The Centre Cannot Hold - virtual migrants.com

Interviews

Virtual Migrants' launch a set of video interviews on YouTube from their installation "The Centre Cannot Hold", connecting racism, climate change, indigenous people's rights and global inequality. The entire set are available to view on our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/virtualmigrants . Here is a small selection:

ARUN KUNDNANI
As a keynote interview for the Part 1 phase of the project, Arun discusses the nature of racism and its need to develop work on climate issues, the failure of UK anti-racist movements and theory to connect with environmental justice, likewise the environmental movements' failure to make links with issues around racism. Currently working and writing for the Institute for Race Relations (IRR), he recently published the excellent book "The End Of Tolerance: Racism In The 21st Century". This is a short extract from an interview conducted by Kooj (Kuljit) Chuhan at the IRR on 24th September 2009, to respond to ideas in Kooj's leading paper "Tolerating Mass Murder", and was used as a keynote interview for The Centre Cannot Hold project.

GUY REID-BAILEY
Guy speaks about climate change issues from a perspective of a Jamaican living in the UK with strong ties to Jamaica. He was a central figure organising the Bristol Bus Boycott of 1963 and has been involved in supporting progressive struggles for Black people ever since, currently being vice-chair of the Black Development Agency (BDA). This is a short extract from his opening presentation for the live Virtual Migrants performance-discussion titled "Climate Racism" on 4th October 2009, at The Arnolfini gallery within 'The Centre Cannot Hold: Part 1' installation "Buy This". This was also the day the installation's premiere was launched along with the C-Words exhibition curated by Platform (London).

INA HUME
Ina speaks about climate change issues from an indigenous people's perspective with a particular focus on the Jumma peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. She is founder of Vanishing Rites, a cultural recording artist and an advocate for minority rights. This is a short extract from her interview conducted on 12th October 2009, at The Pierian Centre's conference on Indigenous People's rights.

JULIUS MURAKASASA & LUDOVIC SARONGA
Ludovic, Julius and some colleagues speak about climate change issues from a perspective of people in Tanzania, where they currently work as environmentalist educators. They were visiting the UK for 2 weeks hosted by City of Bristol College. This is a short extract from their interview conducted on 3rd October 2009, when they happened to chance upon our installation at the launch of the C-Words exhibition and decided to sit and relax and watch the screens, and then wanted to know where we got the material from. After some informal chat, they egreed to do an interview there and then as there was no other possible time with their busy schedule, so with Jaya Graves as the interviewer and Tracey Zengeni operating the mic (for the first time) we captured the moment.

CARLOS GIGOUX
Carlos speaks about climate change issues from an indigenous people's perspective with a particular focus on Tierra del Fuego. He is a researcher at the Dept of Sociology, Essex University, working on the indigenous cultures of Tierra del Fuego and Chile. This is a short extract from his interview conducted on 12th October 2009, at The Pierian Centre's conference on Indigenous People's rights.