U.S (NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM) : a growing movement of scientists and scholars, RED NATURAL HISTORY.

 

 

 

		Friend, We know our institutions must break from their colonial past—but how? Today, we’re thrilled to announce the launch of Red Natural History, a new initiative that brings together communities, scientists, and scholars to challenge the colonial logics imprinted in practices of historic preservation, science education, and conservation—and to chart a path forward. The project kicks off with a new collection of essays that considers how the climate emergency is not just an environmental crisis, but also an epistemological crisis, demanding not only a reckoning with public policy but also with the colonial regime of knowledge that has influenced how people see and relate to the land and each other. We're also excited to announce the Red Natural History Fellowship, a new two-year program that supports scholars and practitioners who are making change within their fields—to redress social and environmental harms, and advance a just and safe future for all life on Earth. Learn more about our inaugural cohort of Red Natural History Fellows below. This is only the start. The first red natural history event is coming up next month. Register today for "Unfence the Future: Taking Down Fortress Conservation and its Enduring Legacy", a free virtual symposium dedicated to decolonizing federal law, historic preservation, and conservation.   For the Future, The Natural History Museum
		A natural history for a world in crisis. What if we understand natural history not simply as the study of nature, ecosystems, or premodern cultural traditions, but as a site of struggle between two incommensurate relations to the world—one governed by a logic of extraction and enclosure and another that relates to the world as a world in common that cannot be enclosed ? This is the question at the center of a new collection of essays edited by our team and published in Social Text, a scholarly journal that connects critical theory and political practice. The essays unpack the colonial histories and logics that penetrate disciplines associated with natural history, offering an array of perspectives that activists, scientists, scholars, and heritage professionals can draw upon in efforts to transform institutions and advance social and environmental justice : * Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet/Métis) explores the deficit of Indigenous representation and decision-making in contemporary museum practice, and the implications for revitalizing traditional languages and lifeways. * Andrew Curley (Diné) takes on the history of paleontology, considering how dinosaur remains excavated from Navajo Nation without permission have been reactivated in recent struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and land rights. * Ashley Dawson challenges the legacy of social Darwinism, drawing on Russian revolutionary and scientist Peter Kropotkin’s book Mutual Aid : A Factor of Evolution to chart a counter-tradition of biology that emphasizes the role of cooperation in species evolution. * Kai Bosworth discusses the tradition of radical geography that emerged in the 1960s, exploring how geographers today can meaningfully contribute to Indigenous resurgence and place-based struggles. * Natchee Blu Barnd proposes that ethnic studies, as a discipline organized around giving voice to oppressed peoples, can disrupt natural history’s colonial frameworks and material harms. * Billy Fleming shows how landscape architecture has been entangled in finance capital before describing concrete ways that the discipline can serve the building of a sustainable and just future. * Alberto Acosta, the former minister of mining and natural resources for the Ecuadorian government, who helped inscribe the Rights of Nature into the country’s constitution, makes the case for how the Andean concept of Buen Viver can point us toward a future beyond extractive capitalism. * Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) advances a methodology of Indigenous futurism. Starting from the hypothesis that there is no future without decolonization, she works backwards to imagine the shifts that must take place to turn against the tides of climate catastrophe.   We’d love for you to join the conversation. What does a natural history for the future look like, and how can we get there ? Share your thoughts on social media with the hashtag #RedNaturalHistory.
		Meet the first cohort of Red Natural History Fellows. As environmental emergencies intensify, more and more scholars and scientists are working with communities to expose the impact of industrial pollution on public health, protecting sacred items or ancestral remains in the path of proposed pipelines, and sounding the alarm about the systemic causes of climate change, leveraging their expertise and institutional resources in support of our shared struggle for a world beyond extraction. Today, we’re announcing the Red Natural History Fellowship, a new two-year program that aims to support this growing movement. Fellows will contribute to panel discussions, academic and professional conferences, videos, publications, and community-led campaigns to protect, restore and renew water, land, sacred sites, cultural lifeways and public health.   Please join us in welcoming the inaugural cohort of Red Natural History Fellows !
		Alberto Acosta is an Ecuadorian economist. He is currently a university professor, lecturer, and, above all, a comrade of popular struggles. He was formerly Minister of Energy and Mining (2007), President of the Constituent Assembly (2007-08) that enshrined the rights of Mother Nature in Ecuador’s constitution, co-author of Ecuador’s offer to forgo oil exploitation in the Yasuni National Park, and a candidate for President of the Republic (2012-13).
		Andrew Curley (Diné) is an assistant professor in the School of Geography, Development, and Environment at the University of Arizona. Curley’s research focuses on the everyday incorporation of Indigenous nations into colonial economies. Building on ethnographic research, his publications speak to how Indigenous communities understand coal, energy, land, water, infrastructure, and development in an era of energy transition and climate change.
		Ashley Dawson is professor of postcolonial studies in the English department at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and the College of Staten Island. His latest books include People’s Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons (O/R, 2020), Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change (Verso, 2017), and Extinction: A Radical History (O/R, 2016). A member of the Social Text Collective and the founder of the CUNY Climate Action Lab, he is a long-time climate justice activist.
		Billy Fleming is the Wilks Family Director of the Ian L. McHarg Center in the Weitzman School of Design. Billy is co-editor of An Adaptation Blueprint (Island Press, 2021), co-editor and co-curator of the book and internationally-traveling exhibit Design With Nature Now (Lincoln, 2019), and author of the forthcoming Drowning America: The Nature and Politics of Adaptation (Penn Press, expected 2022). He is lead author of The 2100 Project: An Atlas for the Green New Deal.
		Dina Gilio-Whitaker (Colville Confederated Tribes) is a lecturer of American Indian studies at California State University San Marcos and an independent educator in American Indian environmentalism and policy, traditional ecological knowledge, religion and philosophy, Native women’s activism, American Indians and sports, and decolonization. Dina is the author of two books; the most recent is the award-winning As Long As Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice from Colonization to Standing Rock.
		Kai Bosworth is a geographer and assistant professor of international studies in the School of World Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of Pipeline Populism: Grassroots Environmentalism in the 21st Century.
		Natchee Blu Barnd is associate professor of ethnic studies and Native American studies at Oregon State University, and editor of Ethnic Studies Review. He is author of numerous articles and Native Space: Geographic Strategies to Unsettle Settler Colonialism (OSU Press, 2017).
		Rosalyn LaPier (Blackfeet/Métis) is an award-winning Indigenous writer, ethnobotanist, and environmental activist with a BA in physics and PhD in environmental history. She works within Indigenous communities to revitalize Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), to address environmental justice and the climate crisis, and to strengthen public policy for Indigenous languages.
		Thank you ! The Natural History Museum leverages the power of history, museums, monuments, and movements to change narratives, build alliances, educate the public and drive civic engagement in support of community-led movements for climate and environmental justice. Our programs are made possible thanks to support from 4Culture, ATALM, Chorus Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Invoking the Pause, Myer Memorial Trust, National Geographic Foundation, NEH, Resource Legacy Fund, and countless individuals. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution today! Your support goes a long way.