Keynote Speakers

Millicent Barty

Kastom Keepers Network

Harnessing Tradition and Innovation for Resilient Communities and Sustainable Futures.

Millicent is a social entrepreneur, designer and advocate for innovation and entrepreneurship across the Pacific. Millicent has founded Kastom Keepers Network, which gathers kastom stories, as well as other insights of Indigenous elders and practitioners, to contribute to policy making. The idea here is to establish Kloud Islands, a digital oral-history platform that will preserve and protect kastom stories and increase access to them. This initiative is directly created in response to climate change and the impact that this is having on indigenous history, knowledge and memory in Melanesia.
Among other roles, Millicent is Chairwoman of the East Makira Women’s Association (Solomon Islands); Advisor, The Queen’s Commonwealth Trust; and Board Trustee, Solomon Islands Tourism Infrastructure Development Fund (Incorporated). She was formerly Earth Company’s Impact Heroes Class of 2024; Emerson Collective Fellow, 2023; Obama Scholar, 2021-2022; and Queens Young Leader, 2018.
Her talk at DevNet2024 will be focused upon the Kastom Keepers Kloud initiative.