Activities

Rising Voices serves as a space to nurture the emergence of projects and partnerships. The activities weave across the three strategic focus areas 

Workshops

Recognizing that mainstream funding mechanisms and project timelines often do not emphasize relationship development, Rising Voices has worked to center building relationships, trust, and understanding among multi-cultural  participants. The annual workshops provide a supportive space for participants to convene and share scientific results, challenges, cultural protocols, knowledges, and problem-solving strategies for long-term capacity building and increased climate resilience. The aim has been to shift from a conventional conference format to a more engaged, action-focused, and conversational workshop format that includes traditional protocol and respects participants’ distinct cultures. Through the annual workshops, Rising Voices works to center building relationships, trust, and understanding among participants,, creating space for new collaborations to emerge.

Working Groups

Rising Voices supports the emergence of thematic and cross-thematic science working groups, creating space to build research and implementation partnerships organically through Rising Voices activities.

Examples of Rising Voices Working Groups that meet throughout the year and are self-organized include the Community Relocation and Site Expansion Working Group and the Indigenous Phenology Network. 

Supported projects

Rising Voices supports many innovative projects striving to advance an improved understanding of Earth sciences and offering action plans for community needs and sustainability. Examples of project include:

• The Rising Voices, Changing Coasts: The National Indigenous and Earth Sciences Convergence Hub
• Lahaina, Hawai‘i community air quality sensors in disaster-recovery
• Supporting the Sovereign Data Network and Indigenous data governance practices
• Seed Funding for Catalyzing Climate Research and Action (2020; 2021)

Co-mentoring Relationships - Connections, Opportunities, and Engagements

To support co-mentoring relationships (mentoring that works both ways), Rising Voices works to foster connections through more in-person opportunities. We work to identify ad hoc opportunities for the RV community to meet up at professional society meetings and conferences to support mentoring and sense of community in these professional spaces.

Recommendations, Publications, Reports, and White Papers

View detailed reports and publications here from past Rising Voices workshops and activities on specific Indigenous and Earth sciences topics as they relate to climate challenges.

The Rising Voices Special Collection

Rising Voices is collaborating with the American Geophysical Union (AGU) through a Special Collection, hosted by AGU’s Community Science Journal and Knowledge Exchange Hub. The Rising Voices Special Collection: Emergent Knowledge in the Convergence of Indigenous and Earth Sciences in Response to the Climate Crises will work to demonstrate convergence science, research in action, and future pathways for weaving multiple ways of knowing across cultural, disciplinary, and geographic boundaries. It will create a strong and diverse collection of written, graphic, and spoken pieces which present to mainstream science readership as valid, rigorous, important, and unique ways of knowing. In this way, the Special Collection will advance and expand science. More details and opportunities for submitting to the Special Collection will soon be posted.

The American Meteorological Society (AMS) Lazrus Symposium

The Heather Lazrus Symposium – Convergence Science: Indigenous Weather, Water and Climate Knowledge, Systems, Practices and Communities is held at the AMS Annual Meeting. 

Since 2023, Rising Voices has organized the Convergence Science: Indigenous Weather, Water and Climate Knowledge Systems, Practices and Communities symposium at the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Annual Meeting. Officially named the Lazrus Symposium starting in 2025, this engagement builds off the leadership and work of Dr. Heather Lazrus and many collaborators over the prior decade and more, in moving AMS and the Nation towards advancing the weaving together of Indigenous knowledges and sciences and other atmospheric and earth sciences. Elevating such engagement at the AMS Annual Meetings has raised awareness of these efforts and fostered critical dialogues and reflection among AMS and the atmospheric science community. 

Presentations 

View presentations presented by Rising Voices collaborators on extreme weather and climate topics.

Recognizing leadership in climate action

Since 2019, Rising Voices has honored Rising Voices co-founder Bob Gough through the Bob Gough Award for Climate Action. The award was created to recognize an individual from within the Rising Voices community for their long-term and dedicated service to climate action. 

Webinars

Ecomindfulness and Climate Resilience

An online event focused on ecomindfulness and climate resilience, to come together for a reflective time for engaging, healing, uplifting, sharing wisdom, and continuing to grow relationships and actions for supporting communities in times of disaster.

Testing Justice New Ways to Address Environmental Inequalities

The Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences hosted an online event on November 16, 2021 focused on “how can we as individuals do convergence science to address climate justice across cultures and disciplines with Indigenous Peoples?” Paulette Blanchard and Dr. Michelle Montgomery shared their work on the 7Rs of Indigenous Research and Eco-Critical Race Theory. You can also read their publication of this work.

Conference Presentations

The Rising Voices Center for Indigenous and Earth Sciences participates in a variety of events and discussions surrounding extreme weather, climate resilience, and the inherent value of Indigenous knowledge systems and Indigenous science.

The following are previous events in which Rising Voices has participated:

• Convergence Science:  Indigenous Weather, Water and Climate Knowledge Systems, Practices and Communities Symposium, American Meteorological Society, January 2024
• Understanding the Relationships: People, Place, Technology, the Environment, and Climate Change, Poster presentation, American Geophysical Union, December 2023
• Indigenous and Earth systems science partnerships for co-creating knowledge, Presidential session, American Meteorological Society, January 2023
• Indigenous and Earth Systems Science Collaborations for Co-Creating Knowledge: Panel Discussion and Social Gathering, Town Hall session, American Meteorological Society, January 2023
• American Anthropological Association, Roundtable session, November 2020
• NOAA Environmental Data Talks - Speaker Series Data, Diversity, and Disaster October 16, 2020
• Natural Hazards Workshop, Invited plenary session, July 2020
• Knowledge sharing and coalition building to address the obstacles of preventive actions and community resettlement in the context of our climate crisis, Pacific Risk Management 'Ohana (PRiMO), panel session, March 2020
• American Anthropological Association, Executive panel session, November 2019
• Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS), October 2019
• Mni Ki Wakan Summit, August 2019
• American Association for Geographers, April 2019
• Multicultural Collaborations for Change, roundtable session, Society for Applied Anthropology, March 2019
• Conference on World Affairs, April 2018
• Society for Applied Anthropology, March 2018
• American Geophysical Union Session, Poster, Thriving Earth Exchange workshop, December 2017
• American Anthropological Association, November 2017
• Society for Applied Anthropology, March 2017
• Southwest Climate Change Tribal Network, Feb 2017
• American Meteorological Society, January 2016
• Society for Applied Anthropology, March 2016
• American Anthropological Association, roundtable, November 2015
• Southwest Climate Change Tribal Network, June 2015
• Pacific Northwest Climate Change Tribal Network, Aug 2015
• Pacific Risk Management ‘Ohana (PRiMO), March 2015
• American Meteorological Society, January 2015
• Australian Meteorological & Oceanographic Society Annual Conference (AMOS), February 2015
• Shifting Seasons, Oct 2014
• Northwest Tribal Water Conference, Oct 2014
• Pacific Risk Management ‘Ohana (PRiMO), March 2014

Formal Working Groups

Rising Voices Community Relocation & Site Expansion Working Group

Co-Leads

• Aranzazu Lascurain, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
• Bill Thomas, NOAA Office for Coastal Management
• Julie Maldonado, Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network (LiKEN)

Indigenous Phenology Network

Co-Leads

• Maraya Ben-Joseph, Olohana Foundation
• Katie Jones, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)

• Brian Miller, North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center