Disability Justice
Each of us hold many roles, belong to multiple communities, and have our own unique, beautiful gifts–it is important to hold space to recognize, celebrate and work together for a better future.
An outdoor plant, with red vines connecting three green leaves.
Often we think humans are separate from the Earth, but we are a part of a grander ecosystem. We exist with Mother Earth and with all our relations; and the reciprocity within these relationships must be inherent and continuous. Once we understand ourselves as a part of the global ecosystem, we can begin to grasp how we all have an important role in caring about Mother Earth and her children. How we walk on Mother Earth and how we treat her comes back to us and can be witnessed through our current extractive relationship with the land and how it shows up in our bodies.
When we look at the ecosystems around us, there is so much to learn. They are filled with diversity and unique gifts that are all important for thriving and surviving. Each species holds a different role, but they work together and honour each other. If you study a river, notice how the rocks on the riverbed allow for the water to flow freely as they hold the shape; how the roots of the plants on the riverbanks hold up the soil and the flowers and plants serve as nourishment for the animals and bugs and producing oxygen for us to breathe. Each one distinctive, unique, and part of a larger, interdependent ecosystem. Although each one is so vastly different, they are able to coexist, recognize, and prosper from all the shared gifts they each carry to create a beautiful community. Nature shows us examples of love, support and helps us imagine what a diverse community can look like.
Relations
“The way that I have approached the intersection of disability and climate justice work is through my understanding of the teachings that have been gifted and passed down to me. The teachings of all my relations and how we honour and acknowledge them in our prayers, in our introductions, and how we view ourselves as being part of this beautiful story on Mother Earth.”
The distinction between the mainstream views on intersectionality and applying Indigenous understandings to intersectionality comes down to honouring the unique voices and gifts that we hold as individuals and community beings. We must acknowledge ourselves as only pieces of a larger, interdependent, ecosystem. Our reliance on Mother Earth is interdependent to Mother Earth’s reliance on us. It models how we can connect, honour, and share with others to build community while acknowledging we all hold unique gifts and worldviews.
We are a part of the grander ecosystems that surround us, as organisms on a grander scale we must work together to begin modeling strategies for survival rooted in collective care and safety.
Insights
There are many factors that have influenced our interactions, disconnection, and separation from natural laws and original teachings. In the following sections, we have brought together an intersection of voices in hopes to frame new insight into the realities that persons with disabilities (gifts/lived experience) face in the world today, and how this relates to access, community care, and the intersection and interdependence of disability justice and climate justice movements.
Colonialism
“Colonialism has fractured the work that we do together as a community. We have forgotten to support one another. For example, many people are now fishing and harvesting alone instead of with the community. This makes it inaccessible for us that are living with disabilities. We need to rebuild interdependence with each other, the land and our larger communities. This would make things more accessible because we wouldn’t be doing those things by ourselves. We would have the support of our communities.”
A close up of white flowers, the background is out-of-focus with green foliage.
“It is the stage we've been brought to through capitalism. An exploitative framework which has stolen our lands, resources, lives and our future generations, disposing of the colonized, the disabled, our sovereignty and the environment when we are no longer of use to its profit-making. This extractive logic is justified through the eugenicist ideology of the ruling class. From this we understand that Decolonialism *is* environmental justice, it *is* disability justice, and at its root it *must* be Anti-Capitalist.”
— Adama Bundu, 2023
COVID-19 Pandemic
Although self-care was a huge part of the pandemic and many felt community care was an important element, people with disabilities and/or chronic illness were often left out of the equation. People without disabilities endorsed “self-care”, and made their way to the land—hiking, swimming, snowshoeing, fishing, etc.—without acknowledging the deeply problematic privilege in access. They were surrounded by and connected to our water, plant, and animal relatives—able to interact with the healing potential of land and ceremony while people with disabilities were not included, leading to further pandemic isolation and non-inclusion. Healing is a right and should be accessible to all.
“Many people are impacted by covid, the isolation piece is going to be different and unique in its own way. Let’s start having conversations about going back to the land with an inclusive lens rather than an afterthought.”
“It makes you feel isolated in it all, I know I go around campus and I see everyone else. I’ve been trained to look at what everyone else has in comparison to what I have. The idea of fighting, we have been fighting for inclusion for so long. It is getting to be really exhausting, that’s not to say the fight won’t stop.”
“We’ve been asking for accommodations to work from home before the pandemic and then the pandemic comes, and everyone gets to work from home.”
“We have to make sure that we don't self-destruct. Now we’re being made to think the pandemic is over, people are going back to doing things the way they were before. However they aren't sitting with those lessons. They still need to make sure there are resources for the disabled online. During the pandemic, folks from the disability community in greater amounts were able to access classes and were able to work jobs that they've always dreamed about.”
— Adama Bundu, 2023
Honour and Hope
“We need to be honoured in the ways that we can be honoured, whether its climate change, whether it is identity, whether it is healing. We need to be honoured.”
The disability justice movement carries unique perspectives about adaptability, survival, and resilience–offering insights, perspectives and solutions that are often more nuanced and creative than what could be imagined without. Disability Justice also asks us to examine capitalism’s exploitation of ideas of health, wellness, and justification for eugenics through curative and “fix-it” methods to disability. This movement has shared knowledge, tools, and wisdom within the greater framework of Healing Justice so that our collective efforts are inclusive, resilient, and stronger in unity.
“The honour of one is the honour of all. The dishonour of one is the dishonour of all. If we can’t honour the disability community, then we aren’t honouring all. What is happening to Mother Earth? We aren’t honouring her anymore, and there is a connection with this and MMIWG2S. Why aren’t we doing the simple things? In Mexico, there were vehicles for disabled people to be part of the protests; why aren’t we engaging in things like that? Why aren’t we inclusive when we are planning events? We need each other.”
— Su Deranger, 2023
“It is so necessary to understand that we need to work on anti-capitalist movement. When we know how to value people without these systems. It will break apart the way we have been seeing the world. This has value. This is how we work together. This is how we build community.”
Although the COVID-19 pandemic response was depicted as rapid, receptive, and compassionate–the efforts made were focused on wealthy, privileged people without disabilities or lived experiences of structural harm–while implementing solutions that the disability justice movement had been recommending for years. During the pandemic, the world quickly adopted methods of adaptability, which began to open more opportunities for people with disabilities to engage and hold space within social movements. However, as the world begins to “re-open” despite the pandemic, many of these opportunities for inclusion are disappearing.
When we think of all of my relations, we know we need to include the water, the land, the animals, the birds, the atmosphere, but we also need to remember to include communities who carry unique gifts (disabilities). We must foster a world that allows people with disabilities (gifts/ lived experience) to be active participants and contributors in our efforts for Justice in a way that is respected, honoured, and held in a sacred manner.
Forging ahead with true unity as we learn from one another in the intersection of climate and disability justice will only make us stronger. We need each other, in the words of deceased Elder Bob Smoker, “You are gonna need me as much as I need you.”
About the Contributors
Ashley Nadjiwon is currently the Healing Walk Coordinator at ICA, but joined us as the Youth Intersectionality Lead in Fall of 2022. As the Youth Intersectionality Lead, Ashley called on the support of Adama Bundu, Melanie Marsden, Caitlin Veri, and ICA’s Su Deranger and Erin Konsmo to support this work and bring forward their lived experiences and lenses to this issue. The group shared a large amount of knowledge and collaborated to create this piece as an introduction to Disability Justice and how it intersects with Climate Justice.
Melanie Marsden (D’baa Waane Waaskane Kwe “She Carries Light”) currently works as an Addiction and Mental Health Counsellor at Anishnawbe Health Toronto, Consultant for Circle Insights. Registered to Alderville First Nation and (Ojibway Bear Clan) and (Mohawk Turtle Clan from 6 Nations).
Caitlin Veri (Indie) is of mixed settler Kanien'kehaka ancestry with ties to Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory. They are a proud Queer, Two-Spirit person who is a lifelong member and advocate for the Disabled community. They are currently in their 4th year of their Indigenous Studies Bachelor of Arts Degree at Trent University in Nogojiwanong, Ontario.
Adama Bundu is a young Black organizer. They’re really passionate about Economics, Colonialism, Anti-Imperialism & Disability Justice. They are a multimedia artist, poet, and a firm believer in the power of art as a tool of revolutionary optimism. Centres their responsibility to their communities, the land, relations & their principles. They’re constantly proud to work across collectives, communities, and movements.