NAAM Festival
Culture for Impact is an annual recognition by Museum for the United Nations - UN Live to celebrate cultural initiatives that unleash the power of popular culture to address major societal challenges and inspire positive change.
NAAM Festival is a creative activism performing and visual arts group. They unleash art and cultural expression to mobilise people for action. Through a blend of storytelling, performance, citizen participation, and creative public therapy— the initiative engages regional artists, youth, and the general public to reimagine their relationship to the water and drive positive action for the conservation of Lake Victoria.
Join UN Live’s Head of Comms and Lead Curator, Annesofie Norn and Ojay as they discuss how NAAM champions new creative formats.
Annesofie Norn: What does it mean to you and NAAM to get highlighted on the 2024 Culture for Impact List?
Dave Ojay: As much as it is such an honour and we applaud our teams, beneficiaries, partners and artists for daring to think outside the usual, we see this a huge step towards recognition of grassroots powerful efforts by everyday people to solve everyday sustainability gaps and connecting the actions from above and below across the global village with intertwined climate problems that need a global revolution. In our case, this listing confirms and gives us hope to keep digging in until a rebirth of our natural world is delivered. Art indeed is assisting in shaping not just narratives but the future by showing and speaking to the hearts of the masses and power - nothing but the truth. This is our environmental crimes, attitude and complacencies. This listing for UN Live 2024 Culture for Impact confirms to us that, together we are set to revolutionise the planet's approach to pollution.
Annesofie Norn: What do you believe is the power of popular culture to change hearts and minds?
Dave Ojay: NAAM believes that popular arts and cultural expressions are powerful, unconventional tools for mobilizing people to take action. The platform seeks to engage regional artists, youth, lake users, and the general public in creative activities that promote behavioral change and action. By offering showcases, dialogue forums, and creative processes, NAAM aims to foster unity and test efforts toward conserving Lake Victoria and other endangered regional waterways.
NAAM focuses on established and emerging artists, fishermen, lakeside communities, youth, and women. It encourages participation in environmental governance dialogues, conservation workshops, cultural arts, storytelling, and community initiatives to address issues like cultural erosion, pollution, and climate injustice. The platform's core mission is to promote the restoration and protection of waterways through a mindset shift, using a blend of education, entertainment, and citizen involvement. Activities such as waterway clean-ups and waste collection document the large volumes of plastic, glass, and fabric waste discarded, which are captured through photography.
NAAM is also exploring the potential of fabric waste patchwork, photography, and audio-visual storytelling to raise awareness and foster empathy about environmental degradation. By using popular art and culture, NAAM helps communities better understand issues like consumerism, pollution, and climate change, while offering creative solutions for positive change.
Annesofie Norn: What drew you towards using performance & visual art as a platform to spark positive change?
Dave Ojay: We were keen on the NAAM Festival’s Artistic Direction and Environmental activism to push for the planet’s water resource restoration through art advocacy. Eager to explore what our surroundings had to offer, we settled into creative performing arts after a short stint in journalism. The idea that the largest freshwater lake in Africa, on which millions depend, could be allowed to lie in its current sad state did not sit well with us.
I remained persistent in speaking up on the plight of the lake through storytelling, film, music and photography. I founded the NAAM Festival as a creative activism initiative to restore endangered lakes to their original grandeur. Creating human-size art installations using waste and capturing powerful images of pollution or heritage to provoke mindsets and influence meaningful dialogue geared towards behaviour change on key social and environmental issues of injustices.
Art and culture have a way of arousing emotions, provoking conversations and pushing people away from complacency into action in a persuasive, satirical, imaginative or disruptive way. Popular culture as seen in music, theatre, fashion, photography and storytelling helps us to see or reimagine solutions, better or worse-case scenarios that must be averted.
Annesofie Norn: What is the impact of your initiative?
Dave Ojay: This initiative seeks to raise awareness, empower local fashion designers, performing artists and innovators to turn threats into opportunities and train communities in materials retrieval to beat pollution. The initiative has seen the county government ban car washing at the lake shores and move traders away from the shoreline while ensuring there is a proper waste system around the key dilapidated beaches. Today along with partners Dunga Beach, for example, has a sustainable way of pilling and collecting waste for different purposes, making the beach cleaner. This has also helped to spark the right conversations with political office bearers in matters of climate change, promoting local/traditional/contemporary sustainable fashion and circular innovations and dialogue towards environmental citizenship breathing life into local clothing pride, upcycling and accelerating polluter pay principles.
The initiative has benefited from working with over 430 artists through 50+ events, creative residencies and street performances & installations, with over 15,000 audiences ensuring community engagements in key shoreline villages targeting over 204 fishing families/villages, as well as the NAAM Festival volunteer team (13 pax) in understanding advocacy work for climate, nature and meaningful culture.
Annesofie Norn: Can you share a couple of examples of when you experienced that your initiative made a real impact on someone?
A community member commented saying ‘You guys are really showing us how to make something from nothing. And giving waste new life. How can I support and be a part of turning threats into opportunities and would it be okay to bring you my waste fabric, bottles, glasses and plastic from home?’ Today we have over 23 members who purchase our recycled products, collect/gather waste materials and drop them at our waste-to-art studio.
“Long ago, customs and traditions regulated the time when people went to the lake and the type of equipment to be used in fishing. NAAM can bring back all that nostalgic feeling.” Prof. Raphael Kapiyo, School of Environmental Science Maseno University.
“Today East African artists have led the way in exploring the adequacy and propriety of our social legal framework in the face of increasing harmful impacts of fishing and other economic activities at the lake I applaud the #JusticeforLakeVictoria campaign artists for documenting the visual aspects of a misappropriated resource, thereby giving a voice to the voiceless’’ -
Later he also added about the NAAM initiative ‘Here is a project that is breathing life into Kenya’s Constitution, showing simple creative solutions and supporting citizens to come together through the platform and voice key issues on ecological safety which is a human right’. Dr Willy Mutunga, Former Chief Justice Kenya.
Annesofie Norn: What are you hoping that others can learn from your initiative, and what is your dream for the initiative?
Dave Ojay: We hope that people can learn about environmental citizenship and respect nature/creation in all forms and places. In Kenya since the promulgation of the new constitution, the country has developed good laws and governance structures but with poor implementation or lack of accountability. Citizen participation is encouraged by the 2010 constitution and is thus citizens' responsibility to hold duty bearers accountable. To ensure consultation in natural resource management, protecting the local textile industry, conservation and exploration through public participation before regulations are enacted into laws or public budget implementation.
We are currently exploring fabric waste patchwork, photography and audio-visual storytelling as a tool to influence, educate and spread empathy on issues of environmental degradation/injustice. To encourage the masses to make mindset or behaviour shift. Assisting the locals in understanding fast fashion, climate change and science jargon that leaves out many while comprehending the issues that affect their way of life and showcasing possible solutions through art. Environment and climate change mitigation needs good governance and accountability for there to be proper stewardship of natural resources and protection as stipulated in the bill of rights, leadership and integrity in Kenya’s constitutionalism.
Annesofie Norn: Core to UN Live is building empathy and global belonging, how do you see your initiative building on that?
We set out to bring East African people to the lake for public therapy using dialogue, arts and culture. The lake basin communities in East Africa need human dignity and NAAM Festival’s day to day aim going forward is to promote the restoration and protection of the single most unifying symbol of the East African people. The reality of Lake Victoria is not very different from that of the issues at a lake in South America or Asia and our oneness in our problems and achievements makes us stronger together to beat global issues through shared stories/narratives, knowledge or experiences.
The paradox of life within the Lake Victoria (INYANZA) basin like several locations across the world is such that, in spite of the abundant natural resources, over 60% of the population lives below the poverty line, a situation that has continued to undermine the sustainability of the natural resource base. This is the reason we seek to build empathy, a sense of belonging and non-conventional global approaches through personalised experiences and culture. The soft power of art/culture has the potential to help people imagine different possibilities, create their own solutions and stay hopeful beyond the borders while realising the power global citizens possess in coming together and belonging in a unique community of local and global challenges, while facing them with solidarity and compassion.
Annesofie Norn: At its simplest, what is your message for the world?
Dave Ojay: Understand and connect with nature. We do not want to see an environment that needs protecting.
We are grateful to the NAAM team and Dave Ojay for sharing their story with us! Learn more here.
The selection criteria for the Culture for Impact list
The selection criteria prioritize innovative cultural initiatives addressing societal challenges and fostering change:
Culture Innovation: Initiatives that demonstrate a pioneering or significant application of popular culture to address societal challenges or promote positive change.
Genre Diversity: Inclusivity across a spectrum of cultural genres, showcasing a diverse range of creative expressions and innovative approaches.
Topic Versatility: Recognition of initiatives that address a wide array of topics and issues, demonstrating the versatility and adaptability of cultural genres.
Global Inclusivity: Emphasis on initiatives that contribute to cultural impact on a global scale, promoting inclusivity and representation from various regions around the world.
Dual Impact Approach: Acknowledgment of initiatives that have achieved significant reach while also recognizing the nuanced impact of smaller-scale efforts that contribute profoundly to cultural change.