Cacao & Climate Change Film Screening: Re-Imagining Economy in Times of Climate Crisis

Hartwick College will host a special screening of the short film “Cacao & Climate Change” on Thursday, Nov. 20, at 4 p.m. in Shineman Chapel House, accompanied by a cacao ceremony, a panel discussion and a community reflection circle.

The program begins with Ceremony as Witness, a heart-opening gathering rooted in ritual and storytelling and guided by ceremonialist and storyteller Daniela Miranda (Antüpewma), whose work is rooted in her Mapuche lineage. A cacao ceremony and grounding meditation will provide participants with an embodied entry into dialogue and a renewed sense of connection to one another and the Earth.

Following the ceremony, attendees will view the 12-minute documentary “Cacao & Climate Change,” which examines climate disruption, ancestral stewardship and sacred relationships with land. The screening will be followed by a panel discussion and talk-back featuring Miranda, Esmilda Abreu, a Latine scholar and contemplative researcher in humanistic management, and Manari Ushigua, leader of the Sapara Nation of Ecuador, who will join via livestream.

Conversation themes will include the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Indigenous communities, regenerative economies rooted in ancestral wisdom, ritual as a knowledge system, storytelling as activism and healing, and ways communities can reconnect with natural wisdom to envision more sustainable futures. Together, participants will witness, listen and imagine creative pathways toward justice.

The event coincides with the exhibition “Whispers of the Amazon: Last Voices of the Sapara Nation,” on display beginning Nov. 19 in the Harry Bradshaw Matthews Belonging Center and the Stevens-German Library. Visitors are encouraged to explore the exhibition either before or after the screening and discussion.

This program is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to the Harry Bradshaw Matthews Belonging Center at [email protected] or 607-431-4373.