Art and Climate Justice: Reimagining the Future

Panellist

Ina-Maria Shikongo is a Namibian frontline defender, environmental activist, designer and artist. Born in Kalulu refugee camp in Kwanza Sul (Angola) at the height of Namibia’s struggle for independence, Ina-Maria is no stranger to living a struggle. After completing a 3 year degree course in Fashion Design in France at Lycée Sévigné de Tourcoing in 2005, she returned to Namibia and began her journey into environmental activism. In 2015, she set up Eloolo Permaculture Initiative, seeking to beautify children’s playgrounds with sustainable gardening. In 2019, Ina-Maria co-founded Fridays For Future Windhoek (FFFW). She also runs a project that trains grassroots organisations and communities throughout Namibia in the basics of fashion design. Ina-Maria is fighting against the extraction of fossil fuels and calling for systemic change in politics, economics and everything in between.

Panellist

Audrey Brown-Pereira (1975) is an innovative poet who plays with text on the page and performs words in the air/ ear. Her poetry collections include ‘Threads of Tivaevae: Kaleidoskope of Kolours’ with Veronica Vaevae by Steele Roberts and ‘Passages in Between I(s)lands’ by Ala Press. She is currently working on her third collection ‘a-wake-(e)nd’ with independent publishers Saufo’i Press.

Audrey’s poems appear in several anthologies including ‘Vā: Stories by Women of the Moana’ and ‘ Indigenous Pacific Islander Eco-Literatures’. She is of Cook Islands Maori and Samoan descent, born on the island of Rarotonga and raised in New Zealand. She lives in Samoa with her family and works for an environmental organisation that serves the Pacific region.

Kendel Hippolyte is a poet, playwright and director and sporadic researcher into areas of Saint Lucian and Caribbean arts and culture. His poetry has been published in journals and anthologies regionally and internationally. He has taught poetry workshops in various countries and performed at literary events within the Caribbean and beyond. His plays have been performed locally and regionally and three of his plays have been published in drama anthologies. One of his poetry books, Fault Lines, won the Bocas Poetry Prize in 2013. He is an original member of the CXC Theatre Arts syllabus panel and is an external examiner. Retired from the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College where he had taught Literature and Theatre, his present focus is to use his skills as a writer and dramatist to raise public awareness and contribute to active solutions of critical social issues.

Okalani Mariner was born and raised in Samoa and hails from the villages of Tulaele, Lalomanu, Sinamoga, Afega, Lano and Salelologa with ancestors from the islands of Niue and the kingdom of Tonga. She is an artist, poet, environmental activist and social entrepreneur. As someone who identifies as Neurodiverse, she is passionate about creating more equitable and inclusive spaces for neurodiverse individuals in Pacific Communities.

She is the co-founder of Onelook Studio, a social enterprise that imagines a world in which young people have the means to make a living, wake up fulfilled by their work, and create meaningful social connections. She is the youngest elected National Human Rights Advisor for Children and Young People in Samoa.
As a Pacific Climate Warrior and Human Rights Activist, she represented Samoa and the Pacific Islands at the Youth4Climate2022 Powering Action Summit in New York. Okalani uses spoken word and poetry to share pacific people’s frontline truths and stories to advocate for Climate Justice.