The power of art to help solve problems like climate change

Danielle Khan Da Silva believes in the power of art to help solve even some of Earth’s most intractable problems, like climate change. 

Art has the power to shake up dangerous established views and offer different, more hopeful perspectives for the future, she maintains.

“Artists are here to cause revolution,” said Da Silva, a Canadian artist celebrated for her photography, filmmaking, and writing. “They have the ability to take people into different worlds… We really need to give people tangible solutions, again, through story, through art.”

Da Silva was recently added to the Global Landscape Forum’s (GLF) annual list of women driving meaningful and transformative changes across communities, the environment, and social justice.

The list, published for the sixth year in a row, celebrates eight women with “a new vision for Earth in 2025,” according to a GLF press release. Their commitment spans different areas, from science and Indigenous rights to policy-making and art across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Da Silva, who is described in the citation as an award-winning queer South Asian-Portuguese intersectional conservationist, is known for her artistic endeavours. She is also a National Geographic Explorer, and founder and executive director of Photographer Without Borders, a global community promoting ethical storytelling. She hosts mentorship programs and workshops, and was also named a Canadian Top 30 Under 30 Sustainable Leader.

Da Silva's work at the crossroads of art and social activism stems from her early desire to understand the world's challenges and the pain inflicted on marginalized communities by centuries of colonialism.

“In order to interact with the world and make an impact, I had to understand more about it before I did that. So, just really learning about the world, first understanding more about what are the issues that we face as humanity,” she said.

Da Silva grew up in a multicultural family. Her mother is Portuguese and raised as a Catholic, her British-Indian father was raised in England and her grandparents were Muslim. That cultural mix allowed her to see the “complexity around my identity from an early age.” She traveled to India and Portugal to uncover more of her roots, an inner journey that has proved central to her future artistic creations.

The concept of intersectional conservation is central to her work. It acts as a framework that enables her to connect all aspects of the interaction between human and non-human worlds, such as the natural elements, animals, and plants. It offers a more nuanced and comprehensive vision of the world than that dictated by the dominant culture.

“It means not looking at conservation in terms of a vacuum, not looking at it as separate from culture, stewardship, language, gender, all of these things,” she said. In the public discourse, colonialism still permeates the idea of “conservation” and perpetuates cultural segregation and exploitation.

“There's a lot of land theft, genocide, and dispossession that still continues to this day in the name of conservation. In my storytelling, I try as much as possible to see things through a more decolonized lens.”

In her documentaries and films, such as Nuraga Bhumi from last year, which tells the story of the Batak and their efforts to preserve the Sumatran tigers in Indonesia, Indigenous communities are portrayed as the protectors of wildlife and habitats, and the film illustrates how their knowledge integrates sustainable land use, cultural practices, and spiritual values. Da Silva is currently working on a similar project, The Village under the Sea, focusing on the Coast Salish peoples and their relationship with orca whales.

Through these stories, Da Silva aims to open “a door for people to see that there's much more than we know,” she said.  “There's more magic in the world than we can imagine, and we just need to be able to see it.” 

The core value of her artistic and journalistic practice is to promote more ethical storytelling. She takes a different approach to stories that aims to support and raise Indigenous voices without being intrusive and exploitative. “When I approach these stories, I'm very careful about what am I showcasing.”

“Journalism and photojournalism have tended to be very extractive and exploitative,” she said. “Ethical storytelling really is a call to be more mindful, decolonize, and move away from extractive and manipulative interactions.”