Graduation Date

Spring 2021

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in Social Science, Environment and Community

Committee Chair Name

Cutcha Rising Baldy

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Janelle Adsit

Second Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Third Committee Member Name

Mark Baker

Third Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Radical contingentism, Strong relationality, Aesthetics, Ethics, Settler colonialism, Systemic Racism, Empath, Spiritual ecology

Subject Categories

Environment and Community

Abstract

How can we live here together? How can we, human beings (especially those of us not considered as such, historically, presently, or in the future) and more-than-human beings live here together and care for each other? I set out to learn how a pair of permaculture farmers in Southern Humboldt lived and worked with these questions: I attempted a qualitative and quantitative analysis of twenty years of natural history journals that one of them recorded. I was particularly interested in the aesthetics of land tending, affective relationships with more-than-human beings, and disrupting settler colonialism through epistemic reparations to the Sinkyone Peoples. I was also living with the same questions myself on campus, in academia, in Wiyot Territory. As I studied critical theory and turned it into relational praxis in my life, this praxis superseded my work with the journals. I ultimately chose to not publish the note-taker’s personal story on their behalf. Instead I offer a multi-genre anthology. I present the research project as I designed it, with a critical genealogy of permaculture and natural history with respect to colonialism. I reflect on my experiences and positionality––particularly as an empath–– while participating in student coalitions against systemic racism. Finally, I present theoretical insights that I developed: I call for a spiritual conception of more-than-human-beings as part of political ecology, note convergences between systems theorists and Indigenous ethics, and present a framework for considering beauty and aesthetics.

Citation Style

Chicago

Share

 
COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.