Toward a Decolonial Feminism and Ecological Applications: Examining Barriers and Possibilities in Canada

By: Sofia Pennacchietti

This paper examines intersections between decolonization, feminist theory, and environmental frameworks. I pose the question: how can decoloniality be used to address environmental and gender issues? Using the theories of María Lugones, I explore how gender and environmental equity issues can be solved alongside one another in the context of a case study on Indigenous women in Canada. To do so, I expand on Lugones’ theories of dialogue, collaboration, and complex communication to environmental frameworks. Throughout this paper, I explore how decolonial relations can be created to combat the negative outcomes that modern, capitalist, colonial structures have inflicted on both gender equality and environmental justice efforts. Overall, I argue that María Lugones’ discussion of the decoloniality of feminism

POSITIONALITY

This piece was written for a third-year Political Studies course in Contemporary Political Theory, taught by Dr. Pinar Dokumaci. It became clear to me that resistance is central to our current political climate, and that theories of resistance can be used to address inequalities. Resistance is an empowering concept; it acknowledges the oppression caused by global capitalist, and colonial systems on women, BIPOC, LGBTQ2IA+, and other marginalized communities, without allowing this oppression to define them. Rather, these communities hold immense strength because they are continuously resisting the process of oppression.

can be used to address environmental and gender issues by looking through a lens that refers to those who face gender and environmental injustices as the ‘resistors.’ Dialogue Lugones’ emphasis on dialogue stems from the acknowledgment that colonized women faced, and continue to face, the inferior status of gendering as women without any of the privileges accompanying the status for white bourgeois women (Lugones, 2010). This is in line with Lugones’ (2010) broader understanding of coloniality as the “inseparability of racialized and capitalist exploitation.” It is important to understand dialogue as the root of oppression within this understanding of colonialism. Dialogue begins the process of institutional and systemic discrimination. At the same time, dialogue is not easily contained. Laws and institutional changes limiting hate speech and discriminatory language are rarely effective (Koutouki, Lofts, and Davidian, 2018). Understanding dialogue as the ‘theoretical’—that which cannot be directly applied through legislative action, but rather is applied by fostering ontological knowledge within society—allows for a stronger grasp on how difficult it is to address oppression faced by colonized women.

It is necessary to divulge into Lugones’ theory of dialogue with greater specificity to understand its application to the relationship between Indigenous women in Canada and environmental frameworks. Here, two points are worth emphasizing. First, Lugones draws attention to how dialogue operates as a standard process of knowledge production and decolonial thinking. Second, by focusing attention on dialogue as knowledge production, Lugones creates space to understand hierarchical dichotomies and categorical logics in relation to decolonial and intersectional dialogue (Lugones, 2010). There exists both a vocabulary for what the oppressor does to the oppressed and a shared wisdom about the shortcomings of the oppressor (Lugones, 2006). Regardless of the negative impacts that the oppressor has on the oppressed, humans have rejected the reality of the oppressor as true even

when we recognize that it rules our lives, even from the inside. As such, dialogue greatly impacts the power structures that have allowed for the oppressor vs oppressed dichotomy (Lugones 2006). As Lugones explains, Indigenous women face the inferior status of gendering as women, while also facing the negative impacts of colonization (Lugones, 2010). In Canada, this is evidenced by the levels and types of violence Indigenous women experience. The anti-Indigenous and sexist dialogue circulating across Canada has led to non-existent or violent legal and governmental responses for Indigenous women in crisis (Bingham, 2014). Through this, we see that Canada has failed to allocate the necessary resources to Indigenous women for them to prosper, which limits the ability of Indigenous women to contribute to environmental discourses in Canada to their full potential. Fortunately, those who are able to share their rich cultural relationship to the Earth in climate, pipeline, mining, and water cleaning negotiations, play a central role in the improvement of environmental outcomes (O’Faircheallaigh, 2013). As such, the success of Indigenous women in improving environmental outcomes shows that the negative dialogue surrounding Indigenous women must change for the prosperity of Indigenous communities, and society more broadly. The dialogue can only be changed through a societal shift, classified by the deconstruction of previous ontological assumptions. As such, changing dialogue relies on both individual and coalitional spaces which reject current dialogic norms and embrace open and intersectional discourses.

Coalitions and Collaboration To Lugones, it is essential to create a space for collaboration, participation, research, and popular education in order to see the details of the processes of the colonial gender system (Lugones, 2008). Lugones’ examination of oppressed groups as ‘resistors’ is vital in the pursuit of collaboration. The resistors are those who are being oppressed by the colonizing construction of the fractured locus (Lugones, 2010). Instead of thinking of the global, capitalist, colonial system as successful in its destruction of peoples, knowledge, relations, and economies, we ought to think of the process as being continuously resisted (Lugones, 2010). The locus is fractured by the presence of resistance, the active subjectivity of the colonized against the colonial invasion of self in community (Lugones, 2010). Moving away from identity politics, Lugones argues that we ought to build coalitions of all groups of people in order to move forward towards a more equitable world.

Coalitional spaces are increasingly important in contemporary colonial gender and environmental issues. I refer to collaborative and coalitional spaces as the ‘applicable,’ meaning that such practices can be implemented into legislation and have the potential for real-life resemblance. Thus, through effective policy making, collaborative and coalitional theories can create a more equitable world through the openness to learn each other’s meaning; coalitions are a loving connection towards liberation (Lugones, 2006). This proposition of coalitions is demanding in that it contrasts with the temporary, epistemically shallow sense of coalition based on coincidence of interests (Lugones, 2006). Coalitional spaces are often not made for the intersection of gender and environmental issues because the solutions to these issues are falsely viewed as unrelated to one another. However, based upon Lugones’ theories of coalitional and collaborative spaces for the decoloniality of feminism, I argue that such frameworks can be transferred to the intersection of gender and environmental issues. Indigenous women assume responsibilities in their communities that expose them to harms stemming from climate change impacts and other environmental changes (Whyte, 2016). For Indigenous women living amidst a colonial world, it is important to emphasize the impacts that climate change has on them. Meaning, it is vital to create coalitional spaces which stress the political responsibilities of non-Indigenous parties for supporting distinctly Indigenous efforts at climate change adaptation and mitigation (Whyte, 2016). The impact of environmental degradation on Indigenous women highlights why policy must create collaborative spaces to discuss the intersection of gender, coloniality, and environmental issues. Indigenous populations have a deep sense of ecological awareness and a relationship to nature that can assist in combatting environmental degradation. More specifically, Anishinaabe women have a specific responsibili-

ty in protecting water (Whyte, 2016). Collaborations between Indigenous women and international policy organizations has led to great change in water protection. The Mandaluyong Declaration of the Global Conference on Indigenous Women, Climate Change, and REDD Plus (2010) is an example of a collaborative space which discussed the ways in which Indigenous women’s cultural responsibilities and social situations put them at great risk from climate change impacts (Whyte, 2016). Such efforts contribute to climate change adaptation and mitigation, while strengthening the voices of Indigenous women who participate in them (Whyte, 2016). This shows the importance of coalitional spaces for gender and environmental issues.

Complex Communications

Complex communication is a creative notion where we create and cement relational identities, meanings that did not proceed the encounter, ways of life that transcend nationalism, root identities, and other simplifications of our imaginations (Lugones, 2006). Complex communication is not the act of assimilating the text of others to our own; rather, it is enacted through a change in one’s own vocabulary, one’s sense of self, one’s way of living, in the extension of one’s collective memory by developing forms of communication that signal disruptions of the reduction attempted by the oppressor (Lugones, 2006). Lugones argues that it is this disposition, the openness to learn each other’s meaning, that we are often lacking (Lugones, 2006). Lugones’ theories of complex communication can be labelled as both the ‘theoretical’ and the ‘applicable.’ Complex communication synthesizes and expands on the theories of dialogue with the theories of collaboration and coalitions. The decoloniality of dialogue in its application to complex communication aims to combat discourses that address the colonizer as reducing the colonized through monologue (Lugones, 2006). Such dialogue addresses the colonizer’s monologue through defiant interpellation, without anything other than this disruption (Lugones, 2006). Through the refusion of transparency and operating with relational identities, collaboration and genuine coalitions are enabled (Lugones, 2006). As such, coalitions and collaborations are a part of the ‘applicable’. Thus, through the eyes of Lugones, and through the examination of complex communication, the applicable works alongside the theoretical. One could go as far to say that the applicable is only possible if they succeed in the theoretical. In such a way, complex communication can be seen as a two-fold theory with aspects of the theoretical construct of dialogue, and the applicable construct of collaboration. Canada, as a culturally diverse nation, ought to use complex communication in the decoloniality of gender and environmental issues. This must include the creation of spaces for Indigenous voices to be heard and respected. Lugones’ emphasis on coalitions as a vital element to complex communication highlights that there are various groups of resistors that cannot be treated identically. This is highlighted in Canada, where various Indigenous populations face different gender and environmental challenges. Koutouki, Lofts, and Davidian (2018) explain that the environmental impacts of Indigenous women differ between Nunavut, Labrador, and Northwest Territories based on different climates, landscapes, and community responsibilities. Thus, in the application of complex communication, various groups of resistors must be included in coalitional relationships. In a similar manner, complex communication emphasizes that our discourses surrounding Indigenous populations must acknowledge inter-cultural differences.

Conclusion Through my exploration of Lugones’ theories, it is evident that dialogue, collaboration, and complex communication can be applied to ecological issues, specifically in the Canadian context. Indigenous women in Canada face the effects of colonization and environmental degradation, while facing the inferior status of gendering as women. Both the theoretical and applicable elements of Lugones’ notion of the decoloniality of feminism can be used to improve gender and environmental outcomes. The relationship between colonial practices, gender inequity, and environmental degradation is clear and the solutions to these issues can help to serve each other. Above all, coloniality has created tremendous barriers in the path of the struggles of women and this is distinctly highlighted through the gendered impacts of environmental change. Thus, the decoloniality of feminism transfers into environmental frameworks seamlessly.