colonialism
The Environmental Movement Needs to Reckon with Its Racist History
This article calls for the contemporary environmental movement to address a deeply imbedded history of racism, which dates back to early conservationists, like John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, who were also white supremacists. They also detail the history of the environmental justice movement and how contemporary environmental organizations and policy goals need to do more to address the tenants of environmental justice. For more read here.
‘Bees, not refugees’: the environmentalist roots of anti-immigrant bigotry
This article discusses a long history of “eco-xenophobia” in America by drawing connections between the motivations behind the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, anti-immigration sentiments in the Sierra Club and early conservationists. For more read here.
What Does It Mean to Decolonize Design?
This article defines decolonization and offers suggestions on how those in the design industry can engage in decolonization practices through their work. The author also provides a list of resources for further reading on the subject. For more read here.
“Now You Can’t Just Do Nothing”: Unsettling the Settler Self within Social Studies Education
This article shows how social science education often reinforces settler-colonial narratives and provides tools for how educators can work to “unsettle” this narrative in their teaching by challenging the way Indigenous history is taught and reckoning with their own personal connections to settler-colonialism. For more read here.
Native Knowledge: What Ecologists Are Learning from Indigenous People
This article explores how scientists are increasingly learning from Traditional Ecological Knowledge to understand how climate change is effecting the natural world. They provide examples of collaborations between scientists and indigenous communities and show how ecological research could benefit from using a more holistic lens. For more read here.
What’s Wrong With This Diorama? You Can Read All About It
This article details how the American Museum of Natural History modified a problematic diorama that depicted a fictional meeting between Dutch settlers and the Lenape people. The diorama contained a number of historical inaccuracies that perpetuated stereotypes about indigenous people and reinforced cultural hierarchies. Rather than cover or change the diorama, the museum chose to put up signs that addressed those inaccuracies. For more read here.
A Cree Artist Redraws History
This article describes an installation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Cree Artist Kent Monkman. His installation features two paintings that flip historical narratives about Indigenous victimhood on its head. For more read here.
The pitfalls of symbolic decolonization
This articles discusses how decolonization efforts in the West fall short by engaging in decolonization in philosophical terms instead of through economic means. In the authors word’s, “Symbolic decolonization is useful, but it is also useless without material decolonization”. The author explores the harm of “symbolic decolonization” and also provides examples of efforts that are both symbolic and material. For more read here.
How This Native American Elder Reclaimed Sacred Land in the Bay Area
This documentary describes the history of the displacement and attempted erasure of the Ohlone people. It also describes an Elder’s effort to reestablish connection with Ohlone religious practices. For more watch here.
Public lands in the United States: A curriculum
This article provides an introduction to a curriculum on public land in the United States created by The Wilderness Society and The Avarna Group. The curriculum teaches a holistic view of the history of public lands, which includes the displacement of Indigenous people and exclusionary conservation practices. For more read here.
Decolonization and anti-racism: a reading list
This is a reading list put together by Verso Books. In their words, this is a list of “books that challenge the notion of empire and offer a history of anti-colonial, anti-racist struggle.” To explore these book suggestions, read more here.
Land-grab universities: Expropriated Indigenous land is the foundation of the land-grant university system
This article provides an in-depth look at how the redistribution of stolen Indigenous land through the Morrill Act of 1862 was used by American universities to fund their endowments. The article includes an interactive database that shows all of the plots of land that each university benefitted from, their tribal affiliation, how much tribes were paid for the land, and how much universities received through the land’s sale. They also explore ideas for how universities can begin to make amends for profiting of of stolen land that move beyond land acknowledgments. For more read here.