NDN Science Show

On today’s show, we took a bit of a different approach to our conversation. Both of us chose a topic within this overarching idea of Indigenous Environmental Issues. This is an important area to explore because our connection to the natural world is inseparable. Unlike the broad topic of being Indigenous in the modern world, this episode is more specific. We discuss oil transportation along the BNSF Railroad and the implications that spills have on the people, landscape, and watershed in western Montana. We also relate the reasons for why this is so significant to Indigenous communities by looking at two documents as examples of ways current approaches are highly colonized, but also for ways we can move forward with environmental issues in general.

Some of the main ideas we talk about are:

- The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway: How much oil is transported, Implications for the watershed, How this can affect all people

- The Rights of Mother Earth: The Universal Declaration on the Rights of Mother Earth, The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People

- Government Documents at Different Levels

- Grassroots Change through Personal Change

- The Power of Your Vote

~

Links and Resources:

Oil and Water Don't Mix YouTube Video

Understanding Oil Spills In Freshwater Environments

Middle Fork Flathead River: Treat: Oil Transport by Rail

United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People

The Universal Declaration of the Rights of Mother Earth

The Law of Mother Earth: Behind Bolivia's Historic Bill

~

Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal

In this episode, we begin exploring the idea of being Indigenous in the modern world and how our experience in graduate school taught us a lot about this concept. It’s a big topic, so we want to be clear that we’re not the experts with all the answers, but we can definitely ask the question: How can you be Indigenous in the modern world? This will be a recurring theme and since it’s such a big question, we’ll be focusing on different aspects of this topic every three episodes or about once a month. If you have any questions or you have something to add, feel free to leave a comment or review and we’ll be sure to include it in one of the episodes.

~

Some of the main ideas we talk about:

- Our experience with graduate school and being Indigenous in the modern world

- Some of the tools we learned: traditional ecological knowledge; worldview awareness and integration; worldview sovereignty; biophilia and the power of word use; and respect, responsibility, and reciprocity

- Our research projects

~

Links and Resources:

Biophilia Article – Gullone, Eleanora. 2000. The Biophilia Hypothesis and Life in the 21st Century: Increasing Mental Health or Increasing Pathology? Journal of Happiness Studies 1(3):293-322

~

Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal

~

This episode is all about introductions... ourselves, the show, the name of the show, and what the podcast will look like in the future.

~

Like this show? Leave us a review here... even one sentence helps! And if you leave your Twitter handle we'll be sure to thank you personally! You can also Support the Show on PayPal

~