I thank Samantha Lewis for her assistance with bibliographical research on environmental justice. Any quotes are from my own interviews unless otherwise attributed. I dedicate this to all who make EJ possible.
References
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3 Environmental Justice, Indigenous Peoples, and Consent
Kyle Powys Whyte
PHOTO 3.1
Diego G. Diaz / Shutterstock
Indigenous peoples are living societies who continue to exercise their own political and cultural self-determination despite facing conditions of invasion, exploitation, and colonization (Anaya, 2004; Sanders, 1977). Self-determination refers to a society’s capacity to pursue freely its own plans and future in ways that support the aspirations and needs of its members. Conditions of invasion, exploitation, and colonization are caused by groups from other societies. The groups include nations and for-profit and nonprofit organizations, such as multinational corporations, local industries, and conservationist groups. In very simple terms, invasion occurs when one society (or certain groups from it) forcefully seizes the lands and waters that another society lives on and flourishes from. The latter society is the Indigenous people. Seizure is likely aimed at several goals, including exploitation and colonization. Exploitation occurs when the invaders seek to earn economic profits at the expense of harming the Indigenous peoples. Colonization occurs when the invaders seek to create strategies to undermine the Indigenous peoples’ self-determination in preventing themselves from being exploited.
Colonial strategies for denying the colonized society’s self-determination often involve military protection of people who seek to engage in industries such as mining that take resources from Indigenous lands. Indigenous peoples do not profit from these industries and are often harmed by environmental consequences, such as pollution. Or colonial strategies involve the invading society actually forcing the creation of conditions for its members to live permanently in the new lands. In North America, the United States and Canada, as well as the European nations that preceded them, invaded Indigenous peoples’ lands and continue to exploit and colonize Indigenous peoples today. Corporations, operating with the sanction of these countries, have profited from dirty environments at the expense of Indigenous peoples’ health, cultural integrity, and economic well-being. Economic exploitation, stealing of resources, and polluting the land are all strategies to stop people