All Indigenous Ways of Relating Events

“Aquifer Defenders: Learning from Waadookawaad Amikwag,” an event exploring how Indigenous knowledge and Western science can be mobilized to halt the destruction caused by pipelines, stop future projects, and protect the land and water for future generations––in Minnesota and beyond. Highlighting the work of Waadookawaad Amikwag (“Those Who Help Beaver”), a diverse community group of water protectors, scientists, drone pilots, field monitors, and grassroots organizers that is gathering and interpreting evidence of environmental destruction from the Enbridge Line 3 pipeline, expanded in 2021 after a decade of Native-led resistance, this Zoom Webinar explores the group’s their troubling findings, including aquifer breaches, lack of tribal consultations, and inadequate state regulation enforcement.

SPEAKERS

* Victoria M.L. McMillen (Migizi Clan, Anishinaabeg Nagachiwaanong): Cultural and traditional Ecological knowledge carrier, volunteer with Waadookawaad Amikwag

* Jami Gaither: Metallurgical engineer and founding member of Waadookawaad Amikwag

* Jeff Broberg: Geologist and founding member of Minnesota Well Owners Organization (MNWOO) and Waadookawaad Amikwag

* Kai Bosworth: Critical Geographer and Red Natural History Fellow

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Held on August 1, 2024, this webinar was curated by Ashley Dawson as part of “Natural History for a World in Crisis,” a virtual programming series organized by Red Natural History Fellows with The Natural History Museum. Made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and 4Culture.

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Check out resources and other material from Wadookawaad Amikwag on the group’s website: https://waadookawaadamikwag.org

In this short video, Ashley Dawson explains a dissenting tradition within natural history that is capable of cracking open natural history’s imperialist discourses. Finding inspiration in the anarchist tradition, Dawson explores how Peter Kropotkin’s treatise on Mutual Aid troubles the social Darwinist understanding of evolution as a “struggle of each against all,” revealing another story of evolutionary time, grounded not in a logic of competition, but in the collective forms of life that allow human and other-than-human species to survive in times of upheaval.

Edited transcript of the full interview: https://bit.ly/RNH-mutual-aid

“Indigenizing Coastal Conservation,” a virtual event asking what it means to place Indigenous knowledge and tribal sovereignty at the heart of conservation. Focusing on ongoing work to fight coastal erosion on the Pacific coast, this event engages a frank conversation with Native and non-Native ocean conservation practitioners grappling with the complexities of decolonizing the conservation movement and incorporating Indigenous worldviews effectively and appropriately with mainstream approaches.

SPEAKERS
* Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes), Lecturer of American Indian Studies at California State University San Marcos, independent educator in American Indian environmental policy, and Red Natural History Fellow
* Leah Mata-Fragua (yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini Chumash)
Artist, Educator and Council Member, YTT Northern Chumash Tribe
* Calla Allison, Founder and Executive Director of the Marine Protected Area Collaborative Network
* Gus Gates, West Coast Regional Director of the Surfrider Foundation

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Held on June 28, 2024, this webinar was curated by Dina Gilio-Whitaker as part of “Natural History for a World in Crisis,” a virtual programming series organized by Red Natural History Fellows with The Natural History Museum.

Made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation, Hewlett Foundation and 4Culture

As a writer, educator, and one of The Natural History Museum’s inaugural Red Natural History Fellows, Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is exploring the challenge of Indigenizing environmental justice, developing a clear-eyed vision of an environmental justice that has traditional knowledge and Tribal sovereignty at its heart. In this short video, Dina makes the case for why Native rights and Indigenous knowledge benefit everybody, arguing that Native values of relationality, reciprocity, respect respect and responsibility are key to the survivability the ecosystems we inhabit.

In this short video, The Natural History Museum’s Jason Jones explains what “red natural history” means for him, arguing that red natural history must represent an active challenge to the dominant tradition of natural history. He explores the problems this concept confronts and the connections it makes possible, proposing that, as a name for a counter-tradition of natural history, red natural history threads together histories of non-capitalist and anti-colonial thought and action, offering resources for us to see and relate to the world as a world in common, beyond capitalist domination and control.