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Session Objective: to challenge traditional conceptions of power that undermine the voices of underrepresented stakeholders
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.
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’ll talk 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.
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.
She asks me to kill the spider.
Instead, I get the most
peaceful weapons I can find.
I take a cup and a napkin.
I catch the spider, put it outside
and allow it to walk away.
If I am ever caught in the wrong place
at the wrong time, just being alive
and not bothering anyone,
I hope I am greeted
with the same kind of
mercy.
A spoken word poet of Belizean decent, Rudy Francisco was born, raised, and still resides in San Diego, California. He spoke at open mics in his neighbourhood until they were closed due to gentrification, at which point he teamed up with a group of local poets and activists (‘Collective Purpose’) to launch Elevated.
At the age of 21, Rudy completed his BA in Psychology and decided to continue his education by pursuing a MA in Organizational Studies. As an artist, Rudy Francisco is an amalgamation of social critique, introspection, honesty and humour. He uses personal narratives to discuss the politics of race, class, gender, and religion while simultaneously pinpointing and reinforcing the interconnected nature of human existence.
Watch: this video about how “dance, 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 received his training 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. His credits include Head Choreographer of the D-PAN: Deaf Professional Arts Network ASL Music Video of “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen.
Examine: the idea of ‘disability’ as 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.
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.
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