Institute For A New Political Cosmology

04/11/2021

Congratulations to our colleagues Craig Foster and Pippa Ehrlich for winning the BAFTA for Best Documentary for their exceptional film, My Octopus Teacher. We will be tuning in to the 2021 Oscars on April 25th to see if they win this award too!

My Octopus Teacher picks up the Documentary BAFTA with all of her arms!

03/18/2021

A massive congratulations to Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, Craig Foster, and the rest of the Sea Change Project team for their nomination for best documentary for the 93rd Oscar Awards!

In light of this celebration, we are sharing this clip of an interview that took place during one of the Institute team’s research trips. Fun fact, Dr. Herman was also involved in briefing the Hokulea Crew about South Africa before their world wide Mālama Honua voyage. During their journey they dove with Craig Foster and toured False Bay one of Mission Blue’s Hope Spots among many other activities.

“Louis G. Herman, overlooking False Bay South Africa, during the making of the Netflix original film My Octopus Teacher. Louis was interviewed by naturalist and filmmaker Craig Foster and now Oscar nominated film director Pippa Erlich. Issues raised include: Craig’s personal transformation, wilderness rapture, and recovering an Earth-based politics.”

Louis G. Herman, Director of the Institute for a New Political Cosmology interviewed in Capetown, South Africa by wilderness filmmaker Craig Foster, Director...

01/28/2021

Michaela Goade won the Randolph Caldecott Medal for best children's picture story for the book "We Are Water Protectors." It was written by Carole Lindstrom and is a call for environmental protection.

12/18/2020

“This abundance of berries feels like a pure gift from the land. I have not earned, paid for, nor labored for them. There is no mathematics of worthiness that reckons I deserve them in any way. And yet here they are—along with the sun and the air and the birds and the rain, gathering in the towers of cumulonimbi. You could call them natural resources or ecosystem services, but the Robins and I know them as gifts. We both sing gratitude with our mouths full.”

As Robin Wall Kimmerer harvests serviceberries alongside the birds, she considers the ethic of reciprocity that lies at the heart of the gift economy.

12/05/2020

11/25/2020

A new film follows food activists seeking to restore salmon, buffalo, and the nourishing legacy of Native cultures.

11/25/2020

09/22/2020

A peaceful moment in nature.

09/15/2020

A fabulous review of My Octopus Teacher with some fabulous behind the scenes photography and commentary from friend to the Institute, Craig Foster. Have you seen the film yet?

“And what does Craig hope viewers will learn from the documentary?

He said: ‘Mostly, what I hope the viewers will get out of it... she taught me that we are inseparable from nature.

'We as human beings are completely part of nature, we are designed and made wild.

'We are still, just underneath our skin, completely connected to the wild environment. And we are totally reliant on the natural system for every single breath we take, for every mouthful of food we put in our stomachs.”

My Octopus Teacher is a fascinating account of how filmmaker Craig Foster formed a bond during daily swims with an octopus living in a kelp forest off the 'Cape of Storms' in South Africa.

09/13/2020

San bushmen painting from the Ndedema Gorge South Africa, depicting the shamanic attunement to the natural world we so urgently need to recover.