Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Examines contemporary writings regarding Indigenous environmental logic and environmental concerns of contemporary times. Studies effects of resource extraction upon Indigenous nations, globalization, genetic modifications, health, intellectual property, spiritual beliefs, culture and society, art and language and compares these with specific Indigenous logic at the time of contact. Students with credit for FNST 433 may not take this course for further credit.

COURSE DETAILS:

INDG 433-4 Indigenous Environmental Justice and Activism Seminar. Examines various aesthetic/intellectual expressions of Indigenous peoples which express Indigenous environmental theories, practices, philosophy, protocols, and activism. Looks at contemporary writings, testimonio, various media, practices, oral traditions, ethnographic accounts, art, writings, gatherings, and that reflects indigenous environmental theory and practice regarding Indigenous Relationships, bioregionalism, Responsibilities, and Home/Land.

Of concern are long-term un-remediable effects via massive resource extractions and state-sponsored violences, modern globalization, non-human relatives, genetic modifications, health, food security and food sovereignty, climate disruptions, the Rights of Mother Earth, Rivers, Land and all Living Beings. Of principal concern is the concept of Justice, Responsibilities (Rights), and inter-species dependence/biodiversity, Land and Treaty Rights, especially regarding Indigenous individuals, communities, Nations, and all living Beings, within Indigenous understanding of ‘we are all related'.

Details: Justice remains elusive for many of the world’s Indigenous peoples, including Canada, as erosion of inherent and enshrined responsibilities/rights and title are hand-in-glove with massive resource destructions. We will examine specific activisms, Land defense, state-sponsored and extra judicial violence, in a historical context, and contemplate our shifting societal paradigms.

The class is made up of lectures, readings, detailed informed in-class discussions and presentations, weekly written reflections, and community engagement and building within and outside of the classroom community. Registration in this course is your commitment to attend all classes and perform all work to your highest standards.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

To recognize and understand Responsibilities to Home/Land/Place and her many Beings as a philosophy, method, and vehicle towards understanding the roots of and path to elusive social and environmental justice, the further actualization of tenuous human rights, and the rights of all Beings and HomeLands to thrive.

In this course with a hemispheric Indigenous focus, Students will:

i. Practice deep reading, deep thinking, deep listening, introspection
ii. Develop excellent communication skills
iii. Place themselves within the global paradigm and conversation regarding individual and community Responsibilities to Land and her Beings
iv. Contemplate the meaning of a specific vocabulary terms such as genocide, reconciliation, ecocide, colonial impositions
v. Create as a group, a working vocabulary for Environmnetal Justice and Activism in our lives
vi. Discuss violence and lawlessness at the international, national, state, local, and domestic level
vii. Learn Indigenous Nation-specific protocols, values, and elusive path to fulfillment of basic human and non-human rights
viii. Discuss Indigenous Nation-centric concepts of relationship, responsibilities (rights), and an Indigenous bioregionalism as defined by community and HomeLand
ix. Understand Indigenous Nation-centric traditional and contemporary laws, priveledges, histories, realities, rooted in HomeLand Place, and subject to the many waves of colonialism and its others
x. Respond appropriately (using respectful communication), as a student/researcher/community member
xi. Practice and learn group discussion methods, speaking clearly in a succinct manner, with equal time for all student participants
xii. Welcome, support, and discuss difficult topics factually, within a diverse set of various differing points-of-view, where we may, can, and do disagree
xiii. See Nation-centric concepts of the researchers' responsibility to Indigenous community
xiv. Review diverse methods and testimonio/y products from and within Indigenous communities
xv. interview others and record interviews (depending upon pandemic rules); and other outcomes as they evolve through community coursework, agreed to by consensus of the group.

It is hoped students will be exposed to a life-long understanding of justice work in Indigenous communities, and where appropriate, begin their journey within the practice. Students may interact with community individuals and networks to address a research topic and deliverable of the communitys’ choice, as reached by community and student consensus.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: