Meet the Makers (MTM), a collective of Indonesian artisans and artisan advocates, is starting a campaign to assist artisans badly affected by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Markets for Indonesian artisans have broken down as a result of the pandemic. There is currently no way to get threads to weavers. Also prices of basic goods like sugar have almost doubled in far flung islands and a new school year is starting soon, which means impending expenses are piling up for many artisan mothers.
Meet the Makers, through collaboration with Bali-based Kaji Mundo and later with the Indonesian Heritage Society, are planning webinars and an online exhibition in the months to come. MTM is making it known that donations are already possible through Kaji Mundo. Interested parties have options to buy tickets to join their events regarding sustainable fashion and the artisan economy called “Pivot”. To make direct direct donations to Meet the Makers artisans via Kaji Mundo, donors may contact them atkajimundo@gmail.com.
Along with webinar and online exhibition schedules, MTM will be sending a situationer on artisan partners and we will also be posting them here. We hope that the situation will soon become better for artisans, our culture bearers and source of local wisdom. Any support is most appreciated.
You may scroll to the end of the Kaji Mundo Pivot website to read more about the MTM and Kaji Mundo Pivot collaboration. There is also a short video which you can watch here.
Dear ICCA Consortium Members, Honorary members and partners in Southeast Asia,
We are pleased to invite you to the ICCA Consortium’s 2nd Southeast Asia Regional Assembly from 1-4 June 2020. This is a regular gathering of the Southeast Asia ICCA Regional Learning Network (RLN)-a network of members and partners of the ICCA Consortium in Southeast Asia particularly in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam. The gathering provides avenue for sharing and learning from each other about the territories of life in the region. This year’s gathering also aims to continue the ICCA Consortium’s regionalisation process in Southeast Asia. Hence, along side the gathering we will also hold our 2nd Regional Assembly for the ICCA Consortium’s Members and Honorary members in Southeast Asia to discuss our regional structure and representation to the global ICCA Consortium. A specific agenda for the Assembly will be shared later.
Objectives of the SEA Regional Assembly:
a. Gather updates from among countries in Southeast Asia and internationally in strengthening ICCAs—territories of life, and share emerging issues, challenges and current actions to address them;
b. Undertake key steps as part of the ICCA Consortium’s regionalisation process, including formulating and agreeing on structure, roles, working relationships, communication and mechanisms of representation;
c. Develop country and regional action plans,contributing to the ICCA Consortium’s overall thematic areas of work (i.e., documenting, sustaining and defending ICCAs—territories of life and cross-cutting issues of youth and gender).
d. Sharing indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ experiences with coping with the COVID-19 crisis and impacts on their ICCAs—territories of life.
This will be a virtual gathering organised through a series of events within four days(see details below). Some sessions are open to all of our ICCA RLN partners and ICCA Consortium Members and Honorary Members in Southeast Asia. Others are intended for ICCA Consortium Members and Honorary Members only,particularly where decisions are to be made. Zoom links for each session will be shared by the last week of May.
Our Expert Group “Wild Foods, Biodiversity and Livelihood” with Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme (NTFP-EP Asia) will work to consolidate traditional ecological knowledge about wild foods in Asia and bridge it with the relevant policy arenas to ensure wise, inclusive and impactful decision making in the areas of food security, poverty reduction and sustainable forest management.
Forests play a key role in climate regulation, and indigenous and forest communities have been recognized as the best forest guardians, achieving outcomes
that are at least equivalent to those of government-funded protected
areas. However, forests are so much more than a massive air-conditioner
and a carbon storage facility.
Apart from providing water, soil protection and a place to live for
animals, forests are also where we discovered foods and medicines. Many
of the prescription drugs used in our healthcare, including antibiotics
and cancer medications, are derived from nature. Bananas, cassava,
coffee, cacao, vanilla, cashews and avocadoes all originate from the
forest too.
These foods are well known and widely loved, but there are many more forest treasures most of us have never even heard of. Take, for instance, the pyap leaves from Cambodia or the dang sum herb from Vietnam or the pako
fern from the Philippines, which are cherished and masterfully utilized
by the traditional forest dwellers and indigenous peoples. They have
been relying on wild foods for millennia, integrating their food
practices with sustainable forest management.
For the forest-based communities, wild foods provide nutrition and resilience in times of food insecurity and carry a lot of cultural value. What is more, these food practices and traditions hold many sustainability lessons that could be employed to repair our food systems and step forward the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Finding ways to add value and ensure sustainable use of wild foods
could not only reduce poverty and vulnerability of indigenous and
traditional communities, but also support the development, biodiversity
and climate goals through sustainable land use and forest management.
This area has only recently started to receive attention and
recognition and, because it spans forestry, agriculture, education,
culture and many other fields, it is usually dispersed between different
institutions and actors. Our new Expert Group aims to establish a
collaborative platform for traditional ecological knowledge in Asia.
This project will bring together practitioners, networks and
organizations working in the area, consolidating knowledge exchange,
collaboration and, ultimately, providing traditional ecological
knowledge with a stronger voice and leverage.
Through field learning, dialogue and networking, the Expert Group
will explore the biodiversity of wild foods in Asia, both flora and
fauna, including restoration and rehabilitation of these resources. The
group will look into and share the examples of the ecological knowledge
of various indigenous and forest-based communities in Cambodia, India,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam.
This project will facilitate and convene dialogues and
knowledge-sharing activities at the regional level, engaging national
and regional representatives from the forest and indigenous communities,
government, science, civil society, and development agencies, creating
an enabling environment for forest communities and indigenous peoples in
Asia, going beyond conservation and expanding the understanding of the
value of forests, especially wild foods, and traditional ecological
knowledge and systems.
At present, the Expert Group is working on the development of country situation papers for
India, Indonesia, Cambodia and Vietnam. These papers are about
practices and policies on food security and resource management. The
knowledge from the papers will be communicated through policy briefs
too. An online information campaign on wild foods will be
launched this June and run until May 2021. Featuring various multimedia,
this campaign will raise awareness on wild foods and traditional food
systems.
Finally, the Expert Group will launch a series of public webinars this year about Wild foods, traditional systems and tenure (July 2020), Wild foods and biodiversity (August 2020), and wild foods and livelihoods (September 2020). The webinar series will lead to a regional dialogue on the subject. All the events will be advertised through SIANI media channels.
