Storytelling

Each quarter, a group of students, faculty, and staff at WWU convene an environmental justice reading group to read and discuss recent texts. This quarter (Winter 2019) the group is reading excerpts from Sharing the earth: An international environmental justice reader (Ammons and Modhumita, eds) and Between the Heart and the Land: Entre el corazón y la tierra (Cardenas and Vázquez, eds.). The following entry reflects the group’s discussion last week.

What is it like to learn about environmental injustice through storytelling compared to learning through academic texts and media accounts? This question was explored by Western students in our reading group discussion last week. focusing on the different components of environmental justice in the Winter of 2019. After reading several short stories, fables, and poems – including the traditional Lakota story, “Iktomi and the Muskrat” and the traditional Xhaso story, “Dove and Jackal”, the class broke into groups to create their own environmental justice fables for children. Many of us found it challenging to create our own stories and poems. The groups drafted stories about complex concepts such as the relationship between people and nature, the human impacts on different ecosystems, and equality and equity.

The following story – written by students Rachel, Jordan, Emily, and Sarah – aims to educate children on systemic racism and diversity:

There once was a society made of shapes. One day, the triangles thought they were the best shape and built everything out of triangles. The other shapes were sad, but the triangles poked them with their points to get their way. Some shapes were not easy to name and did not know what shapes they fit into.

One day, a circle spoke up and said, “Hey triangles! It’s not fair that everything is made out of triangles! All the points poke me and many other. I’m sure others will agree that more shapes should be used in our society.”

The triangles were angry because they built so many things and felt like they were being disrespected by the circle and his other friends of different shapes.

Soon, all sorts of shapes spoke up and said how everything being made out of triangles did not work for them. Even shapes that were mixed from many shapes spoke up because they were not represented as shapes and did not fit with the other shapes.

As the triangles heard all of this, they realized how unkind it was to make everything out of triangles so they began to remake everything, together, with the other shapes, even the ones without names.

 

Last week, students in the EJ reading group wrote children’s stories. This illustration accompanied a story that stressed the interconnectivity of humans and the environment through the eyes of an ant.  

To learn more about how to talk to children about race, check out this resource, compiled by King County, WA librarians.