Circle of Voices

This is a sound recording of a circle of Indigenous elders and youth organised as part of the Peoples Forum at the UN Conference Stockholm+50 (June 2022).

My vision for this event was to center Indigenous voices, and to create a safe space to deeply listen to their experiences and worldviews. The outer circle of participants played the role of bearing witness. 

The elders were invited to talk about what does ecocide feel, taste and sound like in their territories. Then together with the youth,  they shared about their dreams and visions for a future without ecocide, a world outside of capitalism, colonialism and patriarchy. 

This was a precious opportunity to weave threads between times and cultures, and curate a sacred space for sacred words. Traumatic life stories took place alongside strong intergenerational visions and possibilities of ways in respectful and reciprocal relationships with the natural living world.

Indigenous elders (by order of appearance):
- Helen Lindmark,(Sami, Sweden)
- Mindahi Crescencio Bastida Muñoz (Otomi-Toltec, Mexico)
- Randy Lays Bad, Grandfather (Oglala Sioux Nation,Turtle Island)
- Kurikindi (Kichua Nation, Ecuador)
- Grandmother Jyoti Ma (Turtle Island)
- Loretta Afraid of Bear Cook  (Oglala Sioux, Turtle Island)

Indigenous youth:
- Xiye Bastida (Otomi-Toltec, Mexico)
- Ayisha Siddiqa (Pakistan/USA)

Facilitated by Louise Romain (UK/France), Stop Ecocide International

'Centering Indigenous wisdom and legal solutions to protect the future of life on Earth' was organised in partnership with the Mother Earth Delegation of United Original Nations, The Fountain and Stop Ecocide International & Foundation.

Indigenous elders - UN Environment Conference, Stockholm+50

Host Nuhawhawta Sheldon Tallio invited me to talk on P'alcxit morning show of the Nuxalk radio in Bella Coola (Central British Columbia, Canada).

He asked me about what made me choose anthropology as my professional path and what are my aspirations being a modern day anthropologist. 

We talked about the dis/continuities of our ancestral cultural heritage, what sovereignty mean to us, our responsibilities to care for the world around us and our rights to practice our traditions.

*Check out my work here: http://tuneintotheworld.com/*

#1 Interview on Nuxalk radio with Nuhawhawta Sheldon Tallio

A Friday afternoon, I drove out of Edmonton / Amiskwaciwâskahikan with Will Cardinal, a fierce and kind Metis man I had met a few days prior, to Whitecourt. The Athabasca river crosses widely there and I wanted to meet and witness her. We walked past a golf course and found a way to get close to the river... which happened to be at the site of a pipeline crossing.

This soundscape is part of a personal journey, from summer to winter 2022, where I'm venturing to Canada, Brasil and Ecuador to meet with communities resisting extractivism and ecocide. My intention is to connect with lands, waterways and peoples impacted by the fossil fuels, logging and mining industries, and to invite you to tune into their realities. 

'Soundscapes of resistance' is a transient project, uniting my passions for anthropology (research) and political engagement (campaigning). I bring together stories and testimonies from Indigenous peoples, land defenders and environmental advocates, with atmospheric sounds from my time on the road, and recordings from more than human beings, like rivers, storms, squirrels and magpies.

Read more here: https://en.tipeee.com/lou-lecunff/

Experimental trailer ~ Iridescence on the Athabasca river

In this episode, I bring you behind the walls of the Palais des Congrès in Tio'tià:ke (Montréal) where the 15th Conference of the Parties #COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity took place. 

For two weeks, representatives from civil society, business, finance and politicians from 196 countries gathered to agree on a global biodiversity framework: a strategic plan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.

In my show, I deliberately feature the voices of youth, women and Indigenous peoples. Voices featured in this episode: 

* Elisabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) 
* Aishwarya Puttur, youth climate justice organiser with Mock COP 
* Grandma Klasom Satlt'xw Losah, land defender and matriarch at Ada'itsx/Fairy Creek Blockade

Recorded in December 2022. 
Composed and produced by Louise Romain. 

Credits: 
Melancholic Haze by FoolBoyMedia: https://freesound.org/s/271339/
Wind in Pine Trees: https://freesound.org/s/147638/
Outro song 'Excess Charge' by Shaolin Dub.

Visit www.tuneintotheworld.com to learn more about my work.

At the heart of COP15 - Part 1

In this special episode* I bring together recordings from the Athabasca river with voices from Indigenous land & water protectors and members of the Canadian organisation 'Keepers of the Water'. After decades of extracting bitumen (a form of crude oil) in Northern Alberta, the toxic wastewater from the mining activities is starting to become a problem... 

But the federal and provincial governments of Canada, together with industry, have a solution: they want to change domestic law to legalize the release of the tailings ponds (the residual wastewater from the mining operations) into the Athabasca river. 

This river directly feeds into the Mackenzie River Basin, which is known as the Amazon of the North: the largest watershed in Canada and the most intact large scale ecosystem on the continent.

What can you do to support? 
1. https://www.keepersofthewater.ca/tar-sands-tailings-ponds
2. https://act.environmentaldefence.ca/page/122490/action/1

🎤  Hear from Melody Lepine, Tori Cress, Daniel T’seleie and Paul Belanger, as they all shared their concerns as part of a press conference at the latest UN biodiversity conference -COP15- last December in Tio'tià:ke, Montreal. The press conference was organised by Environmental Defence Canada and Keepers of the Water. 

🐦 The more-than-human voices are the Athabasca river and various animals recordings provided by the sound library of the Yellowstone National Park (as these species are also endemic to the Wood Buffalo National Park): red-winged blackbird, Wilson's snipe, warbling vireo, bald eagle, western meadow lark, common loon, savannah sparrow, sandhill crane, bison and wolves.
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/soundlibrary.htm

*This episode was created for RAVEN Debriefs, the podcast series of the Canadian organisation RAVEN Trust, which raise funds for Indigenous People's access to justice. Visit: https://raventrust.com/podcast/

Music credits by Holizna CC0, Soft and Furious, and Loyalty Freak through the Free Music Archive.

Recorded in August and December 2022, produced in March 2023 by Louise Romain.

Additional info about organisations involved

- The Canadian organisation ⁠⁠RAVENTrust⁠⁠ raises funds for Indigenous People's access to justice. 
- ⁠Environmental Defence⁠ is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
-Keepers of the Water is an indigenous-led organisation

Toxic threat for the Amazon of the North

In 2022, I traveled to Brazil at the time of the national elections. I went with the intention to record sounds and stories of resistance and resilience, in times of collapse and crisis. I created this sound journey to bring you on the road with me...

I will guide you through some of the country's most iconic landscapes, from the Coast of Bahia to the heart of the Amazon, sharing songs and prayers from the Pataxó people, bringing you the entrancing chant of the Yoruba ocean goddess Yemanja, and even get you involved into Brasilian politics.

This sound journey was originally created for a performance at the event 'Sing for Earth Day', April 22nd 2023 in Stroud, UK.

It features songs from the Pataxó communities of Barra Velha and Porto do Boi (in Bahia) and a displaced community in Paraty. The song 'Yemanja' was recorded in Salvador, as part of the Balé Folclórico da Bahia. 

Recordings, script and composition: Louise Romain
Sound editing: Rory Thomas Lawton

Immersive sound journey through Brasil

In 2022, I traveled to Brazil at the time of the national elections. I went with the intention to record sounds and stories of resistance and resilience in times of collapse and crisis. 

This is the soundscape version, which includes recordings of some of the country's most iconic landscapes, from the Coast of Bahia to the heart of the Amazon, songs and prayers from the Pataxó people, the entrancing chant of the Yoruba ocean goddess Yemanja and insights into Brasilian politics.

Listen here for the storytelling version, where I guide you through the sound journey: https://soundcloud.com/tune-intotheworld/immersivesoundjourney-brasil

This soundscape was originally created for a live performance at the event 'Sing for Earth Day' on April 22nd 2023 in Stroud, UK.

It features songs from the Pataxó communities of Barra Velha and Porto do Boi (in Bahia) and a displaced community in Paraty. The song 'Yemanja' was recorded in Salvador, as part of the Balé Folclórico da Bahia. 

Recordings and composition: Louise Romain
Sound editing: Rory Thomas Lawton

Immersive soundscape through Brasil

Each year in September, people gather on Lenapehoking -the ancestral territory of the Lenape people- to attend the New York Climate Week. But this year was quite special... Are you curious to hear more from people turning the tides for climate justice? 

Listen to this trailer and make sure to follow the show here and on Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/2EYkHP6ASCUCvWU2job8vE] to be notified when the episodes get released.

Featuring Tzeporah Berman at an event hosted by WECAN (Women's Earth and Climate Action Network) speaking about the progress of the Fossil Fuel Non Proliferation Treaty campaign: https://fossilfueltreaty.org/

The music in the trailer are street recordings of the saxophonist Lewis Jordan and of the brass band Rude Mechanical Orchestra.

Recorded and produced by Louise Romain in September 2023.

Trailer - New York Climate Week 2023

I wrote this poem while attending the eleventh international symposium on soundscape* in Lugano, October 2023. The theme this year was looking at how sound creations and listening practices can help us shape better futures for human and more-than-human life. 

"Ascoltaci - Listen to us

Lisssstening... with our hearts wide open.
We are here to dream of sonic futures with a reverence for life.
We are here to re-imagine the rewilding of our ears.
We are here to get lost soundscapes yet to find each other.

Streaming from different localities, we embarked on a quest seeking the humming of the land, the hissing of the skies and the clicking in the waters.
In our rush for birdsongs going extinct, so much quicker than we can grasp, we hush.
Trying to make sense of the evermore silence of our biosphere while our everyday seems to get louder and louder.

The storms we play on tape echo the cataclysmic challenges of our times.
Meanwhile our clever machines try to capture what defies our hearing range: the ultra, the infra, the invisible, the beyond, the below and the between.
We have even designed artificial intelligences that are starting to decode the languages of bees and bats. 

Our cables plugged into secretive mycelium and our hydrophones intruding rock pools and ponds,
We are the gifted curators of the polyphony of our Mother.
Yet, as a species, we have created so much noise that we can't seem to truly listen when her children cry and scream and die.

But some of us do.
Those who haven't let go of a sense of wonder for this beautiful and complex world.
Those of us who pay attention to frequencies and vibrations.
Those of us who attempt to make the planet’s gentlest voices heard despite our physical limitations.

And so our dreams grow bigger and our acoustic calls reach further: we listen, we listen, we listen.

What do you hear, child of the Earth?"

About the symposium (organised by Forum Klanglandschaft, hosted by Radio Televisione Svizzera): http://www.paesaggiosonoro.it/

Poem - Ascoltaci (Listen to us)

When electronic ambient music meets spoken word... 

I wrote this poem inspired by the international symposium on soundscape in Lugano, October 2023. The theme this year was how sound creations and listening practices can help us shape better futures for human and more-than-human life. 

It sparked the creativity of my friend Squiff Eye (photographer, graphic designer and sound producer). You can find all of his music here: https://squiffeye.bandcamp.com/

"Ascoltaci - Listen to us

Lisssstening... with our hearts wide open.
We are here to dream of sonic futures with a reverence for life.
We are here to re-imagine the rewilding of our ears.
We are here to get lost soundscapes yet to find each other.

Streaming from different localities, we embarked on a quest seeking the humming of the land, the hissing of the skies and the clicking in the waters.
In our rush for birdsongs going extinct, so much quicker than we can grasp, we hush.
Trying to make sense of the evermore silence of our biosphere while our everyday seems to get louder and louder.

The storms we play on tape echo the cataclysmic challenges of our times.
Meanwhile our clever machines try to capture what defies our hearing range: the ultra, the infra, the invisible, the beyond, the below and the between.
We have even designed artificial intelligences that are starting to decode the languages of bees and bats.

Our cables plugged into secretive mycelium and our hydrophones intruding rock pools and ponds,
We are the gifted curators of the polyphony of our Mother.
Yet, as a species, we have created so much noise that we can't seem to truly listen when her children cry and scream and die.

But some of us do.
Those who haven't let go of a sense of wonder for this beautiful and complex world.
Those of us who pay attention to frequencies and vibrations.
Those of us who attempt to make the planet’s gentlest voices heard despite our physical limitations.

And so our dreams grow bigger and our acoustic calls reach further: we listen, we listen, we listen.

What do you hear, child of the Earth?"

Poem - Ascoltaci (Listen to us) / Remix by Squiff Eye

I wrote this piece in September 2023 in the midst of the New York Climate Week, deeply inspired by an encounter with a man from Samoa/Aotearoa.

*Manahatta is the original Lenape name from which Manhattan came from.

Transcription:

From Manahatta* to Samoa in the blink of an eye

If someday, you find yourself far from home, 
You may be lucky to cross paths with an old soul... 
Someone so pure that your heart sees right through them
And its shine is as bright as you can reflect it. 

We meet our kin in the most fortunate of places:

Like that Saturday evening, on a rooftop in Lower Manhattan, longing for the end of the fossil fuels era and doing everything we can to make it a just transition. 
Dreaming... of a different world where our seas won't rise and our forests won't burn, like the predictions tell us to. 
Celebrating the victories that make us stand together, withstanding greed, apathy and inaction. 

We meet our kin in the most alien of places:

Like that Monday afternoon, drinking coffee at the heart of Times Square, surrounded by billboards too big for the eyes and buildings so tall that we call them skyscrapers. 
This grid of streets enforces isolation upon us, but that constant drizzly rain reminds me of oneness, reminds me that, sacred water falls on us all.  

You see, kinship is relational and so to bond, we do that thing that humans do best: we share stories. 

For a moment, we evade this concrete jungle, and we journey to woodlands and islands, where the trees are elders and the ocean is full of wonders. 

Where we hold the land in respect and it holds us back. 

We may be born from different soils, yet in the busyness of this, here - the sights, the sounds, the smells - I see you and you see me. 

A fossilized shell travelled from my valley to my hand to your hand to your shore. And you'll carry to your daughter the sweet scent of lavender that I brought from my grandmother.  

We may live oceans apart. But right now, we both find ourselves on Lenapehoking - a land held in guardianship until the times where the old mycelium network got replaced by cables, wires and rails.

I thank your atua for carrying you safely across the seas and I acknowledge my ancestors for the blessing of this life. 
May we journey back to our territories and our people with a greater sense of possibility and may our hearts even more full of love. 
And maybe someday, if we're lucky, I'll be guided to your coastline or you to mine, and we'll continue weaving our threads in spirit space.

Spoken word - From Manahatta to Samoa in the blink of an eye

This poem came to me while attending a small co-created festival 'Burning Nest' in May 2023. I performed it at the cabaret, which is where the picture was taken. 

Transcript:

Dear wanderer,
 
Let me invite you to this liminal space. When the sun hasn’t set, nor has it risen. Where the air is moist and the night is thick. 
This, is a time beyond time. Our senses sharpened to their fullest, we smell, lick, caress, bite and listen… like the mammals we truly are. 

In those early hours, between crow call and owl screech, between fast pace river and sleeping lake, between land and sky, there we are. 
In those early hours, a wandering soul like you, like me... finds its way home. The senselessness of everything suddenly falls into place. 
In those hours, no one can claim dominion. Humility is survival.

Fae folks, trolls and fungi will greet you. You may stray from the path, dear wanderer. You know there will be a price to pay, don't you? Yet from sacrifice emerges possibility. 

Kin to life, we are akin to Earth. We morph or we die. There are no other rules to play by. 
Life loops, time flies and we spiral... like a dance that never stops.

In those early hours, stillness is catharsis. Silence is here... to remind you of the power when you speak. 

Look around you, beauty is everywhere. 
And so this is where we Nest."

Spoken word - Where we nest

In the summer of 2022, I travelled across Canada on a quest to gather sounds and stories of resilience and resistance, as we journey through times of collapse and crisis.

I met Tamara Archie in Tk'emlúps (Kamloops) in the semi-arid part of British Columbia, Western Canada. She works for Qwelmínte Secwépemc and shares here some of her wisdom about being in right relation to the land.

Qwelmínte Secwépemc is a collective of leadership from eight Secwépemc communities working together with the B.C. Government to move forward via the Qwelmínte Secwépemc Government to Government table. Find out more: https://www.qwelminte.ca/about-us

Interview, atmospheric recordings and production: Louise Romain. 

Other credits: Holizna CO (Dreams) from the Free Music Archive and Heartbeat Fast Tempo by CTCollab -https://freesound.org/s/223614/ - License: Attribution 3.0.

Visit www.tuneintotheworld.com to learn more about my work.

On Secwepemcúl’ecw

This is a short extract of a longer recording of an Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) at Nirvana Sur, off the southern coast of the island of San Andres (Caribbean Colombia). Acropora palmata is an important reef-building coral in the Caribbean.

The fish spotted around that coral were Acanthurus bahianus (Cirujanos / Surgeonfish); Sparisoma viride (Loro brilloso / Stoplight parrotfish) and Chaetodon capistratus (Pez mariposa de cuatro ojos / Foureye butterflyfish)

Thank you to the team of Blue Indigo Foundation, especially Gyssel and Maria Fernanda for enabling me to record this.

Recorded on the hydrophone Aquarian Audio H2D: aquarianaudio.com/h2d-hydrophone.html

Coral sounds / Acropora palmata

This piece was created as a commission for an event for climate activists in London. I called it an interspecies song as it weaves together the beauty of bird song, flowing river and human voices...

The birds recordings come from London (UK), Tumbira (Brasilian Amazon) and Felidia (Valle del Cauca, Colombia). The river being is the Athabasca that runs through Alberta, Canada.

🎶 The songs and harmonies were recorded during a water ceremony in January 2024, held at a well that goes under the Royal Court of Justice in London. Activists and water protectors gathered as the court case around the Stonehenge extension road and tunnel was about to start (for the second time), threatening the sacred spring of Blickmead. This was convened by Charlotte Pulver and Sam Lee. 

🐦 Key birds identified thanks to the app Merlin Bird ID (developed by Cornell Lab):
- Eurasian Wren, European Robbin, Great Tit, Eurasian Blackbird (UK)
- Great Kiskadee, Yellow-rumped Cacique (Brasil and Colombia)
- Tropical Kingbird, Palm Tanager, Roadside Hawk, Yellow-Headed Caraca, Clay-colored Thrush (Colombia)

Sound recording, editing and production: Louise Romain

Interspecies Song #1 - Ode to birds & waters

Laura  Valderrama Ballesteros - Healing corals

Josselyn Bryan - Funding ecosystem restoration

Camilo Hudson - A change of perspective

Casimiro Newball - Teaching others

Recorded off the northern coast of San Andres island in a site called 'Pyramid'. I was accompanying divers and biologists from Blue Indigo Foundation as they went out to clean corals on the nursery tables.

Corals - with boat traffic

What do mangroves sound like... from underwater? Recorded with my hydrophone on Santa Catalina island in the Caribbean Archipelago of San Andres and Providencia.

Mangroves

The latest United Nations Ocean Conference, UNOC3 just ended in Nice. Among the 15,000 delegates - and 100,000 visitors - I share with you 30 Ocean voices. Young activists, artists, scientists, campaigners: they are all Ocean lovers and defenders. I am Louise Romain, sound artist, documentarist, anthropologist, and the podcast producer of Circle of Voices, for this episode I created a patchwork of voice notes receive via Signal, Telegram and Whatsapp.

This is a three part series. In Part 1, these 10 Ocean voices address deep sea mining, the high-seas treaty or BBNJ, plastic pollution, mangrove and coral reef restoration, the ocean-climate-biodiversity nexus, youth leadership and fair inclusion, rights of nature and specifically Antarctic, acoustics, machine learning and AI, community rights and ocean justice, the blue economy, direct funding and debt restructuring, and more...!

If you enjoy what you hear, support Circle of Voices via my Patreon and become a monthly sponsor to contribute to my production and creative work into this world: https://www.patreon.com/c/CircleofVoices. Single direct donations are also possible here: https://buy.stripe.com/aFa4gB5zWbYzdDzc48fbq00. And share the episode with a friend you think might find this valuable.

This episode features:

*Mark Haver - North America Representation for Sustainable Ocean Alliance (SOA), USA

*Bruna Martins - Cuíra Collective, Coalition of guardians of Amazonian mangroves, Brasil

*Isla Keesje Davidson - WOPAM, World Ocean Passive Acoustic Monitoring, Cornell University, USA

*Roberta Bosu -  Global Campaign Lead for Antarctic Rights, Italy/Netherlands

*Ines Costa - Love the Oceans operating in Mozambique, Spain

*Kevin Lunzalu - Marine Project Officer East African Wildlife Society, Kenya

*Marie Claire Graf -  Co-founder of the Youth Negotiators Academy &  counselor at the World Future Council, Switzerland

*Pooja Tilvawala - Founder and Exec. Director of the Youth Climate Collaborative, India

*Ismaela Magliotto - Co-founder and Manager-Director of NGO Uno Punto Cinco, Chile

*Christian Jake Tabara - SOA Fellow and Youth Campaign Officer for Alyansa Tigil Mina, Philippines

//Credits// Music by Shame Mckenna 'Surfacing' via Uppbeat. Sounds: Whales in the Rain by listeningtowhales -- https://freesound.org/s/322539/; Dolphin in Caribbean Sea (Mexico) by felix.blume -- https://freesound.org/s/161691/; and various phone ring tones by sapatac, genviou, and Aldergrove Studios.

Circle of Voices is a podcast produced by Louise Romain. Find out more about her work: https://tuneintotheworld.com/

30 Voices from the UN Ocean Conference 2025 - Part 1: Youth Ocean Voices at UNOC3

 The voices in this episode are women who took part in the latest United Nations Ocean Conference. They are involved in law, insurance, policy, science, sustainability, and the arts.  They founded and run organisations, sit and advise on boards (or even paddle on them) and have dedicated their lives to the Ocean.
 
A major gender gap persists in ocean governance and finance:  women-led organisations and businesses in the blue economy receive less than one to 2% of major funding streams, and  women hold less than 20% of leadership positions in key international bodies. But they  constitute half of the workforce in small-scale fisheries and aquaculture, and they play crucial roles in science, conservation, and restoration efforts.  

 Because of this blue gender gap,  I wanted to dedicate this part 2 of my new series '30 voices from the UN Ocean Conference' to women.  

I am Louise Romain, sound artist, documentarist, anthropologist, and the podcast producer of Circle of Voices. This episode brings you unedited voice notes I received via Whatsapp.

If you enjoy what you hear, support Circle of Voices via my Patreon and become a monthly sponsor to contribute to my production and creative work into this world: https://www.patreon.com/c/CircleofVoices. Single direct donations are also possible here: https://buy.stripe.com/aFa4gB5zWbYzdDzc48fbq00. And share the episode with a friend you think might find this valuable!

The episode features:
* Cecilia Sevillano, Founder of Ocean Intelligence Services, Colombia/Sweden
* Antoinette Vermilye, Co-founder of Gallifrey Foundation, UK/Switzerland
* Michaela Girvan, Co-founder the Ocean Rights Coalition, UK
* Andrea Herrera, Shark master student from Okeanos Marine research institute, Regional Coordinator for ECOP Early Career Ocean Professional Central America, Portugal
* Melanie Cueff - Scientific officer of the Global Seaweed Coalition, France
* Clara Botto - The Alliance for Just Deliberation on Solar Geoengineering, Brasil
* Amber Nuttal - Co-chair of the Bahamas Reef Educational Foundation, Board member of the Blue Marine Foundation, Co-Founder Extreme Hang Out, The Bahamas/UK
* Marie Le Chevalier / Orkasea - DJ and Ocean artivist, France
* Sabrina André - Legal expert on law of the sea,  Board member of Women for Sea, France
* Linzi Hawkin - Co-founder at Protect Blue, UK


//Credits// Music by Shame Mckenna 'Surfacing' via Uppbeat. Sounds: Whales in the Rain by listeningtowhales -- https://freesound.org/s/322539/; Dolphin in Caribbean Sea (Mexico) by felix.blume -- https://freesound.org/s/161691/; and various phone ring tones by sapatac, genviou, and Aldergrove Studios.

Circle of Voices is a podcast produced by Louise Romain. Find out more about her work: https://tuneintotheworld.com/


30 Voices from the UN Ocean Conference 2025 - Part 2: Women Ocean Voices at UNOC3

This audio documentary is a love story with the Ocean, the reef and its guardians. An invitation to travel to Caribbean shores to immerse yourself in the lived experiences of coastal communities, and in the sounds of the local ecosystems: the coral reefs and the mangroves.

You will hear stories from Raizal fishermen, turning their ignorance for corals into love, respect and admiration, and learn about the work of the female marine biologists of the Blue Indigo Foundation to restore and heal corals.

Together, they share about their dreams for the future of the reef, the challenges they face with global warming, climate change and extreme weather events, and the hopes of marine and coastal ecosystem regeneration after the recent hurricanes.

Take a moment to relax, remember that every other breath you take comes from the ocean, and enjoy the ride. Best enjoyed on headphones, or loud speakers with a quiet environment - and ideally, with others as a collective listening journey.

The sounds and interviews were recorded in the Archipelago of San Andres, Providence and Santa Catalina in November 2024. With deep thanks to the Blue Indigo Foundation team and to my interviewees: Pedro, Laura, Yanelis, Ruben, Camilo, Casimiro and Josselyn. The recordings of the reefs and the mangroves were taken with the Aquarian audio hydrophone.

Original music composition by Marc Blandel. Sound effects from freesound archive.

Recording, narration and production by sound artist, documentarist and anthropologist Louise Romain. This production was entirely self-funded. To support Louise's work, join her on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/CircleofVoices/membership or make a direct donation: 

From reef to ridge: an immersive sound journey to the Caribbean

This is the final episode of my series '30 voices from the UN Ocean Conference'. Part 1 centred on the voices of youth engaged in the ocean space, while part 2 was all about women. This final episode cuts across the board. 

The people you will hear care deeply about the Ocean. But also about human rights, peace, climate justice, and solidarity with living beings, whether they are humans or from other species. They are artists, translators, activists, directors, solutionists and profoundly optimist. They share about their achievements during this UN Ocean Conference, but also their criticism, their doubts and how much further we have to go, still. 

If you enjoy what you hear, support Circle of Voices via my Patreon and become a monthly sponsor to contribute to my production and creative work into this world: www.patreon.com/c/CircleofVoices. Single direct donations are also possible here: buy.stripe.com/aFa4gB5zWbYzdDzc48fbq00. And share the episode with a friend you think might find this valuable.

I am Louise Romain, sound artist, documentarist, anthropologist, and the podcast producer of Circle of Voices. This episode was created with unedited voice notes  I received via Signal, Telegram and Whatsapp.

This episode features:

*Tara Pierce - Lecturer at the Earth Law Center, Co-founder of Earth Law Alliance / https://www.earthlawcenter.org/

*Emilie McGlone - Director of Peace Boat US / https://peaceboat-us.org/

*Néfur - Singer, Composer and Performer / https://nefurmusic.com/

*Azzedine Badis - Communication Manager at Global Seaweed Coalition / https://www.safeseaweedcoalition.org/

*José Lobo - Interpreter with Tinta, faciitaor and linguistic support for Brasilian small scale fisher

*Bodhi Patil - Ocean climate solutionist / https://www.bodhipatil.com/

*Maite Mompó - Director of Stop Ecocide International in Spanish / https://www.stopecocide.earth/

*Sam Lee - Folk singer, storyteller, conservationist and song collector, Britain / https://samleesong.co.uk/

*Michael Stewart - Co-founder of Seatrees / https://seatrees.org/

*Hajaniaina Ratsimbazafy - President of the management board of Natiora Defenders in Madagascar / https://natioradefenders.org/

*Jane Lawton - Director of impact for the Earth Species / https://www.earthspecies.org/

//Credits// Music by Shame Mckenna 'Surfacing' via Uppbeat. Sounds: Whales in the Rain by listeningtowhales -- freesound.org/s/322539/; Dolphin in Caribbean Sea (Mexico) by felix.blume -- freesound.org/s/161691/; and various phone ring tones by sapatac, genviou, and Aldergrove Studios.

Circle of Voices is a podcast produced by Louise Romain. Find out more about her work: tuneintotheworld.com/

30 Voices from the UN Ocean Conference 2025 - Part 3: World Ocean Voices at UNOC3

For my third radio interview as a regular contributor on the show Troubadours & Raconteurs, I was tuning in from the Caribbean! In November 2024, I was in the Archipelago of San Andres, Providence and Santa Catalina to record the sounds of coral reefs, mangroves, and stories  of resilience from local communities. My immersion there kicks off our interview.

From 15:00, host E.W. Conundrum and I discuss my recent attendance at the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16 in Colombia, and the podcast series I produced there with Indigenous leaders, youth and women. I share about how these international policy spaces are organised and my interest in following and amplifying Indigenous issues in that global context. You can catch some of the stories we talk about on my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLp1F2jy0J5t5JVSZL_V29qLlLJomvzCwP

From 30:00 until the end, our conversion touch on the financial and energetic challenges of travelling in the ways that I do, we reflect on privileges, responsibilities and roles that we can each play in the midst of the poly crisis. We talk about the socio-political landscape in the United States in the wake of Donald Trump's elections, and how to shift mindsets on the climate and ecological crisis.

If you wanna hear my poem 'Island time' it's at 36:00!

Original release: https://www.radiofreebrooklyn.org/show-archive/?episode=RADIO3090194213&epuid=e16367e6-519e-11e9-a66e-63266dd780b1

Radio Interview #3 - Troubadours & Raconteurs

I'm an anthropologist, an imagination activist, a campaigner for multispecies justice and Indigenous rights, a podcast producer and a spoken word artist.

I create immersive sound journeys that bring together authentic stories from the frontlines of climate action, sounds from nature and atmospheric recordings. My show 'Circle of Voices' gathers stories of resilience and resistance in times of collapse and crisis, through human and more-than-human voices. It is an invitation to dream deeper into possible and desirable futures, while engaging with themes of socio-political and environmental justice.

For more info, visit: http://tuneintotheworld.com/

Lou/ise

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