Indigenous and marginalised communities often experience the most severe impacts of climate change, despite contributing the least to the problem. Although they play a key role on the frontlines of environmental action, indigenous and marginalised voices are often ignored in key decision making, while their deep-rooted knowledge of our natural systems is pushed to the margins of climate science and academia.

At the Conduit, University of Cambridge AI, environmental justice and bioacoustics researcher and educator Joycelyn Longdon reveals how extraordinary acts from ordinary people of colour have paved the way for today’s environmental movement. In conversation with former UN Secretary General’s Youth Climate Advisor Joice Mendez, led by ornithologist, environmentalist and activist, Dr. Mya-Rose Craig, we will explore how we can merge ancient wisdom with modern tools and embrace new roles in the fight for sustainability that go beyond just activist and observer.

Guiding us back to our roots, our panel will invite us to reclaim our wonder for the natural world and approach environmental action as a shared goal rather than an individual burden.

Event Schedule

6:00pm: Pre-event socialising and networking

A cash bar will be available for refreshments.

6:15pm: Event begins

7:30pm: Event ends

Speakers:

Joycelyn Longdon is an award-winning environmental justice researcher and educator, and the author of Natural Connection. Her PhD research at the University of Cambridge centres on the design of justice-led conservation technologies for monitoring biodiversity with local forest communities in Ghana. Her work makes more accessible topics of climate justice, climate colonialism, activism, creativity and systems change across a variety of forums on and offline and for platforms including Meta, The United Nations Geneva Dialogues, Channel 4, Cheltenham Science Festival, Oxford University, The National Lottery, The Design Council and The Wellcome Collection. Joycelyn was 2022’s winner of the Emerging Designer London Design Medal, was featured in British Vogue’s December 2023 ‘Forces for Change’ Issue and is an and is a TEDx Alumni. Most recently, she has been listed as one of Pique Action and Harvard Chan C-CHANGE’s 2024 Climate Creators to Watch and as one of Country and Town House’s Future Icons Power People 2024.

Joice Mendez is a migrant, social entrepreneur, and climate advocate focused on the nexus of water, food and energy justice. Joice co-founded several local and regional youth organizations, including the Moema Viezzer Environmental Education Observatory, the Latin American Observatory of Geopolitics of Energy, and the binational Youth Collective of the Parana Basin 3 from the Cultivating Good Water Initiative– a recipient of the UN-Water Best Practice Award in 2015. Joice has also supported Paraguay’s National Conference of Youth since 2016 and the National Forum of Water and Youth, and continues to be active in YOUNGO, the Climate Reality Project América Latina, SDG7 Youth Constituency, and the Youth Adaptation Network of the Global Center on Adaptation.

Dr Mya-Rose Craig is a 23-year-old British-Bangladeshi birder, environmentalist and race activist campaigning for equal access to nature, to stop biodiversity loss and climate change and to ensure global climate justice. Her book, ‘Birdgirl’ tells the story of Mya-Rose Craig, who found solace in nature while growing up with a mother with severe bipolar disorder. She started her Birdgirl blog at age 11, launched Black2Nature at 14, and at 17, became the youngest person to see half the world’s bird species and receive an honorary Doctorate of Science. Mya-Rose also connects people to nature so that they care about fighting the climate crisis. She campaigns against palm oil and plastic pollution and fights for the prioritisation of the human rights of indigenous peoples.