CHANGING UNDERSTANDINGS AND ENGAGeMENTS WITH OCEAN-DEPENDENT COMMUNITIES - EMPATHEATRE

(READ THE FULL IMPACT STOries here and here)

impact story overview

In SOUTH AFRICA, acute tensions have arisen between pursuits to develop the blue economy, establish Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), and sustain local livelihoods and cultures. Furthermore, the exclusion of small-scale fishers (SSF) and Indigenous peoples from ocean-related decision-making processes has heightened actual and potential conflicts.

*Lalela uLwandle* draws on the stories of three people played
by Mpume Mthombeni, Rory Booth and Alison Cassels. Photo: Jackie Bruniquel

“Empatheatre” is a methodology pioneered by a collective of artists and academics based at Rhodes University and the Durban University of Technology. It is a form of transdisciplinary and transgressive research that serves to convey and inspire empathy with the experiences of ocean-dependent people who are seldom heard or understood in the public domain. The methodology also serves as collaborative public storytelling praxis that can support public dialogue and participatory policy practices.

The One Ocean Hub was invited by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Paris Committee to showcase ‘*Lalela uLwandle*’ at the UN Climate Summit (COP27) in Egypt in 2022.
Photo: Mitchell Lennan

From its inception, the One Ocean Hub has included researchers in South Africa who use this participatory, theatre-based research method to help practitioners and decision makers “see” which communities depend on the ocean and “hear” more effectively and empathetically communities’ views, needs, customary norms, and knowledge about the ocean. This method helps to translate “between and across ways of knowing the sea” (Erwin et al., 2022), creating space for inclusive ocean governance that draws upon a plurality of meanings and relationships with the ocean.

Our stories are the sacred medicine,”umuthi” that ocean decision-making needs. Storytelling, and story-listening dissolves the barriers and disconnections between disciplines and departments.

MPUME MTHOMBENI, LEAD ACTRESS AND CO-DIRECTOR OF EMPATHEATRE

With the legacies of apartheid, many perspectives and histories have been excluded in decision-making.

NEIL COPPEN, EMPATHEATRE CO-FOUNDER

It’s a rare moment when academic work comes back to a community in the language of the place, and that it can be fully held and used by the next generation to whom the stories rightfully belong.

DR. DYLAN MCGARRY, EMPATHEATRE CO-CREATOR

ACTION RESEARCH – IMPACT!

The play Lalela uLwandle brought together over 500 different knowledge holders.

about the methodology

Using this methodology, we’ve connected with practitioners such as officials and scientists at South African government agencies and departments, heads of NGOs, consultants running environmental impact assessments, and conservation scientists who help develop the evidence base for decision making. In them, we have seen:

changed understandings…

…of ocean-dependent communities’ diverse needs, knowledge, and human rights. Most practices of stakeholder engagement bundle diverse viewpoints into one uniform group that either opposes or supports development /conservation. Empatheatre provides practitioners and decision makers with the opportunity to better appreciate the value of communities’ experiences and knowledge. By providing a larger evidence base and fuller understanding of the trade-offs at stake, this methodology can contribute to better decisions.

changed processes…

…for public engagement / public consultation. Current practices of public engagement mostly focus on pre-determined options presented in a non-accessible way. Even when communities are invited to the decision-making table, they may not express themselves effectively if they can’t do so in their own terms, or if their counterparts are not fully aware of the multiple injustices they have experienced over time and across sectors. The method of Empatheatre creates more imaginative and collaborative forums for mutual learning and co-developing solutions. This different approach to public consultation is gaining recognition: UN organisations and international NGOs have asked us to share our methodology with them and are making plans to incorporate it in their work.

Read more about Lalela uLwandle (“Listen to the Sea”) – a play that conveys the complex realities of diverse communities involved socially, economically, scientifically, and culturally with the ocean. The production demonstrates how these different forms of knowledge can find strategic alignment if people learn to listen to each other carefully.

Read more about Umkhosi Wenala (“Festival of Abundance”) – a production that aims to create an innovative participatory decision-making space where rural youth can have a voice in the creation and management of Marine Protected Areas, processes that otherwise exclude cultural, spiritual, and other local perspectives. It offers restorative public storytelling to address issues of fairness and inclusion.