Ogiek, Kenya: Mapping Mt Elgon

Filmed and edited by the Indigenous Ogiek Participatory Video team, this short video follows Lilian Kiriongi (Ogiek Community Mapper) and other Ogiek members narrate the process of using technology to map the environment of Mount Elgon, Kenya; This is land that the Ogiek have been safeguarding for generations. Watch as the team travel across the land and continue documenting vital medicinal plants and foods, logging details of recent harm inflicted on forests by local government, recording historical locations of social struggle and human rights abuses. The process of Mapping the land for the Ogiek is hoping to be a powerful for both the community in the short term and long term. Through documenting such activities and traditions, knowledge can be preserved and shared amongst Ogiek communities despite the attempts to eradicate Indigenous lives, knowledge, culture, and communities. This documentation can also be used as proof of the ways in which Ogiek people interact with the land, not only preserving the existing biodiversity but actually improving it. Supporting Indigenous land rights is critical in the struggle for climate justice. Indigenous communities have lived in harmony as part of nature for millenia, and have resisted centuries of violent genocide attempts, abuse, and theft of land. These communities need to be heard, and learned from in order for us all to effectively mitigate the collapsing of our ecosystems and climates.