The Cost of Silence: Indigenous Music and the Call for Climate Justice | SASAL

​A powerful cultural event by Spring of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SASAL) that amplifies indigenous voices led by By Spring of the Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SASAL)through music, storytelling, and performance to spotlight the urgent realities of climate injustice. It creates a platform where art becomes advocacy, inspiring collective action to protect communities and ecosystems on the frontline of the climate crisis.

​⭐️ SPEAKERS FEATURED:

• ​Manasiti Omar

• ​Amos Leshao Sopia

• ​​Mercy Moinan Nyerere

​​💬 EVENT DESCRIPTION:

​This program is a powerful fusion of indigenous Maasai music, storytelling, and cultural performance that brings visibility to the often-overlooked impacts of climate loss and damage on pastoralist communities in Kenya. Led by youth from SASAL, a women- and youth-led indigenous organization, the performance uses traditional music—such as the widely recognized climate justice song Esipata Oloingange—to translate lived realities into art that moves hearts and minds.

​The performance creates an immersive, emotional, and reflective space where audiences can witness how climate change has disrupted ancestral lands, livelihoods, and cultural identity. At the same time, it offers a vision of resilience and hope through indigenous knowledge, creativity, and community-led solutions.

​By blending live song, spoken word, and traditional sounds, this activation centers frontline voices in global climate conversations and calls for urgent, just action on loss and damage, particularly for indigenous peoples who contribute the least to the crisis but suffer the most.

​This is not just a performance—it is a cultural call to action, a demand for climate justice, and an invitation to honor the wisdom, dignity, and leadership of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis.