The politics of greening unceded lands in the settler city |
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| Authors: | Libby Porter Julia Hurst Tina Grandinetti |
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| Institution: | 1. Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia Libby.porter@rmit.edu.au;3. School of Social and Political Science, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia;4. Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia |
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| Abstract: | ABSTRACT Urban greening is a buzz term in urban policy and research settings in Australia and elsewhere. In a context of settler colonial urbanism, like Australia, a first fact becomes clear: urban greening is always being practiced on unceded Indigenous lands. Recognising this requires some honest reckoning with how this latest urban policy response perpetuates dispossessory settler-colonial structures. In this paper, we listen to the place-based ontologies of the peoples and lands from where we write to inform understanding the city as an always already Indigenous place – a sovereign Aboriginal City. In so doing, the paper tries to practice a way of creating more truthful and response-able urban knowledge practices. We analyse three distinct areas of scholarly research that are present in the contemporary literature: urban greening and green infrastructure; urban political ecology; and more-than-human cities. When placed in relationship of learning with the sovereign Aboriginal City, our analysis finds that these scholarly domains of urban greening work to re-organise colonial power relations. The paper considers what work the practice and scholarship of ‘urban greening’ might need to do in order to become response-able and learn to learn with Indigenous sovereignties and ontologies. |
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| Keywords: | Greening political ecology more-than-human cities Indigenous ways of knowing responsibility? settler–colonial |
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