Related Projects
Sandra Monterroso, Expoliada (2011). Thread and wood.
Decolonizing Nature: RESISTANCE | RESILIENCE | REVITALIZATION
CONFERENCE APRIL 19 – 22, 2017
The colonization of nature under capitalism is rooted in an ethos that views human beings as separate to and above nature—Earthmasters for whom the Planet is an inexhaustible reservoir of natural resources to be exploited. With profit as the prime motive, the resources are denuded beyond sustainable limits for the disproportionate benefit of a wealthy few. Pollution and waste from this activity also is skewed in its impact, in this case to the substantial detriment of poor and marginalized people, indigenous communities, and biotic life. Capital’s colonization of nature has brought us to our current moment of grave ecological peril—climate change, Sixth Extinction, and other human-caused environmental crises that cumulatively and rapidly degrade Earth’s life-sustaining ecological fabric.
Decolonizing Nature has thus become an urgent priority if we are to progress toward a just and sustainable Earth for all living beings. How do we resist further ecological devastation? How do we achieve resilience in times of stress? How do we revitalize affected ecological habitats and communities? The University of New Mexico will host an interdisciplinary environmental justice public forum “Decolonizing Nature: Resistance, Resilience, Revitalization,” from April 19 through Earth Day, April 22, to address these and related issues.
HEMISPHERIC INSTITUTE E-MISFÉRICA |11:1| 2014 | Decolonial Gesture
WHAT DECOLONIAL GESTURE IS
Jill Lane, Marcial Godoy-Anativia and Macarena Gómez-Barris | New York University and University of Southern California
“Listen Winka...!”
Decolonial gesture is: saying “Listen winka...!” whether or not the winka understand that they are being hailed.
Decolonial gesture is: blood. Blood in 5 of 16 glass jars, that represent and preserve the Native Alaskan blood quantum—5 of 16 parts—of the artist Erica Lord. The blood asks: does indigenous identity lie in these five jars, as the State insists, and not those others? In this work, Lord asks: what other jars or calculus could measure the indigenous memory, knowledge, and practices that tie people to land and to each other? Daniher asks through the artist: what is quantified and what is preserved in State practices that require “degree of Indian blood certification”? What is partitioned, and what is forgotten?
[...] from emisférica 11:1 (2014) Decolonial Gesture issue editorial remarks.