Blame, Shame, and the Complexity of Collective Identity in Settler-Solidarity for Environmental Justice: A Case Study

• In Event: 046 - Section on Environment and Technology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Environmental Justice

Abstract

The experiences and thoughts of people working in solidarity are an important yet under-analyzed part of environmental justice struggles. This study explores the experiences of University students working in solidarity with the Winnemem Wintu. Solidarity work of this kind places students in support of an indigenous-led struggle for environmental and social justice. This case study explores the particular emotions involved in settler-solidarity. Working with the Winnemem Wintu brings many participants face-to-face for the first time with colonization as something ongoing and in which they are implicated. As a result, intense emotions that run the gamut from joy to anger to sorrow often accompany this rapid knowledge acquisition. Drawing particularly on Jasper’s work regarding blame, moral shocks and collective identity, I explore how settler-solidarity complicates these aspects of emotions in social movements.

Author

• Julie Bacon, University of Oregon