We Are the Ocean: An Indigenous Response to Climate Change

In 2016, Asian Pacific Islander American community members in the Greater Seattle area met to explore how indigenous communities are responding to the ways climate change is affecting our waters and our lives. Their work resulted in the exhibition, “We Are the Ocean: An Indigenous Response to Climate Change,” on display at the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (The Wing). Created through the Wing’s community process – which ensures input from local educators, artists and the general public – the exhibition is centered on indigenous voices and perspectives, and looks at philosophy, spirituality, conservation, culture, legacy and history as a foundation. Through art, poetry and oral history interviews, the exhibition explores both the history of climate change – specifically the ways that indigenous people were the original environmentalists – as well as the more tangible ways that global warming affects our everyday lives now, from the water we drink to the erosion of our land.