Coloniality and Indigenous ways of knowing at the edges: Emplacing Earth kin in conservation communities

Abstract

Participation of Indigenous peoples and local communities is encouraged in calls for sustainable transitions and transformations. The term ‘community’ is widely used yet nebulously defined. Conservation that removes people from their communities of land invokes epistemological authority and displaced relationships. We relate our work to the articles in this special issue to rethink the relationship between humans and nature in conservation. We propose expanding the term ‘local communities’ to include more than just humans. By decentring the human subject, we rethink what it means to participate in community and place‐making, further unpacking the ethical motivations of emplacement.

Thinking with soils: Can urban farms help us heal metabolic rifts in Aotearoa?

“…We cannot make that claim for this short commentary based on our work with Cultivate. But what we can say is that as with any relationship, it develops through time spent together (as many of the articles in this special issue demonstrate; see particularly the comments in Weber & Barron, 2023). Here, another kind of temporality comes into play: the urgency of soil care, the climate crisis, food security and soil loss through erosion and disastrous floods like those Aotearoa has experienced in 2023.…”

Restoration as reconnection: A relational approach to urban stream repair

“…Geoff and Lisa show an understanding of nature as a mutual achievement of people, the landscape and its constituents (Bawaka Country et al, 2016): morethan-human networks that together create Waimapihi. In this mutual achievement, restoration is not reproducing a static image of what Waimapihi used to look like, but creating a unique community (see Weber & Barron, 2023), contingent on past and present circumstances. Paul exemplifies these relational understandings of Waimapihi:…”

Managing ubiquitous ‘forever chemicals’: More‐than‐human possibilities for the problem of PFAS

“…Throughout, we offer place-based perspectives from our vantage point(c.f. Weber and Barron's (2023) account, in this issue), looking overseas to compare and consider the complexities of PFAS' socio-natural entanglements. We think through some of the challenges of managing a ubiquitous toxin here when (un)containment and (non) regulation are the expected outcomes of international regulatory infrastructures that are insufficient.…”