NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO WEATHER
Into the Tides of Memory: Exploration, Ancestral Knowledge, and the Fight for the World’s Reefs
Join The Explorers Club and EC50 honoree Dr. Paige West to learn about the intersection between reef conservation and indigenous knowledge in the pacific.
From reef passes and mangrove channels to ceremonial grounds and village councils, this talk follows a long-term expedition into the living seascapes of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, where Indigenous science and ancestral law guide marine stewardship. Along the way, we encounter stone fish traps, sacred reefs, and communities rebuilding ecological resilience by reweaving culture, kinship, and conservation—offering a radically different vision of what exploration and discovery can mean in the 21st century. This lecture by Professor Paige West (EC 50 2021 and longtime EC member) brings to life contemporary conservation and exploration.
This in-person event at the Explorers Club Headquarters will include an audience Q&A.
RESERVATIONS
This will be an in-person lecture at Explorers Club Headquarters.
In-person tickets are $20 for Members, and $35 for the General Public.
Check-in will begin at 6:00 pm, with a beer and wine reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm
Paige West
Dr. Paige West is the Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology at Barnard College and Columbia University and a Guggenheim Fellow. For nearly three decades, she has worked in Papua New Guinea, spending more than ten years of her life in the field alongside local communities. Her research explores how people understand, value, and live with the natural world—bringing together Indigenous knowledge, environmental science, and global debates about conservation and development. For two decades, she has worked in equal partnership with Indigenous colleagues to understand and revitalize local biodiversity connected traditions.
This work traces the human stories behind biodiversity, from the creation of nature-based commodities to the cultural meanings landscapes hold for both Indigenous peoples and scientists. Today, the research focuses on one of the most urgent challenges of our time: how people live in and with a changing climate. Dr. West and her colleagues focus on how communities facing climate change imagine the future, relocate when necessary, and rebuild meaningful lives in new places.
Dr. West is the author of three books and the editor of five others, and she has published widely on environmental and social change. She founded the journal Environment and Society: Advances in Research and served as its editor for ten years. Her book Dispossession and the Environment received the 2017 Columbia University Press Distinguished Book Award.
Beyond academia, Dr. West is deeply committed to building research and education from the ground up. She co-founded the Papua New Guinea Institute of Biological Research, which supports locally led scientific research, and the Roviana Solwara Skul, a school dedicated to teaching at the intersection of Indigenous knowledge and Western science.
