Lectures and Keynotes
Waypoint Namibia: Big Walls, Desert Mirages, and Perseverance in the Darmaland and Beyond.
(Ongoing)
Vertical Ethiopia: Possibility, Environment, and Adventure in the Horn of Africa.
(Ongoing)
Coffee: Authentic Ethiopia: Go Local, Go to Origin
(Coming in October 2010, Learn more at www.originpointpress.com)
Schedule an Event
Please read below for more information on available lectures. To schedule a show, contact Majka at mb@majkaburhardt.com. Thirty-minute promo DVD's are also availble upon request, or you can watch a trailer for one of Majka's shows here.
Waypoint Namibia: Big Walls, Desert Mirages, and Perseverance in the Darmaland and Beyond.
Can climbing give you access to understanding outside of the vertical? What if you have to go to Namibia to find out? In May, 2009, Majka Burhardt led a small team of explorers into a landscape of translucent scorpions, laser sharp granite cracks, 1.7 meter-long cobra tracks, and the Himba people--one of the last great Southern African pastoral tribes, all in the name of first ascents and cultural connection.
Climbers get dirty; they hike, carry heavy packs, and commit to landscape in a way that is understood by people who have to do the same to forge a life. Except climbers do it with thousands of dollars with of gear. They do it with the fewest material possessions around.
Namibia is Africa’s newest independent country and was the first country in the world to mandate conservation in its constitution. As one of the least populated countries in the world, and one of the most progressive in Africa, Namibia combines peace, stability, and accessibility with rugged wildness and remoteness. In the past decade, Namibia has also developed a globally renowned system for resource management that pairs the conservation of natural lands with the economic stability of rural communities. How does adventure complement, and conflict with, environmental understanding? Majka Burhardt shares her story of connection with a country in Africa that impacts policy and economics from Mongolia to the United States.
Majka has spent a decade translating her pursuits of adventure to the broader world. To do this, she keeps taking climbing to unlikely places, and creating an experience beyond the climbing. Majka calls it making adventure "additive": when adventure goes beyond exploration and toward cultural and environmental connection. Is it too much? Is it not enough? Find out what Namibia taught her as an answer.
Please Read More About Namibia Here.
Vertical Ethiopia: Possibility, Environment, and Adventure in the Horn of Africa.
In March 2007, Majka Burhardt led a team of four women on an expedition to northern Ethiopia to climb virgin sandstone towers in a region of the world known primarily for its history of drought, famine, and war. Her adventures and the people, politics, and potential of Ethiopia are chronicled in her book Vertical Ethiopia: Climbing Towards Possibility in the Horn of Africa, from Shama Publishing. Vertical Ethiopia is a large-format coffee table book featuring Gabe Rogel's stunning imagery and a series of vignettes that together reveal what it means to climb, to travel, and to explore.
In conjunction with the publication of Vertical Ethiopia, Majka has spoken to over forty-five audiences throughout the United States and Canada since February 2008. From the Seattle IMAX Theater, to a small independent book store in Miami Beach, from crowds of 30-300, her talks have run the gamut. Majka's presentations combine a slideshow filled with images of climbing, culture, and the immense African landscape with a narrative behind the images. As a speaker, she is interested in exploring new ways of understanding Ethiopia in the midst of the current global landscape where religion, politics, and landscape continually interact and react. Majka explored Ethiopia while establishing first ascents on 600’ sandstone towers. Her presentation explores Ethiopia at its multiple points of intersection with the rest of the world.
Vertical Ethiopia is a unique collaboration with an Ethiopian publishing company, Shama, a company committed to presenting Africa and Ethiopia in a more positive and realistic light. Through working with Shama, Majka learned to navigate the Ethiopian press rules in a country that has been called one of the worst in the world for freedom of the written word. In her presentation, Majka shares the full story of her experience—discussing various obstacles the Ethiopian press rules presented to portraying the current military offensive towards Eritrea, recent kidnappings, and the Ethiopian anti-violence movement. Thus, Vertical Ethiopia is more than a story about Ethiopia. It is a story about the making of an Ethiopian product at a time when the nation is on the brink of becoming a global industrial player while trudging through the vestiges of its communist and corrupt past.
Majka offers a variety of presentation lengths and focus points to suit the needs of a particular audience or event, from climbing exploration, to Ethiopia’s environmental initiatives and potential, to women’s adventure, to the current geopolitical state of the Horn of Africa, and Africa’s emergence from a western imagination.
Please Read More about Vertical Ethiopia Here.
Thanks to the following companies for sponsoring the Vertical Ethiopia Tour:
