groundWork Exhibition: 25 Years of Activism for Environmental Justice

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Legacy Exhibition Opening

 

groundWork: 25 Years of Activism for Environmental Justice

 

groundwork, Friends of the Earth South Africa will celebrate its 25-year legacy in environmental justice through an exhibition, opening on Friday, 2 May 2025 at the KZNSA Gallery in Durban and ending on Sunday, 8 June 2025. There will be an extensive festival programme of events, screenings, workshops, walkabouts and ‘labtalks’ over the seven week period, showcasing a rich legacy of information and education publications, films and artefacts, reports, affidavits and a range of correspondence that vividly illustrate groundWork’s core campaigns and highlight their substantial contributions to shaping South Africa’s socio-political landscape in pursuit of climate and environmental justice. The exhibition is intended as an interactive celebration of the people that have struggled over the years making a substantive contribution to building the environmental justice movement across South Africa and beyond.

 

 

Exhibition Title:
groundWork: 25 Years of Activism for Environmental Justice

 

Venue: @KZNSA GALLERY, Glenwood, Durban

 

Period: Opening 2 May 2025 18h00; closing 8 June 2025 12h00

 

Developed through a participatory approach in collaboration with the dedicated activists and campaigners of groundWork, the exhibition offers a profound exploration of the organisation’s history, working alongside its partner communities on the fence lines, directly affected by polluting industries over the past 25 years.

Visitors are invited to delve into a comprehensive and dynamic archive featuring an array of documentary photography, evocative posters, banners, placards and t-shirts, drawn from the struggles of fence line communities directly affected by environmental injustices.

In partnership with Curator Vaughn Sadie of Light Place, the campaign and project teams of groundWork drew from groundWork’s extensive archive for the exhibition, a powerful testament to community resilience, activism, and advocacy in the backdrop of post-Apartheid South Africa. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience compelling narratives and hear the authentic voices of those passionately engaged in environmental justice, shedding light on the struggles and triumphs that have defined this journey.

groundWork’s 25th Anniversary statement: Bobby Peek Executive Director.

“In celebration of 25 years since our inception in 1999, groundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa has undertaken an archival exhibition to give expression to and share this legacy. Over this past quarter century, our resistance to environmental injustices whether driven by governments or multinational corporations has remained unflinching, from the fence lines of struggle at home, across the continent of Africa or through global movements. We stand firm in the struggle for an inclusive, free, fair and just society.

“Working in partnership with and supporting communities in South Africa and beyond, we have faced challenges that seemed impossible to overcome, yet we confronted them relentlessly and with the support of our comrades, friends, and partners in the environmental justice movement. We have also enjoyed victories, reinforcing the commitment to our vision in which:

“People are living well with each other and with the earth.

“And so we continue to mobilise with communities, encouraging sovereignty and agency in action, cultivating resilience to climate impacts, and building social power through mutual solidarity and alliances with civil society and the wider justice movement. We continue to resist dirty energy and toxic production and mobilise the community agenda for open democracy and a just transition to an egalitarian and regenerative economy.

A luta continua.”

Bobby Peek, Executive Director, groundWork Friends of the Earth South Africa

About groundWork

groundWork, Friends of the Earth South Africa

Established in 1999, groundWork Friends of the Earth South Africa is a principles driven non-profit environmental justice organisation working towards a just transition and open democracy in South Africa and beyond. Its vision is that people live well with each other and with the earth. To realise this vision, groundWork partners with affected communities to resist dirty energy and toxic production, building solidarity and local alliances that advocate for open debate and democratic control over resources such as energy, waste and health towards a viable future.

groundWork works with community organisations, peoples’ movements, and other civil society actors to hold government and corporates to account, and challenge environmental racism and injustice on the ground. It works to support and link people’s struggles to realise their constitutional right to an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being. And it helps people organise to secure their livelihoods. groundWork does this work through five key campaigns including Climate and Energy Justice, Just Transition and Coal, Waste, Environmental Health and Environmental Justice Education, supported by a Communications Campaign. Over the past 10 years groundWork has run an annual Environmental Justice Activist School for activist from across South Africa and Africa.

For media enquiries, please contact Tsepang Molefe

+27 74 405 1257

 

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