The Tipping Point to Decolonise Sustainability

This is an in-person event in Oslo in conjunction with Oslo Innovation Week. (There will be no live stream nor recordings)

The Big Picture invites you to the first-ever exploration of sustainability & decoloniality during Oslo Innovation Week. We'll take a critical, humbling look at sustainability practices & explore the narratives that shape them.

Who actually benefits from sustainability and sustainable development? 

What lens are we using when we talk about "sustainable" practices? 

How can we recognize harmful patterns that perpetuate in sustainability practices? 

Can we imagine a tipping point for a restorative, just & equitable future?

Spoiler: we don't know all the answers. Join us on this quest on decolonising sustainability.

This highly nuanced and complex topic is one that cannot sensibly be confined to a single conversation. What we hope to achieve at this event is to start igniting awareness of the colonial influence and impact on what we have considered to be ‘sustainability’ today. Taking a position of honesty, humility, and humor, rethinking ‘Sustainability, Inc’ with a critical lens toward coloniality will hopefully offer a new perspective and radical shifts from the current ways of doing things.  Expect to be surprised, to be uncomfortable, to have more questions than answers. 

Our presenters are:

RAHUL RANJAN

Rahul will present about colonialism and its legacy in climate change, sustainability, and sustainable development, as well as approaches to decoloniality particularly from academic and Indigenous perspectives.

Rahul is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo. His research expertise is in Indigenous ontologies, postcolonial/decolonial theories, climate change and colonialism, anthropology, political ethnography, environmental humanities, resources conflict, nature-society interactions, and the Anthropocene. Rahul's book: "The Political Life of Memory", is recently published by the Cambridge University Press.

For more information on Rahul's work see https://www.rahul-ranjan.com/.

LIISA-RÁVNÁ FINBOG

Liisa-Ravna Finborg is an Indigenous Sámi scholar, duojár, curator, writer, and editor from Oslo/Vaapste/Skánit who is currently an Associate Researcher researching the relationship between museums, Sámi identities, and duodji (Sámi aesthetical practices). Liisa-Ravna will talk about perspectives of sustainability as a concept and extension of colonialism, the possibility of moving away from sustainability, and systemic changes that need to be done in decoloniality from her perspective as an Indigenous scholar and storyteller.

For more info on her work and activism, go to https://liisaravna.blog/

THANDI DYANI

Thandi has worked in the last 20 years in social justice, equity, diversity and belonging, development issues, social entrepreneurship, and ecosystem building in Denmark, Northern Europe, and Sub- Saharan Africa in government institutions, NGOs, as founder, consultant, manager, and CEO.

Thandi will provide insights into high-level sustainability practices and decoloniality.

For more info on Thandi's work, go to https://thandidyani.com/

ADRIAN MINKOWICZ 

Adrian Minkowicz is an Argentinean comedian, writer, published playwright and lawyer based in Oslo. He is a political satirist that has worked on NRK 1 on the niche show “Satirks”. He recently premiered the last part of “Brown Privilege”, a trilogy about decolonization, in the UK. The trilogy is supported by Kulturådet and Fritt Ord, and he performed the first part of it as a speaker in an International conference at the University of Cambridge. 

In Norway, he is the recipient of the prestigious Statens Kunstnerstipend as a dramaturg. He was appointed by the Argentinean ambassador in Norway to be a member of the “Commission for the Dialogue on Malvinas”. He regularly tours his performances in both English and Spanish in the biggest venues and festivals in Europe, Asia and America.

Follow Adrian on  @adrianminkowicz

The event is free and open to the public in Oslo. There will be no live streaming or recording.