Humans at the Center: Black and Indigenous Youth Theorizing Anthropocentric Land Relations

• In Event: Confronting Colonial Legacies: Healing and Justice in Environmental Education

Abstract

This paper maps the iterative theorizing of anthropocentrism by Black and Indigenous youth co-researchers (ages 14-18) in an urban land education program focused on climate change, more-than-human relations, and theories of change toward climate justice. It follows their iterative process, beginning with the climate change problem tree activity (Land Education Dreambook, 2023), facilitated by Dr. Eve Tuck as part of the program's participatory research methodology. This paper demonstrates how the problem tree facilitated ongoing collective meaning-making, providing a foundation for youth co-researchers to understand and think beyond anthropocentrism in relation to climate change and their desired relations to Land and waters.

Author

• John Pierre Craig, University of Toronto - OISE