When the flamingos broke into a dance of death: A community reading on environmental grief

The Book: Go Go Flamingo

On June 8, the day we celebrate as World Oceans Day, a group of thoughtful, warm and curious individuals gathered - some in silence, some in conversation - for a collective reading experience of the book “Go Go Flamingo” written by Devashish Makhija and illustrated by Priya Kuriyan.

The book just did not talk about the environment - it showed us page by page, the cost of our convenience in a haunting style. We witnessed the story of flamingos slowly getting entangled in human trash - not knowing that this would be their last flight.

Our Facilitators

Our facilitators for the reading session were Ruhie and Sarita - two active voices in the climate action and environment space who have worked in this area for more than a decade. They introduced themselves and the work they have done in the space, and helped us set the intention for the reading.

A pack of flamingos arrives

A pack of flamingos just arrived - perhaps as a part of their usual migration routine - by the sea. But this time around, they found the water is not blue. The construction and buildings in the background told the tale of ‘development’ the place has witnessed. The rest of the story showed us a glimpse of the cost of this ‘development’ other beings have to pay.

Illustrated Visual Grief

The book carried images of ‘actual’ everyday things which we discard as trash. The illustrations of flamingos dancing away trapped in this trash is very grim and dark. Pipes wrapped around necks, cassette tapes entangling them and wires like snakes slithering across their bodies seemed very visceral. One participant noted, “I feel like they can’t breathe.” Another saw ‘a conference tag,’ around their neck as a symbol perhaps of our own performative awareness and ignorance to the impact of our actions.

Each image hit differently, but powerfully. By the end, the artwork became not just a visual narrative but a collective emotional experience.

The final flourish of the flamingos: A page from the book

Our Discussions

Throughout the reading, we discussed and talked about us and our choices. We shared how our choices have dirtied and diminished the beaches (and other beautiful spaces) which were once pristine. We also went deeper and questioned the system behind it all - which forces us to make these choices.

We talked about:

The deliberate shortening of product life cycles to drive up our consumption.
How unhealthy food is promoted (shiny packaging) and how that leads to dependency on medication. This is the food-pharma nexus where both benefit at our cost and at the cost to our environment.
How cheap goods often hide massive environmental costs and give us the illusion of ‘cost effectiveness’

We also briefly touched on the alternative economic models that could prioritise ecological wellbeing - the Green GDP and Doughnut Economics.

Action

Can individual action make an impact on this overwhelming problem of environmental degradation we face today? Perhaps change adopted by one inspires change in others - and perhaps this is the only way we can build a chain of actions that help preserve our environment for our furture generations.

This reading made our hearts heavy with grief. Perhaps action is the only way we can make it lighter.

CBA community witnessing the dance of death

This reading was facilitated by Ruhie and Sarita Fernandes

You can register for our upcoming readings here