University of Sydney, Monday 11 March 2024, 6.00pm to 7.30pm AEDT
The Iain McCalman Lecture celebrates SEI co-founder and former co-director Iain McCalman’s dedication to fostering and pioneering multidisciplinary environmental research. Environmental anthropologist, Dr Sophie Chao, presents the 2024 Iain McCalman Lecture exploring the Indigenous Marind People’s practice of ‘multispecies mourning’ in West Papua. As climate change intensifies and resource extraction erodes complex ecosystems, many people are experiencing profound grief over the loss of species, landscapes and their cultural connections. Multispecies mourning, Dr Chao argues, offers potent avenues for Marind to memorialize the loss of lives and relations prompted by capitalist incursions and attendant environmental crises.