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Session Objective: to challenge traditional conceptions of power that undermine the voices of underrepresented actors
This week, we launch Unit 3 and the course’s consideration of procedural (rather than distributive) justice. In this third unit, we will be purposefully paying attention to those who are underrepresented in environmental decision-making: among them, Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour, womxn, queer communities, (dis)abled people, youth, future generations, non-human animals, and nature as a whole.
Radical Recognition is not simply about superficially noticing nontraditional actors or tokenising marginalised communities. It’s about truly acknowledging and valuing a wide variety of agents. This includes appreciating the power they hold, considering how marginalised actors express themselves through non-traditional agency.
Environmental justice and the animal rights movement owe a great deal to critical disability studies, gender studies and queer theory, and critical race theory. These fields have examined, critiqued, and expanded mainstream Western academic ideas about power, capacity, and agency. In class, we will consider about some of the ways future generations, non-human animals, and other underrepresented stakeholders ‘speak’ to us – and how we can better learn to listen.
Launch: Unit 3 by watching Becca’s thematic overview below.
Unit 3 Kickoff (click to read transcript)
Distribution matters. The way that communities around the world are exposed to risk and have access to resources is a huge part of environmental justice. But it’s just one part. We started this class by exploring systemic injustice - and quickly saw that it isn’t just ‘who has what now’ that matters, but much larger issues of how our institutions are set up and function. Environmental justice isn’t just about making sure everyone has ‘their fair share’. It’s also about considering who gets to decide what’s fair, and how we make those decisions. These are questions of procedural justice. In Unit 4, we’ll look carefully at processes of environmental policymaking. Before diving into the political processes, though, we want to spend some time paying attention to who we even consider in these conversations - and who we might be leaving out.
There are a lot of underrepresented human groups in today’s world: among them, Black people, Indigenous Nations, Persons of Colour, womxn, queer communities, disabled people, youth, and the elderly. Climate activists often draw our attention to future generations - a group of humans who cannot speak for themselves, but to whom many of us feel a connection and obligation. Many cultural heritages also value and recognise ancestors and those who have passed on. But beyond these human communities...what about non-human animals, as well as ecosystems and nature as a whole? During Unit 3 on Radical Recognition, we’ll be thinking about how we better acknowledge and value these many different stakeholders.
This acknowledgement is critical to fairness in environmental decision-making and equitable distribution. It’s also valuable in and of itself, as a matter of justice and empathy: so much of the injustice in our world today results from othering, from seeing communities who aren’t exactly like us as somehow less than us, as less deserving and less important. During Unit 3, we’ll be pushing ourselves to be a bit less egocentric and a bit more ecocentric, seeing ourselves as just one part of a wider whole - and realising that empowering underrepresented voices also empowers us, as we break down the hierarchies that fragment and hold us down.
Diverse Forms of Power
Recognise: the relational agency of ‘non-traditional’ stakeholders through this “Theory at a Glance” overview.
At a Glance_ Agency.pdfExamine: the framework of Indigenous environmental justice, which provides a “set of logics that recognizes the agency of non-human beings as well as the Earth itself”.
Dr Deborah McGregor holds the Canadian Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice. She lectures in both the Osgoode Hall Law School and Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University. Professor McGregor’s research has focused on Indigenous knowledge systems and their various applications in diverse contexts including water and environmental governance, environmental justice, forest policy, and management, and sustainable development.
Professor McGregor previously served in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto and as Senior Policy Advisor for Aboriginal Relations at Environment Canada-Ontario Region. Professor McGregor is Anishinaabe from Whitefish River First Nation, Birch Island, Ontario.
Stephen Whittaker started his career as a Countryside Ranger before spending time as a supply teacher, followed by several roles that developed both curriculum-based and informal education, as well as wider community engagement in a variety of green spaces. He became Senior Ranger for City of York Council before leaving to gain a PGCE teaching qualification and a Masters in Education specialising in learning outside the classroom. He is now bringing his knowledge and experience together in pursuit of a PhD in Learning in the Natural Environment at the University of York.
Mahisha Sritharan is a Research Intern at Sustain Ontario focusing on urban and residential agriculture. She is candidate for a Master in Environmental Studies at York University, and her research interests lie in food access and health. She is passionate about improving access to local healthy foods for communities. You can read more about Mahisha’s ethnographic work examining “The Impacts Of Climate Change On The Health And Well-being Of The Peoples Of Whitefish River First Nation, Ontario” here.
Celebrate: the power of dance through this video, which celebrates that “the art is alive. It has the power to heal, you know. It saved my life. But because I learned to do dance to save my life, I want it to save other people’s lives. And give other people a voice.”
A Bay Area native, Purple Fire Crow (also known as Mr Antoine Hunter) is an award-winning African, Indigenous, Deaf, Disabled, Two Spirit producer, choreographer, film/theater actor, dancer, dance instructor, model, poet, speaker, mentor and Deaf advocate. Mr Hunter has been trained in dance and acting training at Skyline High School in Oakland; the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts); and the Paul Taylor Dance School in NYC.
The founder and artistic director of Urban Jazz Dance, Hunter has performed with dozens of troupes around the world. Credits include Head Choreographer of the D-PAN: Deaf Professional Arts Network ASL Music Video of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen.
Realise: that ‘disability’ is a construct of colonialism and capitalism – both of which hold narrow understandings of ‘power’ and ‘ability’ in order to exploit them for profit – through this paper written by Nicole Ineese-Nash. This reading is optional, but try to skim at least enough to get some of the main points.
Nicole Ineese-Nash is an Anishinaabe (Oji-Cree) educator, researcher, and writer from Constance Lake First Nation. Nicole completed her Bachelor of Arts in Early Childhood Studies, with a minor in psychology in 2016. She then pursued a Master of Arts in Early Childhood Studies at Ryerson University. She is currently completing a PhD in Philosophy focusing on Social Justice Education and Indigenous Health at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.
Ineese-Nash’s research has focused on inclusivity in early childhood education and on bringing First Nations leaders, and elders together with academics to find answers together. Her current work looks at land-based education as a mechanism for youth leadership and spiritual healing.
Nicole is the director and co-founder of Finding Our Power Together, non-profit organisation providing mental health services, cultural programming, and educational support to Indigenous youth. She also works as a research associate and contract lecturer in the Schools of Early Childhood Studies and Child and Youth Care at Ryerson University.
Learn: about the incredible story of the Florida Highwayman while appreciating the power that water and wind have over us – both emotionally and physically.
“Untitled (Crashing Waves on Shore)” (Oil on Board, n.d.)© Harold Newton, Courtesy the Walker Collection. Photo by Tariq Gibran
Harold Newton was born in 1934 in the Jim Crow South. A talented painter, Newton was one of the founding members of the Florida Highwaymen: a group of primarily self-taught Black artists focused on capturing natural landscapes. In the midst of segregation, shut out of museums and galleries, the group nonetheless managed to make a living with their art.
The art of the Highwaymen (which did include a lone woman, Mary Ann Carroll, whose worked is featured on 21 April) focused on palm trees, alligators, sunsets, and other iconic scenes from Florida’s natural beauty. This work was chosen to accompany today’s look at agency both for the incredible story of the Highwaymen – who painted orange trees when they were instead expected to pick them as exploited labour – and for the way their art captures the power of nature itself.
Consider: how Indigenous Nations and Land are/aren’t recognised by institutions like Syracuse University through actions such as Land Acknowledgements or the new artwork installation on home campus. We’ll be picking up on questions of Land Acknowledgement and your place mapping from Learning Log 5 in class during Week 6.
Complete: your Learning Log for this session via the form below.
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