In Conversation with Hussain Aga Khan and Dax Dasilva

Join us for a conversation between Hussain Aga Khan, Founder, Focused on Nature and Dax Dasilva, Founder, Age of Union, as they discuss their passion for conservation, as well as share their experiences around their mission to inspire and educate audiences and to support global conservation efforts. 

Through the power of art, Age of Union and Focused on Nature are partnering to showcase the beauty and splendour of our oceans to raise awareness of the urgency and necessity to protect and conserve our natural heritage and resources. 

Hussain Aga Khan’s underwater photography exhibition, “Focused on Nature”, is currently installed at the Age of Union Centre until March 2024.

The 45-minute talk will be followed up by a 15-minute Q & A.

Refreshments will be served, and guests will be invited to tour the Centre throughout the evening.

SPEAKERS

Hussain Aga Khan developed a keen interest in conservation at a young age and began scuba diving at 14. He frequently travelled to the tropics after high school and started taking photographs of fauna and flora on a trip to the Brazilian Amazon in 1996.

Through numerous exhibitions, publications and talks, he has created a global platform to raise awareness and inspire and educate audiences to protect and conserve the most threatened places and species on our planet. His exhibitions have been held in Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, Kenya, Monaco, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. 

He chairs the board of the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat, serves on the board of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and is a member of the Aga Khan Development Network’s Environment and Climate Committee. He is also a board member of Mission Blue, the Shark Conservation Fund, as well as the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation’s Council for Hope.

Dax Dasilva is the Founder of Age of Union and Founder and Executive Chair of tech company Lightspeed Commerce. With its debut as a book in 2019 and its evolution into an environmental alliance in 2021, Age of Union brings together leadership, culture, spirituality, and environmental guardianship to support and inspire the impactful changemakers that our world needs now.

DETAILS

🗓 Thursday, February 1, 2024, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

🎤 Talk in English only

📍 7049 Rue St. Urbain, Montréal, Québec

🎟 Free participation (Reservation required as there are only 70 spots available)

ABOUT FOCUSED ON NATURE

Focused on Nature (FON) was established by Hussain Aga Khan in 2014 to support global conservation, advocacy and research efforts in partnership with some of the world’s leading conservation organizations as well as significant grassroots initiatives.

Projects are handpicked and vetted through a process of consultation with FON’s expert and committed advisors. FON funding, channelled towards the conservation of sharks, mobulids, cetaceans, sea turtles, African elephants and rhinoceroses, rainforests and apes, leads to an immediate and significant impact on the protection and conservation of these species and ecosystems.

Hussain’s passion for wildlife photography is at the heart of FON, which now holds extensive archives accumulated over nearly three decades from his marine and terrestrial expeditions. FON uses the photographic medium to communicate with diverse audiences and to raise awareness around the necessity and urgency to protect and conserve fragile and threatened ecosystems around the world.

Exhibitions, public screenings, illustrated talks, books, and limited-edition print sales are all used to inspire people to fall in love with nature, encourage them to change their consumption behaviours and motivate them to educate others.

“FON is like a dream for me. There is freedom in the work, passion, joy, discovery, a constant renewal of the bonds of friendship and an overarching, unifying goal… FON and my photography and those combined feel like my mission in life.” – Hussain Aga Khan 

To learn more, visit https://focusedonnature.org/home.php