An International Traveling Exhibition on Endangered Species
by Calley O’Neill and RAMA the Elephant
Featured Artists at the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2016


All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.
--St. Francis of Assisi,  Patron saint of animals and the environment​​​

THE RAMA EXHIBITION, A JOURNEY OF ART AND SOUL FOR THE EARTH, is a ground-breaking interspecies exhibition of art and ecology celebrating biodiversity ~ the variety of life that sustains us. I was deeply honored to be chosen as the featured conservation artist for the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) World Conservation Congress 2016. The congress has been held every four years for 70 years. This was the first time it was held in the US. The Rama Exhibition World Premiere was a resounding success, reaching 10,000 conservation leaders from 192 nations.  Rama Exhibition World Premiere.


Upon seeing artist Elephant RAMA paint with innovative keeper Jeb Barsh, at the Oregon Zoo in 2006, conservation artist Calley O’Neill saw a compelling vision of an international traveling exhibition on endangered species.  In collaboration with Rama and her team, Calley is creating an immersive experience of large wildlife thangka paintings, a bioacoustical soundscape, dramatic lighting, a stained glass biodiversity chapel, wildlife prayer wheels, The Animal Wheel, and The Action Room. 

The exhibition provides a penetrating experience of the biodiversity we are losing, while pointing to the healthy future we can create. The work speaks passionately on behalf of those who cannot speak. The Rama Exhibition is a call to action that takes visitors on an important journey to feel what’s happening to life on Earth, and why it’s essential to preserve it.



Our goal is a wildly successful worldwide exhibition stirring people’s innate love of life and triggering an immediate shift in awareness. What we love, we will protect. It is our intention that visitors leave with a conviction of the heart, aware that our actions will determine the quality of life on Earth for the foreseeable future.

The Rama Exhibition is currently on display at Mokupāpapa  Discovery Center
 



DOING OUR PART TO CHANGE THE DREAM
 

Our job is to “change the dream” of the modern world.  The indigenous shamans and elders …teach that “the world is as you dream it.”  The dream we have had in the modern world, they say, is a dream of more – more factories, more companies, more freeways, more houses, more money, more buildings, more cars, more everything.  The wise indigenous elders and shamans point out that that dream is now becoming a nightmare rippling across our great Earth, and wreaking havoc.

To many it feel's like the Earth's finite resources are declining so fast that we must compete in any way and at any cost.  From that view the world is governed in a way that fewer and fewer people have a real chance to win.

Changing the dream may really mean to see the world completely differently – as indigenous people do.  They see a world that is totally sufficient, animated with spirit, intelligent, mystical, responsive, and creative—constantly generating and regenerating itself in harmony with the great diversity of resources that support and collaborate with one another through the mystery of life.  They see human beings as part of that great mystery, each human being having an infinite capacity to create, collaborate, and contribute.

 Lynne Twist, Co-Founder, Pachamama Alliance, from The Soul of Money


Indigenous wisdom explains that we live through the dream we have of our future, and we cannot change our actions and our habits without changing our dream.   What we do will always be in accordance with our dream.  The elders state that we can change and uplift the dream within one generation.  That’s really good news.  Once enough of  transform the dream to one filled with abundance, beauty, peace, and prosperity and we connect with each other, it will manifest in reality.

Increasing awareness, we can build a dream of respect, harmony and stewardship of the natural world and each other.  In this dream, there is enough great work to satisfy the gifts, talents, and passions of every person on Earth.   No one will be left out.  We will build a dream based on state-of-the-art agricultural, energy, technology and transportation systems with magnificent green buildings covered with living walls, rooftop gardens, and infrastructures teaming with native and edible trees, plants and wildlife, and have a positive impact on nature and humanity.  

This is an attainable, sustainable dream of great power and beauty that will benefit everyone.   Let’s build it.
 
  

…the job is to “change the dream” of the modern world.  The indigenous shamans and elders …teach that “the world is as you dream it.”  The dream we have had in the modern world, they say, is a dream of more – more factories, more companies, more freeways, more houses, more money, more buildings, more cars, more everything.  These wise elders and shamans point out that that dream is now becoming a nightmare rippling across our great Earth, and wreaking havoc.

It has seemed to be a world where fixed, finite resources are declining so fast that we must compete in any way and at any cost to be among the people who can survive and be on top.  From that view…we run the world in a way that fewer and fewer people have a real chance to win.

Changing the dream may really mean to see the world completely differently – as indigenous people do.  They see a world that is totally sufficient, animated with spirit, intelligent, mystical, responsive, and creative—constantly generating and regenerating itself in harmony with the great diversity of resources that support and collaborate with one another through the mystery of life.  They see human beings as part of that great mystery, each human being having an infinite capacity to create, collaborate, and contribute.



 
 



TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE RAMA EXHIBITION, VISIT THE WEBSITE