The Flood Stories project and the Climate Disaster Project collaborate over mitigating climate anxiety and giving survivors a voice.
Written by Sydney Marchand
When you listen to their stories, beautiful things can happen. That’s what we all experienced at the annual Global Media Education Summit (MES) in Vancouver on March 4, 2023 as our team had the opportunity to listen to 11 youths share their climate disaster stories.
Dr. Michelle Superle—founder and project director of the 20 Harvest Challenge; Flood Stories project—and Sydney Marchand—research assistant; Flood Stories project—were invited to join Sean Holman and their team at the conference’s Youth Media Education Summit (YMES) portion.
The YMES allowed students to participate in the conference while working within the context of media production and creators from partnering organizations. Holman was invited to run this workshop and graciously invited Superle and Marchand to assist students in editing their interview transcripts and final articles.
Holman, and their team of research associates, facilitated the lengthy workshop and shared the “as-told-to” methodology developed to conduct and share climate disaster survivor interviews. This particular methodology of storytelling strives to create a chronological collage of a sequence of events, folding in exceptional quotes of scenery imagery, in order to validate the immense strength and resilience of the survivors.
In order to teach students the power of the “as-told-to” methodology, participants were encouraged to pull out the key moments in the transcripts that best embodied the story, highlighting the root of emotions experienced in the climate disaster, and chronologically arrange them in an 800-word article.
Not only was this methodology of reporting on climate disasters new to the Flood Stories team, but it was an incredibly inspiring experience to witness the transformative effect the experience had on participants. The conference was a testament to the success and power that “as-told-to” stories have on climate disaster survivors and is encouraging as Superle and her team move forward on partnering with Holman and his team on future projects.
Common discourse around participants was similar to the stories recorded in the Flood Stories project as many of them explained that their stories didn’t feel significant enough to report on. All of them expressed the workshop’s cathartic ability to make them feel important, heard and acknowledged—no matter how closely they were impacted by climate disasters.
The Flood Stories project, a sub-project under the 20 Harvest Challenge, started in January 2022 and publicized local flood stories using a different methodology—an approach focused on narrative therapy techniques and raw transcript publication. However, the work closely aligns with Holman’s Flood of Stories project, as well as their continued work to publish “as-told-to stories” of climate disaster survivors. Providing a safe space for climate disasters survivors to express their stories and invoke feelings of strength and validity is at the core of both of their work.
The serendipitous meeting of Superle and Holman through their similar projects has flourished into a collaborative partnership beyond the YMES. Michelle Superle’s 20 Harvest Challenge is excited to partner with Sean Holman’s team on future project using the “as-told-to” method, as they both work towards tackling perspectives of climate change, supporting survivors of climate disasters, and using personal stories as a way to invite people to consider the impact our choices have on Mother Earth.