WETSOUND is an artistic radio action that sonified the Venice Agreement for Peatlands Global Workshop in the papyrus peatlands of Nam Lolwe / Lake Victoria, 2-5 June 2026 – a four-day gathering of peatland custodians from around the world. A co-production by The Venice Agreement for Peatlands, Ecofinder Kenya, Sensing Peat/The Michael Succow Foundation, The Institute for Multispecies Singing, pantea, Uhenga, Mama Grace Onyango Cultural and Social Center and Radio Nam Lolwe. 

The WETSOUND Live Radio show interweaves swamp stories, lake songs, fisherfolk, tales by custodians, scientists, artists, community workers of wetlands, sound art, poetry, and music with local multi-species sound worlds from Dunga Swamp. The live mobile radio was moderated by the Institute for Multispecies Singing (Yasmeen Al Qaisi) with Ecofinder Kenya, Sensing Peat and pantea. the live radio show features:

Peatland custodians gathering in Kisumu for the Venice Agreement on Peatlands celebrating the last day of the convergences of streams from different peatlands of planet Earth: Listening to the wounded and wondrous universes of swamps, WETSOUND connects struggles across these wet ecosystems for imagining otherwise. Voicings from the complex entanglements of peatland justice with major climate and social urgencies of our time, radio waves open wet pathways between memory, future, local and planetary.

The entire radio show is coated in the soundscapes of Dunga Swamp from an installed live streambox, work by sound art collaborative Associació So and Soundcamp Cooperative, which has remained with the custodians of Dunga Swamp, facilitated by pantea and her research into wetlands as sites of social, biological, and epistemic diversity.

Richard Ojijo and opens with a description of the surroundings of Dunga Swamp, together with Ibrahim Onyango Ogolla from Dunga Boardwalk, share the challenges of different species, outstanding feminist Demere Kitunga talks about intersections between gender and generation in conservation, generation discussion continues by community organizer and conservationist from Dunga Ms. Millicent Olal-Muchilwa who appears throughout the show mentioning policies, community, accessibility bridging for hearing impaired people and importance of elderly; Rolliance Rayvin expresses the necessity of the specificity of peatlands in policy making; Antonieta Eguren Ibacache, Nicole Püschel Hoeneisen and David Santiago Rocha Cárdenas discuss about Chilean and Colombian peatland challenges,the two scientists Anne Aol and Katharina Saur on specificity of tropical peats, peat potential of the area around Dunga, coring and vegetation identification together with the local community of Kusa, the Lake Victoria basin; the pan African feminist ancestry documentation group Uhenga, represented by Demere Kitunga from Dar es Salaam, sound composition about wetland ecologies of the Asu region in the northern highlands of Tanzania as sites of survival, epistemic resistance, and intergenerational knowledge production. 

Bella Rukawavu Ntagugura, Coordinator, Agaseke Center for Women Economic Empowerment and Cultural/ Eco Tourism from Kigali, Rwanda talks about her work with wetlands in Rwanda, Rogers Musiitwa shares about his work with women groups from Uganda’s Kibinge Youth-Led Development Initiative, Mercy Omungo talks about the mentorship of Ecofinder in Kisumu and the sensitisation of youth in relation to the environment, health, gender and economical alternative models followed by the children’s interpretation Choral Verse, a poem is by Evans Onduto Midika and Leonard Akwany; Nathan Okello held a thoroughly researched crash-course on the importance of peatlands; performative voice. 

Music and stories from the WETSOUND Radio Workshop hosted at Board Walk in Dunga Swamp held by The Institute for Multispecies Singing, pantea and Samora Francis Umungo which brought together Kisumu and Dunga conservation workers, musicians and artists from Mama Grace Onyango Cultural and Social Center, fisherpeople and guides at the Boardwalk Dunga, young journalists training at Nam Lolwe Radio and Nyalenda Young Turks CBO, seagal / Mama Grace, Rolliance Rayvin, Richard Ojijo, otos jalambwel aka jlm msc, Nicholas aka kokinya msc, Nathan Okello, Katharina Saur, Samora, Evans Midika, Erick, Denzel Washington, Bosilyn Kheed; a very moving poem on ecology of motherhood by Frankline Kobe and another poem from Timothy Olanda Mboya; world known birder Judith Mirembe, protector of Shoebill, interviews young wetland protectors Jasper and Tankian; Nyokabi Kariũki shared from Wangari’s Maathai biography; 

Ms. Millicent, in her magnificent interpretation of a theater- workshop prompt by Samora during the VA visit of the Boardwalk, alternated by a welcoming report by Kenedy Orowe, one of the crucial protectors of Dunga Swamp. Samora has the closing word.

WETSOUND is a work by Yasmeen Al-Qaisi (Institute for Multispecies Singing), Suza Husse (Sensing Peat/Michael Succow Foundation), pantea, Erick Okoth Hawi, Samora Francis Umungo and Leonard Akwany (Ecofinder Kenya), and The Venice Agreement on Peatlands in collaboration with Radio Nam Lolwe 97.3 FM Kisumu and Mama Grace Onyango Cultural and Social Center and Associació So, Soundcamp Cooperative.

With contributions by Anne Aol, Associació So, Bella Rukawavu Ntagugura, Bosilyn Kheed, Caroline Vitzhum, Cisca Devereux, Demere Kitunga, Denzel Washington, Erick Okoth Hawi, Evans Onduto Midika, Ibrahim Onyango Ogolla, Judith Mirembe with Jasper and Tankian, Katharina Saur, Kibinge Youth-Led Development Initiative, Leonard Akwany, Mercy Omungo, Millicent Olal-Muchilwa, Nathan Okello, Nicholas aka kokinya msc, Nyalenda Young Turks CBO, Nyokabi Kariũki, otos jalambwel aka jlm msc, pantea, Radio Nam Lolwe, Richard Ojijo, Rogers Musiitwa, Rolliance Rayvin, Samora Francis Umungo, seagal / Mama Grace, Soundcamp Cooperative, Suza Husse, Uhenga, Yasmeen Al-Qaisi 

WETSOUND is a co-production by Ecofinder Kenya, Sensing Peat/The Michael Succow Foundation, The Institute for Multispecies Singing, pantea, Uhenga, Mama Grace Onyango Cultural and Social Center and Radio Nam Lolwe. Funded by Andrea von Braun Foundation. 

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Sounds, songs, and radio art from a variety of contributors. Tune in for something you've never heard before with familiar classics and transmission art mixed in.