Interweaving Traditional Ecological Knowledge and ArtsBased Research Towards Environmental Reconciliation

Geo Takach and Asma Antoine received funds from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for a project mixing traditional knowledge and arts-based research for environmental justice.

GOALS: This pilot project explores how interweaving arts-based research (ABR) and Indigenous ways of knowing (IWOK) can help to create communications to encourage environmental reconciliation in Canada and abroad. This research recognizes that environmental justice is fundamental to sustainability and that “[t]here can be no sustainability that is based on the injustice and denial of Aboriginal Peoples” (Clogg 2013). It is premised on a “new alliance between Indigenous and non-Indigenous environmentalists” foregrounding Indigenous peoples’ rights (Manuel et al 2015, 186).
This work builds on my SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant project on why and how IWOK can help encourage Canada as a policy leader in both sustainable resource development and Indigenous reconciliation. It responds to gaps found in the literature, especially the need to weave together – more than merely ‘integrate’ or ‘bridge’ – Indigenous and settler knowledges to address ecological issues, while also redressing imbalances in power favouring settlers (Johnson et al 2016). This project further engages the transformative potential of ABR to engage and inspire action on critical, societal issues (Takach 2016).
Centering on what I coin and define here preliminarily as ‘environmental reconciliation’, this research has three overarching goals: (1) connect environmental protection and Indigenous reconciliation, defined here as ‘environmental reconciliation’: environmental protection in ways that acknowledge, address and aim to redress imbalances in power among Indigenous people and settlers honestly, respectfully, openly and positively; (2) weave together the wisdom of Indigenous and settler knowledges, to raise our awareness and appreciation of our role as more than observers and consumers of nature, and also of our integral connection with nature as essential to the survival of all life on Earth; (3) motivate people within and beyond academe to reverse the devastating harms we cause to the planet and to Canada’s First Peoples.
THEORY: In keeping with the aims of furthering environmental and social justice often marking the study of environmental communication (Ryan et al 2015) and of ABR (Barone et al 2012), this project uses social-constructionist thought to situate the making of meaning in environmental communication (Hansen 2015). I draw on ‘critical indigenous pedagogy’ recognizing IWOK as a rich resource to address imbalances in power to achieve social justice (Denzin et al 2008), and on decolonizing strategies to help understand, respect and begin to reflect Indigenous views.
IMPACT: This research should engage diverse audiences due to the urgency, timeliness and priority of remedial action on environmental protection and Indigenous reconciliation for Canadians; the work’s interdisciplinarity; and the transformative power of arts-based research.
Following the methodological bricolage called for in critical research to meet its emancipatory aims (Kincheloe et al 2011), this project has 3 parts, each informing the others and proceeding with humility, sensitivity and respect, striving to avoid the very colonialist practices it aims to help redress. Each step will be interrogated, overseen by a group of Indigenous advisers comprising an Elder, an artist and a scholar. 1) Contextual review: lit review and media audit of intersections of enviro communication, IWOK and ABR; interviews with creators of found media. 2) Analysis: framing analysis of found media, aided by ‘critical Indigenous pedagogy’ and decolonizing strategies; reflective audio/video journal; ABR (video) documenting, synthesizing and analyzing my research. 3) Dissemination: This work will be shared through a documentary film, conference and community presentations, and articles, informing further work.