ONLINE: Tribal Cultural Resource Preservation & Its Implications For "More-Than-Human" Environments

press release: Deondre Smiles, Ohio State University

It is commonly thought in settler society that death is the end of any political agency or political processes that surround the human body, or any other living thing. However, the work that is being done by tribes to help protect their environments and sacred spaces in the name of cultural resource management and protection have done much to disprove these ideas in regard to Indigenous bodies and Indigenous environments. In this talk, I will explore how aspects of my dissertation research have influenced and ‘given life’ to my current research agenda, which is to investigate how processes of tribal cultural resource protection can help maintain and preserve our more-than-human environments going into the future. I argue that the defense of both the living and the dead is part of the long tradition of resistance by Indigenous nations, a tradition that becomes more important in an era of climate crisis.

All Yi-Fu Tuan Lecture Series presentations arefully online via Zoom every Friday at 3:30 PM. The link to join the meeting is https://uwmadison.zoom.us/j/96180090381 except when otherwise indicated. Brown bag sessions start at noon on the days there are speakers. Alumni, friends and the public are always invited to attend.