Earth to Humans: Folklore, the shared human experience
My ancestry traces back to Ireland, and learning about the folklore that would have shaped the way that my great grandparents, great great grand parents and all the Mulvanys before me would have related to nature and the places around them has been a main feature of my past month in the country. I wanted to delve deeper into the folklore that the country is famous for, so spoke to Bairbre Ní Fhloinn, professor of folklore at Dublin University, about how it has framed humankind and our relationship to nature, and how it links together all humanity. There's also lots of cool stories about fairies and halloween! Listen here.
I started my conservation career as a researcher/author for the Arkive online natural world encyclopedia, before managing the Wildscreen Exchange project which gives 350+ organisations across the world access to free photographs and videos for their communications. From working on this project, I developed a keen interest in conservation communications and began researching impact and technique.
I also ran the public section of the Wildscreen Festival, Witness the Wild, which is an event programme that includes a travelling bicycle-powered wildlife film cinema, the world's largest recycled and recyclable photography exhibition, and a nature-themed street art gallery. Since then, I have been running my own conservation communications business, Song and Dance Communications, but split my time 50/50 between this and field work, which mostly centres around ecosystem restoration and short-term contracts in the ecotourism industry. I also produce a seldom updated blog, which I hope to spend more time on at some point in the not-too-distant future!
