Photography and Storytelling to Highlight Knowledge Hierarchies, and Foster Learning from Existing Ocean Stewardships
Mia Strand
Department of Development Studies, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa
“The research showcases the value of photostories in re-imagining and re-learning more caring, equitable and sustainable ocean governance processes”
Ocean governance processes continue to mainly rely on environmental or economic priorities and objectives, with socio-cultural dimensions being left out. To respond to complex social-ecological systems challenges, however, we cannot separate the environment from humans, and we should learn from knowledges, communities and ways of being that emphasise the interconnectedness of these two. Our research finds that arts-based participatory research, which refers to knowledge production processes where the methods use art as a form of expression and data formation, and participants act as co-researchers, is valuable in identifying synergies and overlaps between socio-cultural and environmental objectives that should be better recognised in ocean decision-making. By remembering and imagining how we can co-exist in our planet's ecosystems, we can move towards reimagining what ocean and planetary stewardship should look like.
Originally, this research set out to explore how we can integrate various knowledge systems, such as Indigenous and local knowledges with natural sciences and government development priorities, to better develop area-based ocean management approaches such as marine spatial planning and marine protected areas that considers various ways of knowing and understanding the ocean.
However, from closely engaging with Indigenous and local coastal communities in South Africa, we have found that we need to shift our focus from ‘integrating’ knowledge to learning from existing knowledges and knowledge holders.
Ocean governance globally continues to perpetuate top-down management approaches often led by national governments with limited meaningful engagement, equitable collaboration, and representation of local communities that remain the most impacted by ocean decision-making, as well as climate change impacts and ocean degradation. Alongside this, the urgent need to co-design responses to complex sustainability challenges, and the global push to pursue transdisciplinary research with Indigenous and local communities, can often result in extractive and exploitative processes, sometimes not benefitting the communities the research sets out to support. Examples include co-opting Indigenous knowledge systems or values into decision-making processes that do not actually recognise people’s rights or change to better accommodate their priorities, and pursuing what can be called the ‘illusion of inclusion’ through superficial or inadequate stakeholder engagement where governments or companies can argue that all communities and priorities have been consulted meaningfully without actually valuing or taking into account these priorities and interests. It is urgent, therefore, to identify ethical, equitable and relational approaches, pathways and strategies to better centre the interests and priorities of communities and ensure people are able to communicate their knowledges directly to ocean decision-makers and meaningfully influence ocean governance processes.
Our work explores the value of arts-based participatory research in ensuring ocean governance processes better recognise, ‘hear’ and ‘see’ Indigenous and local communities’ knowledges, priorities and ocean connections in South Africa. Specifically, we have been working with non-academic collaborators as co-researchers to explore how we can use photography and storytelling, combined into what we call photostories, to convey our connections to the ocean and coast that may not fit the margins of a blank page.
The photostories from this work (see Figure 1, Strand et al., 2022; Strand, 2023) exemplify the ways in which nature and humans are inextricably interconnected and how we depend on a healthy ocean for a variety of aspects beyond livelihoods, direct economic gain or environmental health. We also depend on the ocean for our identities, for our heritage, for our spiritual connections, for our sense of belonging, for our peace of mind and for our physical wellbeing. We find that arts-based participatory methods and visual storytelling facilitate opportunities to convey a plurality of marine cultural heritage, instil emotions in the audience, create a sense of commonality across various knowledge holders, and emphasise specific sociocultural dimensions that should be included in ocean governance processes.
Figure 1. ‘We respect the sea a lot because we believe it is where our ancestors lived and continue to live. This is our place of serenity and our prayer altar. When we encounter life’s challenges the sea is our place of prayer. The sea is a place to regain strength when we have fallen short due to life’s tribulations. We come here to seek help and guidance as we plead with our ancestral lineage’. Photostory by co-researcher Siyasanga Ntabeni (copied from Strand et al., 2022; Strand, 2023).
Collaborative analysis with co-researchers also highlighted the importance of reclaiming ocean management tools such as mapping ocean uses, connections and priorities, and the opportunities of processes such as participatory community mapping in situating knowledges, challenging inequitable practices and identifying overlaps between socio-cultural and environmental priorities. One of the most significant aspects of our research have been the exhibitions and workshops where Indigenous and local knowledge holders, government representatives, conservation authorities, traditional authorities, heritage management, researchers, non-governmental organisations and coastal managers came together to experience the photostories and discuss how the various knowledges, interests and priorities can shape ocean governance for the future. Our hope is for these collaborative interactions to become regular practice, as the coming together of various ways of knowing the ocean is necessary to re-imagine more equitable ocean futures and centre care and collaboration when responding to our planetary crisis.
The significance of our research has also been shown through the opportunities of arts-based storytelling in reaching an international audience beyond the specific context in which the research is situated, which is crucial for creating a global movement towards more caring and reflexive relationships with the ocean. Through reflexive relationships we critically examine our own biases, predispositions and positionalities, and how these shape our view of ocean knowledges, ocean health and ocean cultures. Our hope is that these approaches to multimedia storytelling can be adopted by civil society and scaled up, as care and stewardship should be centred in any response to our planetary crisis. However, the burden should not be placed on civil society without providing adequate funding and support, and greater efforts should explore how research and science can best support the interests and priorities of Indigenous and local communities and knowledge holders.
The research has also highlighted some of the inherent problems of whose and what knowledges are currently dominating ocean decision-making, and the continued knowledge hierarchies in marine science, which both continue to prioritise, value and give credibility to positivistic, didactic, institutionalised, and often Western or Global North science. Although our research has been an extremely valuable and rewarding process of learning, we still have a long way to go to ensure knowledge co-production processes are not perpetuating colonial power asymmetries, knowledge extraction and knowledge hierarchies. We are constantly attempting to learn how we can facilitate collaborative learning in ethical, sensitive and relational ways. How can we, as researchers and scientists, use our positions of power to provide space for knowledges, voices and stories that are currently excluded, silenced or neglected in planetary boundaries science and decision-making?
We therefore encourage more investment in and prioritisation of arts-based participatory research, preferably led by Indigenous and local communities themselves, to share existing ocean and environmental connections and to reimagine environmental stewardship for more sustainable futures. We also call for increased research into sensitive and contextual participatory community mapping exercises, where knowledge holders can reclaim power over utilising, shaping and reimagining existing governance tools. As mentioned above, our research has shown that the opportunities to influence governance processes significantly increase by directly involving ocean decision-makers in the research process and knowledge engagements. The hope is therefore to scale up these engagements to further increase the influence and impact of transdisciplinary research and pursue inclusive and equitable practices of knowledge co-production needed to develop context-specific solutions to our planetary crisis.
Photo 1. Photograph of the core author team at the IMPAC5 conference in Vancouver, Canada, in early 2023. From the left: Mia Strand, Bernadette Snow and Nina Rivers.
