World-renowned explorer to speak at Forward Together Lecture

Posted: January 23, 2015 2:30 p.m.

Dr. Wade Davis, University of British Columbia professor, ethnographer, explorer, writer and filmmaker Photo: Martin Dee

World-renowned ethnographer, explorer, writer and filmmaker Dr. Wade Davis is the featured speaker at the 2015 Forward Together Lecture at the University of Regina.

The lecture is entitled “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in a Modern World.” Dr. Davis will explore this question and celebrate the wisdom of the world’s indigenous cultures in a stunning visual journey through Polynesia, the Amazon, the Andes, Australia, Nepal and Borneo.  

“Cultural survival is not about preservation, sequestering indigenous peoples in enclaves like some sort of zoological specimens,” says Dr. Davis in his book The Wayfinders.  “Change itself does not destroy a culture. All societies are constantly evolving.”  

The Harvard-educated Dr. Davis served as Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society (NGS) between 1999 and 2003, and has been named by the NGS as one of the Explorers of the Millennium. He is the author of nearly 20 books, and his photographs have appeared in more than 100 books, magazines, journals and newspapers, including National Geographic and Time.   He is currently a professor of anthropology and the BC Leadership Chair in Cultures and Ecosystems at Risk at the University of British Columbia.

“Dr. Davis is one of Canada’s most distinguished and versatile scholars, and it is an honour to host him on our campus,” says Dr. Vianne Timmons, University of Regina President and Vice-Chancellor. “His respect and advocacy for indigenous cultures and ways of knowing are inspiring, and deliver a strong and eloquent message that traditional knowledge must not be obliterated or forgotten, but instead embraced and made an integral part of our collective future.”  

Dr. Davis’ lecture will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 27 in the University of Regina’s Education Auditorium.  Complimentary parking for the public will be available in Lots 13M and 14M.