Associated Students of the University of Redlands (ASUR) Convocations and Lectures and Kappa Pi Zeta hosted marine biologist and photojournalist Cristina Mittermeier in the Orton Center.
In her talk, “Standing on the Water’s Edge,” Mittermeier shared how her work has taken her around the world and taught her about the power of water––both its ability to give life when respected and to destroy when misused. She recounted her time spent with the Kayapó people in the Amazon––a society that relied on their local waterway to survive and faced the threat of a massive new dam. In British Columbia, she witnessed First Nations people protecting their sacred headwaters, and in Hawaii, a new community of indigenous peoples seeking to reclaim their connection to the sea. She learned that one concept bound these three disparate communities together: “enoughness”––or taking only that which one needs.
For the past 25 years, Mittermeier’s work has centered on the delicate balance between human well-being and healthy ecosystems and has been published in prestigious scientific publications including National Geographic and Science and Nature. She was recently recognized as one of the World’s Top 40 Most Influential Outdoor Photographers by Outdoor Magazine and is the recipient of the 2016 Imaging Alliance “Photographers Who Give Back” Award. She is also the founder and president of SeaLegacy, a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the cause of ocean conservation through visual storytelling and photography.