Utilizing Photovoice to Support Indigenous Accounts of Environmental Change and Injustice

Abstract

Global environmental changes can happen quickly or over extended periods and have compounding effects. Indigenous communities experience environmental changes that can lead to a decline in quality of life, illness or disease, and unwelcome cultural adaptations that extend to future generations. Due to limited resources and political marginalization, members of these communities may not be able to respond to or prevent these conditions. Cultural connections to the land and community, along with limited resources, impact Indigenous peoples’ willingness and ability to relocate to different geographic locations experiencing less damaging ecological changes or environmental risk. In this article, we respond to the Special Issue prompt probing “[m]ethods in which Indigenous communities engage within their environment and on the land to conduct research”. We begin by describing environmental change, followed by a scoping review of Photovoice studies focused on environmental issues. Environmental changes affecting Indigenous groups are discussed, including a case study and a discussion of the ways that Photovoice can support and honor Indigenous peoples’ connection to the natural environment. This article is not intended to be an exhaustive review, but rather seeks to understand how Photovoice is being used to respond to and document environmental change, and how such visual methodologies can be used in Indigenous communities.

Applying the photovoice method with adolescents in mining areas in rural Mozambique: critical reflections and lessons learned

“…However, compared to its ability to capture perceptions of physical and environmental aspects affecting adolescents’ well-being, the method was less straightforward in revealing their concerns regarding social, relational, and community aspects that are less tangible. This finding was also reported by researchers that conducted photovoice to document and examine environmental change and injustice within indigenous communities, who attributed this challenge to the nature of visual research methods [ 14 ]. Our findings are in line with Ronzi et al [ 47 ] who have also observed in their study that participants have difficulties in taking photographs of negative social concepts (e.g.…”

“…Photovoice has gained a broad application across disciplines, including education, environmental health, public health, social science and sports. Its expansion across disciplines can be attributed to the flexibility, adaptability and participatory characteristics of this method, as described in previous studies [ 13 , 14 ]. Additionally, photovoice application has been determined by factors such as the project’s objectives, available resources, project duration and the influence on decision-making process [ 1 , 15 ].…”

Photovoice as a Participatory Extension Approaches Method in Expressing Youth Views of Agricultural Work

“…Sebagai salah satu metode yang bertujuan untuk pemberdayaan masyarakat dan mengangkat isu-isu penting di masyarakat, photovoice telah dilakukan di berbagai tempat dan populasi yang berbeda seperti para pengungsi perempuan di Jakarta (Adinia & Kirana, 2019), kesehatan seksual dan reproduksi pekerja seks di Bali (Lestari et al, 2016), program penyelamatan lingkungan di wilayah hutan Kalimantan (Birowo, 2020), kaum disabilitas fisik di Ghana (Tijm et al, 2011), perubahan lingkungan dan ketidakadilan di Amerika Serikat (Mitchell et al, 2020), serta masalah kesehatan dan lingkungan di Carolina Selatan (Brandt et al, 2017). Penelitian ini memiliki kebaruan karena belum ada penelitian tentang memberdayakan pemuda di sektor pertanian dengan menggunakan metode photovoice.…”

Environmental health perceptions of urban youth from low‐income communities: A qualitative photovoice study and framework

“…13,16,17 Photovoice allows for collaboration between community members and researchers by empowering community members to capture and communicate their perceptions and knowledge. 18 Photovoice has been shown to be an effective tool for empowering children and youth. 15,19,20 For example, Photovoice enabled minority New York City youth to reflect on food justice issues and engage in promoting positive community changes.…”

“…The Photovoice research method has been traditionally viewed as an avenue through which marginalized communities can participate in academic research and ultimately have influence over policy decisions 13,16,17 . Photovoice allows for collaboration between community members and researchers by empowering community members to capture and communicate their perceptions and knowledge 18 …”