#INDG2015 week 2 public slides

INDG 2015
Week 2: human-environmental relations,
environmental racism, colonization, and
Indigenous Studies, an introduction
Copyright: Dr. Zoe Todd 2020

Week 1 Recap
§ Global Indigeneity
§ Intersectionality (with credit to Kimberle
Crenshaw): we must think about
Indigeneity in relation to intersecting
experiences in North America and
elsewhere. Indigenous experiences are
varied across continents and historical
experiences (cannot map North
American Indigenous experiences
directly onto other parts of the world).

Week 2 human-environmental relations,
environmental racism, colonization, and
Indigenous Studies,an introduction
§ Objectives for Today’s Class
| Examine what environmental racism is
| Apply this framework to examining
environmental crises/disasters in
Indigenous contexts
| Kimmerer: relationality and reciprocity
(collective care, gift economy, giving
thanks, complementarity)

Week 2
§ Environmental racism:
§ Credited to Benjamin Chavis, who coined the
term in 1982:
| “racial discrimination in environmental policy making,
the enforcement of regulations and laws, the
deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic
waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-
threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our
communities, and the history of excluding people of
color from leadership of the ecology movements.[2] ”
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_racism

Week 2
§ “ a national report found that racial
demographics were the number one predictor
of where hazardous waste facilities were
located across the United States. Since then,
strong empirical evidence in the U.S. has
shown that non-white communities are
disproportionately exposed to environmental
risks, have less of a say in the development
and implementation of environmental laws and
regulations, and are less likely to have their
voices heard on issues of environmental
degradation.” http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ecojustice/environmental-
racism-canadal_b_7224904.html

Week 2
§ Short learning activity:
| Brainstorm some examples of environmental racism you
are aware of in Canada or abroad
| Map these out onto a piece of paper or on Word/editing
software of your choice
| How do these instances of environmental racism impact
you in your day to day life?
| How does your positionality impact your experiences of
environmental violence?

Week 2 Environmental Racism
case study
§ Africville:
§ “an industrial boom that swept Halifax in the
late 1800s brought racism to Africville’s
doorstep. Facilities shunned by Halifax cropped
up around the black community. Africville’s
backyard filled with human feces disposal pits,
an infectious disease hospital, an abattoir, a
prison, an open dump and an incinerator.”
§ (http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1282706-weekend-focus-the-
toxic-sites-of-nova-scotia-racism)

Week 2
http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/1282706-weekend-focus-the-toxic-sites-of-nova-scotia-racism

Week 2: Short Video
§ “Environmental Racism: Black communities
face more health risks from industrial
pollution” (RT America, 2015)
§ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxLbg
DsLHNc

Week 2: 30 minute documentary
§ Please watch this documentary and reflect
on how it links to this week’s readings
§ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnHW
ZE0M_-k

Week 2
§ Chemical Valley
§ “Sarnia is home to more than 60 refineries and
chemical plants that produce gasoline, synthetic
rubbers, and other materials that the world’s
industries require to create the commercial
products we know and love. The city’s most
prominent and profitable attraction is an area
about the size of 100 city blocks known as the
Chemical Valley, where 40 percent of Canada’s
chemical industry can be found packed together
like a noxious megalopolis. ”
http://www.vice.com/en_ca/video/the-chemical-valley-part-1

Braiding Sweetgrass
§ Sky Woman Story (WATCH)
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSzDM7Jmg94

Sky Woman Falling – Shelly Niro
http://www.historymuse
um.ca/blog/staff-picks-
favourites-from-the-
canadian-museum-of-
history/

Becoming Sky Woman –
Skawennati
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/skawennati-becoming-sky-
woman

Council of Pecans (pp. 11-21)
§ MAJOR CONCEPT: collective action
§ What did you learn from this section on
pecans?
§ Mast Fruiting (collective labour of
trees)
§ Communication between trees
(mycorrhizal networks)

The Gift of Strawberries pp. 22-
31
§ MAJOR CONCEPT: the gift economy
§ Gift economy: what does this mean to
you? Can you think of examples of gift
economies in your own life?
§ What would the university (as a concept,
a structure) look like if we highlighted the
gift economy within it? What would
change if we shifted to reciprocity as a
guiding force in higher education?

An Offering – pp. 33-38
§ MAJOR CONCEPT: offerings,
ritual, ceremony – paying respect
to the lands/waters/atmospheres
that sustain us
§ What does an offering mean in
your relationships to the
environment?

§ MAJOR CONCEPT: complementarity
§ What does it mean to study more-than-
human beings from an Indigenous
perspective? How does Dr. Kimmerer’s
experience studying botany help us
understand the possibilities that open up
when we hold Indigenous Knowledges and
western science in conversation with each
other?
Asters and Goldenrod pp. 39-47

Kimmerer
§ Keywords
§ Reciprocity
§ Relationality
§ Collectivity, care, gift economies,
offerings, giving thanks,
complementarity

Week 2
§ Robin Wall Kimmerer
| Discussion point:
• How are Indigenous plant-relations impacted by
environmental racism?

Week 2
§ Re-cap
| Environmental racism is the tangible reality that
racialized communities, marginalized communities are
more likely to be exposed to contamination through the
siting of dumps, toxic waste facilities and projects
which pollute waters, soils, air
| This phenomenon brings together our study of the
issues of nature, culture, and social justice
| Indigenous worldviews/cosmologies offer us collective,
reciprocal perspectives on human-environmental
relations (Kimmerer 2013)

Week 2
§ Reflection – feel free to post your
response to this question on Twitter,
Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag
#INDG2015
| Discuss how the concept of environmental racism impacts
your understanding of environmental issues in Canada

#INDG2015 week 2 public slides

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