April’s Catalyst Circle conversation picked up a thread offered by Maria at the March session: the Aymara concept of ‘Ch’ixi’, denoting that which is, in Maria’s words, “not white, not black, but not grey either. It’s all the colours at the same time”.
Responding to this invitation to move beyond binaries, the Circle began by exploring the concept of indigeneity. In what ways is the concept of indigeneity an invention? How can an understanding of (all) cultural practices as mixed, contingent, and in flux, challenge systems of power? And, how can we have these conversations, while also honouring the importance of indigenous identities and practices in struggles against coloniality and climate collapse?
The conversation journeyed to questions of participation and exclusion in decision-making across geographies, from big business in the Amazon to “sacrifice zones” in Portugal, and the possibilities that could be opened up by bioregionalism in India.
The Catalyst Circle is a community of practitioners working across Africa, Asia, Europe and North and South America, who meet online each month for a series of recorded conversations exploring “radical ecology”.
Watch the session here.