Expanding Black and Indigenous Ecologies

Abstract

Abstract This issue navigates the intersections of Black and Indigenous ecologies. Colonial epistemologies still marginalize Black and Indigenous peoples in discussions about ecologies: they neglect Black and Indigenous peoples’ disproportionate environmental dispossession and the effects of environmental racism while “naturalizing” Black and Indigenous peoples as closer to the natural environment. The contributions to this issue draw on convergences between environmental inequality, sonic ecologies, and the legacies of colonialism to shape ongoing conversations. The issue traces historical as well as contemporary relationships and attends to the linkages and disruptions at work in Black and Indigenous ecologies, especially in the midst of climate change, which continues to affect those who are least responsible for the planet’s degradation. The articles in this issue make visible entwined histories in Black and Indigenous ecologies, as well as histories of oppression, that may trouble territorial boundaries and expand relationalities.