Fresh Banana Leaves
Healing Indigenous Landscapes through Indigenous Science
-
- $24.99
-
- $24.99
Publisher Description
A 2022 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in Science & Technology
An Indigenous environmental scientist breaks down why western conservationism isn't working--and offers Indigenous models informed by case studies, personal stories, and family histories that center the voices of Latin American women and land protectors.
Despite the undeniable fact that Indigenous communities are among the most affected by climate devastation, Indigenous science is nowhere to be found in mainstream environmental policy or discourse. And while holistic land, water, and forest management practices born from millennia of Indigenous knowledge systems have much to teach all of us, Indigenous science has long been ignored, otherized, or perceived as "soft"--the product of a systematic, centuries-long campaign of racism, colonialism, extractive capitalism, and delegitimization.
Here, Jessica Hernandez--Maya Ch'orti' and Zapotec environmental scientist and founder of environmental agency Piña Soul--introduces and contextualizes Indigenous environmental knowledge and proposes a vision of land stewardship that heals rather than displaces, that generates rather than destroys. She breaks down the failures of western-defined conservatism and shares alternatives, citing the restoration work of urban Indigenous people in Seattle; her family's fight against ecoterrorism in Latin America; and holistic land management approaches of Indigenous groups across the continent.
Through case studies, historical overviews, and stories that center the voices and lived experiences of Indigenous Latin American women and land protectors, Hernandez makes the case that if we're to recover the health of our planet--for everyone--we need to stop the eco-colonialism ravaging Indigenous lands and restore our relationship with Earth to one of harmony and respect.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Environmental scientist and activist Hernandez, who is Zapotec and Maya Ch'orti', debuts with a passionate if jumbled look at the intersection of environmental justice, racism, and conservationism. She argues that "mostly white cisgender men" are managing Indigenous lands through systemic "ecocolonialism" that has harmed Indigenous peoples and led to environmental damage, and they've failed to acknowledge the "ecological grief" they've caused. Westerners, she writes, fall short on including Indigenous people in environmental dialogues and deny them the social and economic resources necessary to recover from "land theft, cultural loss, and genocide" and to prepare for the future effects of climate change. She argues vehemently against national parks ("Yellowstone not only marked the forced removal of Indigenous peoples, it also celebrated the genocide enacted against Indigenous peoples during these times") and such organizations as the Sierra Club ("Why is the face of conservation still white men?"), describes the racial and gender discrimination she faced as a student, gives short histories on Indigenous resistance movements in Central America, discusses women-led artisan collectives, and reveals her own family history. It's a moving lay of the land, but one prone to sidetracking without charting a way forward. The survey has potential, but it doesn't quite come together.
