Embedded Files
Session Objective: to take stock of what we’ve learned and where the world stands in terms of achieving environmental justice
We have covered quite a lot of territory this semester...both geographically, in the range of our case studies, and theoretically, as we examined various issues and concepts.
In this week’s Learning Log, you’ll take some time to ‘connect the dots’, considering how the ‘pillars’ of environmental justice this course was organised around – distribution, recognition, and participation – shape each other and lead to the inequitable experiences we as individuals and communities have of the world. You will also continue to think about your Community Campaigns, as you prepare for your last major assignment in the course.
Map: the status of environmental inequities and collective action movements around the world with the Environmental Justice Atlas. Choose at least one case from this database to investigate in some detail for today’s Learning Log.
Read: this poem calling for action in response to corporate and political violence against the environment and Indigenous peoples. As you read, notice how themes of distribution, recognition, and participation appear in Joel’s commentary.
Joel Waters is an Oglala Lakota poet. His works have appeared in several Native American literature journals and anthologies, as is co-author of Shedding Skin: Four Sioux Poets (2008) edited by the late Adrian Louis. Joel is also a proud member of the Oak Lake Writers’ Society (OLWS).
Browse: this Zine presenting “A Strategic Framework for a Just Transition” through Kohtr’elneyh. Kohtr’elneyh means “We Remember” in Benhti Kanaga’, the language of the lower Tanana Dene peoples. We have been speaking in class about how incredibly complicated it is to meaningfully respond to the massive systems of injustice producing the environmental racism we’ve studied this semester. This publication from an Alaska Native-led coalition provides some ideas.
Optionally, you can check out more ideas and tools from the 4Rs Youth Movement and Manual for Decolonization. And remember you can add other suggested resources to our Community Bookshelf, or email additions for our Course Library!
Kohtr’elneyh - Remembering Forward - Framework for Just Transition.pdf4Rs-Framework-Final.pdfDecolonization Handbook.pdfAdd: to a new creation story with Chief Lady Bird, as she calls for people to “add mud to the Turtle’s back” in the piece below.
“We Have to be the Muskrat in a New Creation Story” (2020)
Nancy King (Potawatomi/Chippewa) is a visual artist from Mnjikaning Rama First Nation and has paternal roots in Moosedeer Point First Nation in Ontario. King signs all her artwork with her Anishinaabe name Ogimaakwebnes, which means Chief Lady Bird in the Ojibway language. She completed her BFA in 2015 in Drawing and Painting with a minor in Indigenous Visual Culture at OCAD University and has been exhibiting her work since she was fourteen years old.
Through her art practice she looks to the past (both historically and traditionally) to help her navigate her Anishinaabe identity whilst living in an urban space as well as advocate for Indigenous representation as an integral aspect of Canada’s national identity.
This piece is inspired by a Creation Story, in which Muskrat – an often overlooked animal – successfully dives to the seabed and carries mud up to place on Turtle’s back, creating Land.
“Every time we unlearn toxic behaviour...resolve our trauma...fight against systemic & environmental racism...that’s another chunk of mud on the turtle’s back.
Complete: your Learning Log for this week via the form below.
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