Indigenizing Education for Climate Action
The book is out!
It’s been a brutish and beautiful week. I was sick for much of it, wresting slices of writing time from the pull of sleep and recovery. In the midst of it all, a passion-project that is almost two years in the making has come to fruition this Friday. The book is out!
Indigenizing Education for Climate Action was the brainchild of one of my dearest friends, Diana Mastracci Sánchez. We were discussing ways to collaborate, ways that could bridge her experience with Indigenous communities and space agencies, and my work in higher education. During these initial conversations, I mentioned my previous work in pulling together Open Commons anthologies with multiple authors. The context was that I adamantly didn’t want to make another one. But, of course, I was persuaded.
And today I am so grateful for Diana’s insistence. What I didn’t expect was that so many scholars and writers would answer the call for proposals. That so many would write about their methodologies, experiences, and projects with such passion and give this scholarship out freely to the world. I learned so much in the act of reviewing, editing, and weaving the completed book together in collaboration with our generous authors.
In the process, I also confronted my own fears of publishing. I have long avoided publishing peer-reviewed articles—I never found myself particularly inspired by the form or process. But, again, the works of the other writers inspired me to show up and do the work. And to embrace the creative constraints of the form. You can read the results, “Testimonios as Storytelling for Climate Action,” here.
I hope this collection opens hearts and minds. My greatest wish is that it empowers educators, researchers, policymakers, community leaders and young people to integrate Indigenous voices into solutions for our collective climate future.
3 Things Newly Noted
The world seems to be utterly humming with collective grief this week. So many are seeking to understand the Israel-Palestine conflict these days, and the sources are endless. It is really difficult to find any space of hope at the moment, but this morning, a memory sparked for me from many years ago. As a 17-year-old community college student, I interviewed Lee Gordon for an assignment on political activism. At the time, he had recently co-founded a center for Jewish-Arab education in Israel called “Hand in Hand” (you can see 2-minute video of their work here). The essay I wrote is long gone but I remember how impactful his words and mission were (and how gracious he was in giving me his time!) Arabs and Jews in Israel are largely segregated into separate K-12 schools (due to the differing instructional languages, Arabic and Hebrew). Hand in Hand has since opened six schools with a bilingual, co-teaching model (one Jewish and one Arab teacher per classroom) with the rationale that “when people live and learn together every day, they cannot be enemies.” I was heartened to see that they’ve continued on for over two decades now, gaining much acclaim and global support, and encourage you to check out their work if interested.
“Are you in the Portal?” by Anne Helen Petersen, explores the “portal” of creative energy women often discover at midlife: “Maiden-becomes-crone, sure. Destabilizing, yes…also an experience of transformation, of refinement.”
The Great British Bake Off (aka Great British Baking Show) returned a few weeks ago. Its lulling formula and avuncular contestants never fail to soothe.
See you next Friday!
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