Edge Effects is currently accepting submissions to a new series on Indigenous lands, waters, and ways of knowing—local and global, historical and contemporary. We invite previously unpublished essays, photo essays, oral histories, artwork, and other creative pieces that address Indigenous movements for sovereignty and self-determination—land rights, water rights, and by extension food sovereignty—as well as Indigenous-led movements for the Rights of Nature.
Around the world, settler colonial projects have been responsible for environmental degradation and contamination that disproportionately affect Indigenous peoples and their cultural and political relationships to the lands and waters. Within Native American and Indigenous movements for sovereignty and self-determination, land and water rights—and by extension food sovereignty—have been critical ways to restore the physical, cultural, and spiritual health of Indigenous communities. From New Zealand to the Amazon Basin, and from the Andes to the Alberta tar sands, Indigenous-led movements that recognize the Rights of Nature (or the legal personhood of waterways and landforms) are challenging liberal western assumptions about rights, justice, and personhood and creating space for an environmental politics based on reciprocal, ethical relationship with a living world. Native American peoples are at the forefront of similar movements, despite a settler colonial legal regime set against these efforts. The White Earth Band of Ojibwe, for example, recently recognized the Rights of Manoomin (wild rice), modeling the law after the Rights of Nature codified by the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin and the Ponca Nation in Oklahoma, as well successful international movements that secured legal rights for the Whanganui, Ganges, and Yamuna Rivers.
Inspired in part by the Place-Based Workshop: Changing Landscapes of Indigeneity, held by the Center for Culture, History, and Environment at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in May 2019, we hope that this series will curate a multi-faceted discussion about environmental and political changes facing Indigenous societies and put settler scholars into meaningful conversation with Indigenous scholars, artists, and activists. We invite historical and contemporary perspectives on Indigenous ways of knowing, living with, and fighting for lands, waters, and the peoples who live among them. We especially encourage visual, audio, and written works that feature Indigenous voices on their own terms.
Submission details
- Anyone is welcome to submit to this series. As always, we hope to highlight the research and writing of graduate students, postdocs, and early career scholars from a variety of disciplines. We especially encourage Indigenous practitioners, activists, and artists to send us work.
- Please note that we publish content geared toward a public audience. We encourage you to browse our recent publications and our style guide to familiarize yourself with the magazine. If you have questions about what we mean by “a public audience,” please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
- Interested parties should send a full draft of their piece to the Edge Effects team at edgeeffects@nelson.wisc.edu.
- Drafts should be accompanied by a brief pitch (~250 words). Please see our submissions page for pitch guidelines.
We look forward to reading your work!
