NATURE TALKS | LION GUARDIANS
"Lion Guardians - A Short Story About Land, People + An Age-Old Enemy" is about the Barabaig Tribe who are slowly changing from Lion hunters to Lion Defenders.
Ray Foley and Cian Kearns travelled to the Ruaha area of central Tanzania in October 2018 to document a remarkable conservation collaboration between the local Barabaig tribe, Oxford University and Panthera.
Living next door to one of Africas largest lion populations presents major challenges to the pastoralist Barabaig tribe. Livestock and even people disappear in the dark of night. Over centuries lion hunting has emerged as a functional and deeply significant aspect of their culture.
Now the tribe have embarked on the once unthinkable journey of becoming guardians and defenders of their local lion populations. Young warriors are dissuaded from going on hunts, problems lions are tracked and managed and data enabling better human wildlife conflict mitigation is collected.
There are lessons to be learned from this story for anyone curious how to achieve positive change from a group whose best interests are not necessarily served by change. Come along and hear some the major achievements as well as the immense difficulties such a profound change in culture presents this remote African tribe.
Ray Foley is a photographer and works full time for an Irish environmental NGO. Cian Kearns is a freelance journalist with a focus is on socio-cultural issues. He is currently writing a Phd on Genocide Studies. This trip was made possible with a grant from the Simon Cumbers media fund.
These talks are free with 50 places on a first come basis. The talks will be held in Good Day Deli Garden Cafe, Cork City. Please access by coming to the Evergreen Street entrance of Nano Nagle Place from 6.30pm where you will be guided to the cafe.
Coffee + cake will be available for purchase between 6.30pm and 7pm before the talks begin. Parking is available in and around Evergreen Street - there is no on site parking available for these talks.
See you there!
