One Day of Curating the Voices of Sustainability

What is the context of my curation?

We have been growing EarthSayers.tv, a specialized search engine to curated content in the service of sustainability. We focus on advancing the unfiltered voices - individuals of all ages and from all walks of life - and now there are over 1,800 videos in our collection. They are all organized using a sustainability taxonomy - a classification system that goes beyond tagging - which means those searching for information and inspiration don't have to spend hours wading through hundreds and thousands of videos in the vast sea of information out there. One can search the collection by keyword/phrase across the categories of environmental, social/cultural, and economic using the keywords and phrases ranging from a broad issue such as climate change to Patagonia, a company name, or use our indexing system to review a special collection such as Culture and Consciousness. Our objective is to increase sustainability awareness and advance the citizens speaking on behalf of Mother Earth and her peoples.

And today I curated eleven videos and was inspired and motivated by teenagers, elders, fisherpersons, wisdomkeepers, teachers, musicians and filmmakers.

First I created a new series, The Ways: Great Lakes Native Culture and Language, making eight series to date including (1) Ray Anderson Memorial Interviews, (2) Bill Moyers and Company, (3) Sustainable Today, (4) Native Perspectives on Sustainability, (5) The Natural Way: Indigenous Voices, (6) 3BL  Media Series on CSR and (7) Peak Moment. The Ways is on ongoing series of stories from Native communities around the central Great Lakes. The Ways supports educators in meeting the requirements of Wisconsin Act 31, seeking to expand and challenge current understanding of Native identity and communities. It is a production of the Wisconsin Media Lab.  All nine documentaries, produced and directed by Finn Ryan of the Wisconsin Media Lab, were reviewed and catalogued. Additionally links were added to descriptions, names and organizations called out and added to the database, a format specified, and other information about the video noted in the database.  The videos address the environmental, cultural, social and economic aspects of indigenous knowledge, culture, and rights while conveying the principles of sustainability and connectedness to Mother Earth.

Spearfishing: A living History by Jason Bisonette

Lady Thunderhawks: Leading the Way by Jessica House

Hunting Deer: Sharing the harvest by Greg "Biskakone" Johnson

Lake Superior Whitefish: Carrying on a Family Tradition by the Petersons

Performance, Prayers in a Song by Tall Paul  (3:56)

Menominee Language Revitalization by Ron Corn, Jr.

PowWow Trail: Keeping the Beat by Dylan Jennings

Bringing Back the Ho-Chunk Language by Arlene Blackdeer

Clan Mother: Healing the Community by Molly Miller

Two other documentaries reviewed and added are from the folks at Storyhunter.tv, an online production network for professional video journalists and documentary filmmakers, that we more or less found by accident this morning. We will add more of their content as time goes on.

Mexican Teenagers Turn Trash Into Music by Juvenal Alvarez

The Sinkhole That's Swallowing Louisiana by Ben Depp

I am hoping that at least one of the above titles or a name catches your eye and you take time to listen and be inspired.

Ruth Ann Barrett, Sustainability Advocate, June 26, 2014, Portland, Oregon, (415) 377-1835.