter explores the impact of Indigenous perspectives in facilitating young people to express or translate their complex concerns regarding the climate crisis through visual communication. This chapter discusses the visual methods and processes adopted to run the workshop that brought together First Nations artists, First Nations young people and cultural allies to share their stories about the individual and collective impacts of the climate crisis. By engaging visual communication methods, the stories that emerged culminated in a series of impactful protest posters that utilised traditional and contemporary materials for the creative communication of climate custodianship. Through establishing the application of a combination of visual communication processes and visual yarning, we offer alternative approaches and ways to understand and shape climate education.

This case study first presents reflective insights about the workshop design and creative processes used to engage young people in climate action projects. Secondly, it draws on the lessons learnt throughout this process, and shapes them thematically through analysis to offer recommendations and strategies for future engagement.