We explore how human rights and the arts can support inter- and transdisciplinary ocean research that responds to the needs, and integrates the knowledge systems, of different groups, including indigenous peoples, small-scale fishers, women and children, with a view to co-producing integrated knowledge that takes into account the ocean-climate nexus, biodiversity and cultural heritage. It also illustrates how piloting arts- and human rights-based approaches to ocean research can help co-develop innovative processes for more inclusive and integrated decision-making on ocean conservation and sustainable use.
Professor Elisa Morgera is Professor of Global Environmental Law at University of Strathclyde Law School, UK and the director of the One Ocean Hub, a global inter-disciplinary research collaboration of institutions in the UK, Africa, South Pacific and the Caribbean, as well as UN agencies and other international partners. The One Ocean Hub is pioneering research on human rights and the marine environment with a view to better connecting marine and social sciences, and the arts, to support fair and inclusive decision-making for a healthy ocean whereby people and planet flourish.
Marly Muudeni Samuel brings an intimate understanding of informal communities and a diverse skill set centred on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), research, and innovation. Her research focuses on ocean indigenous knowledge and augmented reality for ocean heritage in Namibia.
Mia Strand, Nelson Mandela University, is a social scientist whose current research interests include social justice in ocean governance and piloting arts-based participatory research in area-based ocean governance contexts to co-produce knowledge with Indigenous and local knowledge holders to inform more inclusive ocean management.
Dr. Pam Hall is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar whose work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally. She is the creator of the multi-year, multi-chapter art-and-knowledge project Towards an Encyclopedia of Local Knowledge (ELK). For details see www.pamhall.ca and www.encyclopediaoflocalknowledge.com.
Dr. Tahnee Prior is a Killam Postdoctoral Fellow with the Marine & Environmental Law Institute of the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University. Dr. Tahnee’s research focuses on global environmental governance, international law, Arctic and oceans governance, and the gender-environment nexus. She co-leads Women of the Arctic, a non-profit association based in Finland whose mission it is to raise awareness of, support for, and maintain a focus on women’s and gender-related issues in the Arctic.
Dalhousie University operates in the unceded territories of the Mi’kmaw, Wolastoqey, and Peskotomuhkati Peoples. These sovereign nations hold inherent rights as the original peoples of these lands, and we each carry collective obligations under the Peace and Friendship Treaties. Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 recognizes and affirms Aboriginal and Treaty rights in Canada.
We acknowledge that the lands on which Memorial University’s campuses are situated are in the traditional territories of diverse Indigenous groups, and we acknowledge with respect the diverse histories and cultures of the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, Innu, and Inuit of this province.
