ECO_CARE meets Gabrielle Natividad

Title: ECO_CARE Practicum Reflection

By: Gabrielle Natividad

As a requirement for my program, I completed my practicum with both Giulia and Margherita at ECO_CARE. I first discovered ECO_CARE due to Margherita’s guest lecture in one of my classes. I investigated ECO_CARE more and reached out, meeting briefly with both Giulia and Margherita. While residing in three different countries, we were able to coordinate through our time zone differences and meet regularly to determine what work I would be doing. To say the least, I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with ECO_CARE and contribute to the incredibly important work that Giulia and Margherita are accomplishing.

The first assignment of my practicum was to create an audiobook version of Tarumã, Waters that Speak. It had been requested of me to somehow animate the illustrations that appear in the book. I gladly accepted but was unsure of how I would accomplish this. While it was definitely a learning process, I succeeded and made a final product for Chapter 1, as well as a brief video for the Introduction. These have been uploaded to ECO_CARE’s YouTube for viewing and listening! While Tarumã is already accessible due to being in the format of a children’s book, its accessibility has not increased and can now reach a wider audience. I am glad to be part of the dissemination of this work, as well as learning about the importance of the Tarumã River. My only hope now is that I will be able to complete the audiobook one day!

The reason that the audio book remains unfinished is due to more pressing work that needed to be done. Near the halfway point of my practicum, Margherita and Giulia asked if I would collaborate on updating the English version of the comic book about the Escazú Agreement. I gladly agreed and began another journey to learn something new. I first began with editing the text for the speech bubbles. Then, the search began for an adequate program that would be able to turn pictures into comics that not only looked good but also was easy to use. I finally found a web program that did exactly that and was able to transform everyone’s photos. From there, I was able to create each page of the comic book in Canva. By the end of my practicum, the new version is essentially complete.

I have learned a great deal working alongside Giulia and Margherita. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with them and to share my hard work with everyone. I hope that the knowledge they share in both Tarumã and the Escazú comic book is appreciated by many, as the ultimate goal of these projects is something that cannot be ignored. Engaging with, learning from, and collaborating with Indigenous voices has become incredibly important, especially in this day and age, as climate change continues.

I encourage everyone to continue to learn and advocate for what’s right.

Gaby and her dog, Luna.

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This post can be cited as: Gabrielle Natividad, ECO_CARE Practicum Reflection, July 16, 2023.

You can find Gaby's audiobook (Introduction and Chapter 1) here.