Decolonization series: Positionality matters
by Lauren Ballesteros-Watanabe | Reading time: 5 minutes
The first article in our decolonization series was meant to lay the foundational understanding of why dismantling colonial structures and frameworks is central to climate action and how it restores a deep respect for our lands, waters, and those around us. We ended the article with a question: does positionality matter in our pursuit of climate solutions? The simple answer is a resounding, YES. And although it’s key to systemic decolonization, the process is uniquely personal.
As Adrianne Maree Brown writes in Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing worlds, labeled a radical self-help, society-help, and planet-help book— “we are all invited to reach out to one another as the individually powerful parts that we are to make an ever more powerful whole.” If we are to successfully shift our entire social and economic industrial way of life to a sustainable resilient future, we need one another.
Language shapes our reality, and finding the words to describe complex injustices can be just as challenging as the issues themselves. As we confront systemic issues, we can begin to address the power dynamics that form these injustices through naming our own social identities, roles and privilege. Though the circumstances of these structural issues may seem out of our control, from here, we can at least begin to start to create new frameworks of mutual understanding and foster intentionality to make a change, i.e acting upon positionality as a daily practice.
Positionality refers to how differences in social position shape identities, values, worldviews and access in society. It is the notion that, “all parts of our identities are shaped by socially constructed positions and memberships to which we belong” and which are “embedded in our society as a system.” (1) The concept began in the 1960’s Progressive movement when social scientists challenged objectivity and unbiased observation in researcher analysis. Today, positionality is a methodology that helps us all to confront our “own degrees of privilege through factors of race, class, educational attainment, income, ability, gender, and citizenship, among others.” (2) Since not all these factors are fixed given qualities, acknowledging them is an on-going process of also uncovering intersectionality.
Intersectionality was coined by civil rights activist Kimberlé Crenshaw in response to feminist movements of the 20th century to explain how Black women faced unique forms of discrimination because of the intersection of their gender and racial identities; stating that "women" and "Black" do not exist independently and often converge to construct unique frameworks of oppression that must be first acknowledged in order to create more inclusive dialogue and solutions. The goal being to cultivate an awareness of the various ways in which one’s group identities are mutually reinforcing and “intersect” to provide privilege or experience barriers in the world. From a social justice perspective, privilege is defined as systemically bestowed dominance by which the beliefs and values of the dominant group are “made normal” through social and institutional power, it is often invisible to those who have it.(3) Therefore to avoid perpetuating the oppression brought on by privilege requires discerning that in each social interaction, there are systemic power dynamics (like racism, sexism, heterosexism, and so on) in play.
We all have our personal “why” for coming to the environmental and climate justice movement. Internalizing intersectional positionality and privilege brings our advocacy for systemic justice to the next level by attempting to untangle the complex web of inequalities through policies and law change. The terms are also tools to understand how issues impact us differently which strengthens our ability to make a meaningful contribution in building an inclusive multiracial, multigenerational, cross-class, and decolonized environmental justice movement. Additionally, a worthwhile critique in decolonization is misappropriating Indigenous approaches to climate solutions that do not seriously contribute to dismantling colonial structures. Doing so runs the risk of further colonizing Indigenous knowledge and identities; like the persistent exploitation of Hawaiian culture throughout the tourism industry. Sensitivity and awareness in this regard is necessary in order to avoid the same extractivism that injects Hawaiian vocabulary into policy without true representation from kānaka leadership. Climate solutions that effectively act against colonization are rooted in restorative justice, including giving back ancestral lands to best steward our resources, to secure an Indigenous led future.
Positionality in our advocacy necessitates addressing representation. For example, taking inventory of who’s in the room and who’s not in a meeting. In my work, the norm in most public and private sector spaces is that there is a consistently a disproportionate amount of settlers, both new and descendant, and a lack of gender and people of color representation. Most importantly there is virtually no Kānaka ʻŌiwi representation, especially in positions of power. It speaks volumes to the historical and ongoing effects of settler colonialism and capitalism in Hawaiʻi. Legendary scholar, educator, and Hawaiian activist Haunani K. Trask famously offered a way to explore Hawaiʻi’s unique racial dynamics in her essay “Settlers of Color and "Immigrant" Hegemony: "Locals" in Hawai'i," which highlights how “modern Hawai’i, like its colonial parent the United States, is a settler society…Native people and territories have been overrun by non-Natives, including Asians. Calling themselves ”local,”…they claim Hawai’i as their own, denying indigenous history, their long collaboration.” Trask’s powerful words offer a more robust analysis of settler colonialism that captures different ways of knowing, being, and responding to--the living force of the colonial past. We will explore more of this throughout this series to avoid advocating for a “settler future,” one in which settlers continue to benefit at the cost of Hawaiian land, rights, and sovereignty.
As a settler of color that represents the local chapter of an influential national organization in the midst of transforming itself to practice genuine engagement in its core values; positionality is fundamental to embodying our commitment to anti-racism, maintaining accountability, and just-relationships. I have the benefit of working directly with powerful community leaders who don't always have the same access or time to be in these spaces, but have so much to offer them, it makes it even more critical to question the status quo of “inclusivity.” I invite others to take a deeper look at the spaces you’re in whether it be work or environmental advocacy groups and, if applicable, how to best invite more meaningful representation. It’s an albeit small step but has major impacts on decolonizing spaces and creating solutions informed by diverse place-based expertise.
There is a growing openness throughout a variety of organizations and government agencies to be more inclusive and engage community in a meaningful way. However, I believe there is an added layer of how decision-making power is confronted and shared that is yet to be determined.
Another practical step in conscious positionality is to be intentional about physical space. There has been a growing movement globally and locally to return to the original names of places. As N. Haʻalilio Solomon shares in his article, ”Recalling Hawaiian Place Names, an Act of Honor and Resistance,” the ongoing effects of militarization and colonialism through name changes that coincide with major historical acts of violence, transfers of power, and land dispossession; “when names are replaced, so are their senses of place, their networks of meaning, their value systems.” The growing restoration movements are a return to inoa ʻāina, Hawaiian place names, that restores relationships and sacred stories of place such as the change from Lanikai School to Kaʻōhau School in 2017, the recent resolution at the state legislature attempting to return the name of Kaawaloa from Captain Cook on Hawaiʻi Island and the current efforts to rename Hawaiʻi Kai to Maunalua. These are all important steps in recognizing and rejecting the erasure of Hawaiian history and identity. I invite you to read Solomon’s poignant article and for those who may not know, find out the true history of the community you live in and share it with others. Precolonial land acknowledgement is a radical act of solidarity that can be a catalyst for others to do the same. As Haunani K. Trask says, “resistance is its own reward.”
As the stakes of climate change worsen and time to take action slips away, it’s a critical moment to uplift “who” is creating solutions and who isn’t even in the room. Hawaiian cultural values operate through genuine communication and place-based collaboration that moves us beyond the apocalyptic narratives of climate and back towards action rooted in sacred interdependence and abundance. Acting upon positionality is such an important way of moving forward in an inclusive and just way- not only does colonialism undermine our collective well-being to thrive on this planet, it fractures our relationships between one another. From this perspective, decolonization is a process that is just as important as the outcome. There is much to learn about how we much we all have to regain by being intentional.
In the next article of the series, we hope to offer a deep dive into the historical and present day realities of colonialism and unique racial dynamics in Hawaiʻi in order to lead into another key element in our climate justice work, racial healing.
COMING UP NEXT: Unpacking settler colonialism and racial healing in Hawaiʻi.
Sources:
(1) Misawa, M. (2010). Queer Race Pedagogy for Educators in Higher Education: Dealing with Power Dynamics and Positionality of LGBTQ Students of Color. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3
(2) Duarte, M.E. (2017). Network Sovereignty: Building the Internet Across Indian Country. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
(3) Sensoy, Ozlem, and Robin DiAngelo. Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education, first edition. Teacher’s College Press: New York, 2012, p. 57.