In Episode 1.5 Palestine to the Pacific: Land Back & Climate Justice we focus on understanding the connections between the unfolding genocide in Gaza and the crisis conditions of climate change that are destroying Indigenous knowledges, communities, kinship networks and lifeworlds, all across the world.
Settler-colonialism violence works to steal the land from the people and remove Indigenous Peoples from their land. Climate change is an outcome of this alienated and exploitative theft of land – and so often, the people on the frontlines in the struggle against climate change are Indigenous Land and Water Defenders and First Nations Peoples. These struggles are interconnected. In this episode, we explore these interconnections, and the ways that climate justice demands, and indeed cannot exist without, justice for First Nations Peoples. We look at entanglements between fossil fuel extraction and settler-colonial regimes from Palestine to the Pacific, land degradation and contamination as a technique of dispossession and genocide, and the failures and complicities of mainstream/whitestream environmental movements. And we turn and turn again to land, learning to hear ‘land back’ as a rallying cry for climate justice, and learning to understand how climate justice is predicated on the return of land to Indigenous Peoples. We also look at the ways that movements for climate justice and Palestinian liberation are working together to contest the destructive forces of colonialism, capitalism, racism, heteropatriarchy and white supremacy that are the root causes of the crisis conditions of the present.
You’ll hear recordings and excerpts from a speech by Aunty Linda Fairbanks at a march for Palestine held on the so-called gold coast in January of 2024, an interview with Aunty Tracey Hanshaw at the Rising Tide Blockade, an interview with Guy Rithani from the Pacific Climate Warriors, reflections from Dr Jamal Nabulsi at Weaving our Stories, hosted by 350.org, Our Islands Our Home, Gudanji for Country & Conscious Mic. And throughout the episode, you’ll hear Anna and Malaak Seleem from Justice for Palestine - Magan-djin in conversation on 4zzz (102.1fm) in November last year, drawing some of these threads together to help us interrogate the relationship between climate change and racial colonial capitalism, to connect the struggle for a Free Palestine with the struggle for climate justice, and to help us better understand why land back is climate justice, and why there is no climate justice without justice for the dispossessed.
If you’ve just found your way to our podcast, our aim is to archive the ongoing movement for Palestinian liberation as it unfolds on the unceded lands of the Yuggera, Yugarapul, Jagera, Turrbal and Yugumbeh peoples, across so-called brisbane and the surrounding cities of south east queensland. You can start here with Episode 1.5, but you might want to scroll back a bit further to begin with Episode 1.1 Settler Colonialism and the Current Crisis.
This podcast is produced and recorded on unceded Jagera & Turrbal country. Our deepest respects to the rightful owners of these lands, and to all First Nations peoples listening.
If you’re interested in accessing or supporting the audio archive from which this podcast draws, please get in touch with us via substack.
For some additional reading and listening on this topic, check out:
https://overland.org.au/2023/12/where-is-the-australian-climate-movements-solidarity-with-palestine/
https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/600-our-history-is-the-future
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