Listening to the Land: Indigenous Knowledges in Policy

Indigenous communities bring valuable insights and represent key contributors to meaningful and sustainable policies. Their perspectives, deeply rooted in relationships with land, water and all living beings, provide ethical frameworks and guide global responses to contemporary challenges such as peacebuilding, social justice, inclusive cultural policies and climate crises. This event will explore how including Indigenous voices, languages, places, cultural expressions and heritage-based knowledge and practices can enrich inclusive research and sustainable policymaking. By celebrating storytelling, language revitalization and the arts, it highlights how Indigenous-led solutions help safeguard both cultural diversity and biodiversity. True inclusion means moving beyond consultation towards co-creation of research and policy, ensuring Indigenous communities have the space and sovereignty to contribute in ways that reflect their values and worldviews. Through cross-cultural dialogue, this session will illustrate how culture anchored in Indigenous perspectives can foster resilience, equity and sustainability in the face of today’s challenges.

International Barcelona Convention Center, Room 212

Moderator: Mererid Hopwood: Archdderwydd Cymru (Archdruid of Wales); Poet; Secretary of Academi Heddwch Cymru (Wales’s Peace Institute), Professor of Welsh & Celtic Studies at Aberystwyth University

Panelists:

• Barbara Filion, Arts, Culture & Indigenous Policy Practitioner
• Damien Serre, Professor of Geography, Université Paris Saclay-UVSQ, France
• Tom Johnson, Chairperson, Hawiⱡkini kiⱡkiⱡwiy ka·kⱡukaqwaⱡaʔis – CCUNESCO’s Working Group on Indigenous Languages; Executive Director, Eskasoni Fish and Wildlife Commission

Organizers:

International Federation of Coalitions for Cultural Diversity (IFCCD)

⁠Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (CDCE)

Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO)

Wales Arts International (WAI) – the International Agency of Arts Council of Wales

Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage and Global Change (JPI CHI)

⁠Austrian Commission for UNESCO

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