Global water crisis. Youth in the world. Indigenous people.

The three members of Youth Media Project selected to cover the Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia, last month set their goals high. As the first-ever youth media group to cover the 8,000 global conference, Dolna Smithback, 20, Carmen Gallegos, 19, and Eliot Fisher, 26, the three didn't want to miss a golden opportunity.

But first they had to raise funds. The crew had only two weeks to raise all the money they needed for the trip (which cost about $7,000) so they could get started on their radio pieces. "It was a really fast fundraising effort," Fisher said.

The team was chosen on the basis of a portfolio of work submitted to the Council of a Parliament for the World's Religions at its headquarters in Chicago, according to the project's Web site.

Smithback and Fisher had firm ideas about they wanted to cover while at the conference. Smithback, a former Monte Del Sol High School student who served as an intern on at Democracy Now!, wanted to focus on water issues and the global water crisis. Fisher, a graduate of Santa Fe Preparatory and Wesleyan University, had his sights set on covering the youth aspect of the conference. Gallegos, a Santa Fe High graduate and Central New Mexico Community College student, wanted to see what moved her at the conference.

Finding focus

Smithback found her angle on water issues through Gallegos, who introduced her to a woman from El Salvador. The woman had forged a relationship with local politicians to help build ecofriendly parks and who was passionate about water issues.

"She's very conscious about what is happening around the world and what is causing the problem and what people are doing to try to stop it," Smithback said. "She's focused on not having water commodified and commercialized — bought and sold in bottles."

While Fisher initially wanted to focus on the youth aspect of the conference, he found that the events geared toward youth had a low turnout.

"This was the first time (The Parliament) had a separate strain of the conference devoted to youth," Fisher explained. "They were trying to get youth particularly and deal with issues youth would be interested in. We all went to see what it was like, and we were disappointed by the showing." They said about 50 people out of 8,000 participated in the youth events.

Fisher theorizes that the high cost of the conference and being segregated from the rest of the events might have turned the youth off to attending events targeted to them.

Toward the end of the conference, a film crew working on putting together a message from event-goers to be previewed at the Copenhagen climate change talks was unable to do the work. Some of the event organizers turned to the YMP students to put together a 4-minute documentary that was presented at the talks.

The crew asked two questions: "What would you like to see happen in Copenhagen?" and "How does your spiritual tradition inform your understanding of climate change?"

They conducted about 15 interviews from a diverse group of people. The experience of making the documentary became Fisher's new topic.

"By the end of the Parliament conference, people wanted to deliver a strong message," Fisher said. The message was "Here we are. We are representatives of the world's religions and we have a lot of power. We can provide you the support of the world's religious communities, but if you don't do something meaningful, we'll replace you."

Gallegos didn't have an idea in mind, but she started attending workshops hosted by indigenous people from all over the world and started on an unexpected path of self-discovery. Gallegos was born in Mexico, and that got her thinking about her roots. She went full circle from saying she could be considered an indigenous person to simply appreciating who she is.

"I'm learning about indigenous people and the topic started creating itself," Gallegos said. During a presentation by Cochiti Pueblo resident Joe Suina, a woman got up and apologized to all indigenous people on behalf of her ancestors. Gallegos said her initial reaction was to think, "I forgive you," which made her wonder about her indigenous roots.

"The whole conference, they kept asking me what tribe I belong to, and I don't know," Gallegos said. "In the end, I realized I'm not indigenous. I've never lived with (indigenous) people and I'm no different from that white woman who said, 'I'm sorry' if I take on that role. I'm Mexican and I'll stick with my identity."

Personal discovery

All three YMP students and their sponsor, John Braman, who serves Santa Fe Public Schools on the Strategic Planning Oversight Committee and works for the United World College as director of outreach programs, said they learned much on the trip.

Gallegos, who recently became a U.S. citizen, was happy to walk into an Afghan restaurant and be asked if she was an American.

"It's the first time somebody called me an American," Gallegos said with a smile. She said finally getting a passport was a huge milestone for her. "I didn't have to have the subtitle 'Mexican American' or 'immigrant' — I was American, and it was nice."

All three students said learning about such different religions was interesting. Fisher and Smithback said they didn't grow up religious and Gallegos is Catholic, but all three appreciated learning about new things.

Also, the group interviewed people who had been through extremely traumatic events. Smithback interviewed Dr. Sakena Yacoobi of Afghanistan, who has lived in a wartorn country all her life, and discussed the plight of women and children in her country.

The group interviewed "Uncle" Bob Randall, an aboriginal elder who, along with the Dali Lama, was a keynote speaker.

"It's really cool to see a man who has been through so much — his family was massacred — be so positive," Smithback said.

"The outlooks of these people has a profound effect on you," Fisher said. The group often says "channel Uncle Bob" to the others who are feeling negative. "I'm not religious and I wasn't raised in a religion, but to meet some of these people, it seemed like how it would have been meeting Gandhi. These are people who have something figured out about how to live in the world."

Group's ultimate goal

The Youth Media Project usually produces in-depth radio shows about various topics. A few years ago, Gallegos' piece about growing up Mexican in the United States was picked up by National Public Radio.

While in Australia, the group got to talking about how to describe what they do.

"It's not quite journalism — maybe it's closer to documentary," Fisher said. "We're not just going in and trying to get the story, we're trying to get a feel for who it is that we're talking to. There are much more personal and artistic goals as well as journalistic goals."

The group has programs at Santa Fe Indian School, Santa Fe High School and Monte del Sol Charter School. Members are hoping to start a new program at Capital High soon and are always looking for new people to get involved.

For more information and to see an updated schedule of radio broadcasts on the Melbourne topics, visit www.youthmediaproject.org.

Contact Ana Maria Trujillo at 986-3084 or atrujillo@sfnewmexican.com.