session

Session
2

Who gets to speak for nature?

What can we learn from First Nations?

Is collaboration possible between First Nations wisdom and western/ settler mindset?

What is decolonisation and how can we decolonise ourselves and our relationship to 'nature'?

"Instead of viewing the river as a commodity, we need to recognise
the river has an intrinsic right to live".

in preparation for connecting with your group some suggested

Activities

walk with a water body and spend time in conversation with the fluid
while you are walking, rather than settling in to the awareness of the trees around you,
think with the trees, as they are watching / feeling your presence.

Recommended Reading

Videos

AELA Mardowarra River at Tribunal, Fitzroy River, WA 2016

First Nations perspectives 11min

source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr0LB-9Aepo&list=PLj24vd4odTT2AzP_7zA_--7XXAYzMcuAi&index=2

Short written pieces

Mary Graham is an Aboriginal philosopher who was born in Brisbane and grew up on the Gold Coast.
She is a Kombu-merri person and is also affiliated with the Waka Waka group through her mother.
Read her work some thoughts about the philosophical underpinnings of aboriginal worldviews

here

Further materials

If you have time for some deeper context : additionally read or watch these following pieces...

An hour lecture by Linda Tuhiwai-Smith speaking to her book
Decolonising Methodologies 20 years on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSX_4FnqXwQ

link to her book
here

Clare Land Decolonizing Solidarity: Dilemmas and Directions for Supporters of Indigenous Struggles
Chapter 4: Collaboration, dialogue and friendship: always a good thing?

A short 2 minute Guardian documentary exploring some
complexities of giving the river Whaganui personhood
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2019/dec/01/a-living-being-the-whanganui-river-video

An article advocating for further protection for the Fitzroy River
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/06/fitzroy-river-the-push-to-prevent-a-repeat-of-the-murray-darling-basin-disaster

Future Dreaming was created by Indigenous and non-indigenous partners, to design and implement community development projects that:
-create employment and education opportunities for Indigenous Communities in Australia
-improve Indigenous community wellbeing support Caring for Country projects, including Indigenous knowledge and ecological restoration, and advance cross-cultural communication and understanding

To fund its work, Future Dreaming offers specialised cross-cultural courses,
to help non-indigenous people understand and support
Aboriginal approaches to Caring for Country.

https://www.futuredreaming.org.au/

'we are all rooted to earth '

'Imperialism still hurts, still destroys and is re-forming itself constantly...
decolonisation is a process which engages with imperialism and colonisation at multiple levels. For researchers one of those levels is concerned with having a more critical understanding of the underlying assumptions, motivations and values which inform research practices.'

"Listen to the sound of the Earth turning
we are all turning together
isn't it nice"

Yoko Ono

AELA Mardowarra River at Tribunal, Fitzroy River, WA 2016

Legal perspectives 20min

source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjYrTrB2pIE&list=PLj24vd4odTT2AzP_7zA_--7XXAYzMcuAi&index=4

Podcasts

We invite you to listen to this 20 minute podcast panel discussing 'Wild Law' at a conference in Britain

here

source: https://theplanetpod.com/planet-pod-talks-wild-law-with-ukela/

Audio of Dylan Robinson reading his essay Song Life
We invite you to listen following the link below

3. Song Life (27.35 minutes)

Dylan Robinson is a Stó:lō scholar who holds the Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Arts at Queen’s University, located on the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples.
Song life extends from his book Hungry Listening into non-human sonic agencies, beyond the human subjectivities to which they speak. Speech and speechlessness are examined as forms of Indigenous knowledge and more-than-human understanding, linking material culture and songs with ancestors as processes of being-with and kinship, against the colonial museological frameworks that silence and mute objects, removing them from culture.

source: https://disclaimer.org.au/contents/unsettling-scores/hungry-listening
..........................................................

Feminist philosopher Astrida Neimanis, puts into practice the methodologies of:
'thinking with water' or what she terms
hydro-feminism

We invite you to listen following the link below

Corona Under the Ocean: Thinking with Water (68 minutes)

source: https://ocean-archive.org/view/1468

Prompt questions

Who gets to speak for nature?
Is it better that first nations people represent the rights of 'nature' when possible?

How do we apportion the legal right to make a claim on behalf of 'nature' - who has that right, and how do we ensure it is not out of reach without occupying a position of legal privilege (wealth) ?

How can we not only learn from Indigenous knowledge and tradition with regard connecting with 'nature', but pro-actively work in solidarity providing platforms and creating the space for indigenous knowledge to lead the Rights of nature movement?

How do we learn to listen to 'nature' to help understand it's desires?

How do we engage in the discussion so we are not squeezing Indigenous practices into anglo-centric legal systems?

How can the scientific paradigm/technology in the world we live in be transformed to include empathy for the more-than-humans and give perspective to the idea of 'objectivity'.

How can we amplify the voices of rivers?

We can all grapple with the idea that technology is watching, listening to and tracking us,
but what if country is similarly perceptive?
Monica Gagliano has scientifically proven something First nations have always known, (that all life is cognitive and conscious of its life world) that trees emit audible clicking sounds, communicating with one another, that they have memory, can associate and can hear sub-ground water sources.
Perhaps the question is who might be observing who?

In preparation for connecting up with your group we ask that you set aside
15 minutes, just prior to the session, to tune in to this short

ARTWORK
produced and designed by Formafantasma
in collaboration with Emanuele Coccia - École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
source:https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-RWki1DhML/?igshid=mrawur0qe39l