Teshima is an island located in the Seto Inland Sea. In the latter part of the 20th century islanders fought a grueling battle to rid their ecosystem of illegally dumped industrial waste. United and autonomous, the islanders won a seemingly impossible fight by making many sacrifices. Today, the island is part of the Setouchi Art Triennale circuit. The mesmerizing artwork brings with it a consumerist culture and some of the important issues that linger from the waste dumping incident have been reinforced. However, only a few are left who remember. The story of Teshima reflects resilience, and an extraordinary sense of community. What can we all learn from Teshima? Why is it important? How could communities be structured today? These are some questions we haven’t stopped asking since we encountered this island.

Presenters 

Mako Mihira

Mako is a human ecologist, recently graduated from College of the Atlantic (COA), with a focus on food studies, botany, language, social entrepreneurship, and performing arts. Before her undergraduate work, she studied at  UWC-USA and has been involved in the UWC movement since then. She has been trying to find a way to study and communicate global and local issues through interdisciplinarity with a hope to make this world a better place. 

Priyamvada Chaudhary

Priyamvada is also a human ecologist (COA‘20). While studying human ecology she focused on visual/performing arts, art history, ethnography, and social entrepreneurship through the lens of art and collectives. She was also part of the UWC movement, in Pune, India. Having grown up partly in the UK and partly in New Delhi India, she hopes to use art, and design as an interdisciplinary lens to redesign how we relate to our environments and the differences that cause tension within them. (view some of Priyamvada’s artwork at www.priyamvadachaudhary.com)

Registration Details

Register here:  https://tinyurl.com/EngageAsiaTeshima

Suggested donation:  $10