SPP recently had the honor of collaborating with Evergreen Native American and Indigenous Studies Faculty Kendra Aguilar to offer the first of many cultural workshops at Washington Corrections Center. The workshop was hosted by the Tribal Sons, a group of Indigenous incarcerated individuals at WCC. Tribal Sons was created to “promote the wellness and rehabilitation of [Indigenous] people through healing with Indigenous ceremonies and traditions.” We were joined by cultural leader Carolyn Hartness, Evergreen Tribal Relations Liaison Lyn Dennis, and DOC Director for Person Centered Services Megan Pirie.
After introductions and a welcome led by Carolyn Hartness, Kendra Aguilar facilitated the plant teachings workshop. Students were able to touch and hold different native plant cuttings as Aguilar spoke about the social-emotional skills that can be learned from each plant. In recognizing the strengths that different plants possess and what they contribute to their environment, students were encouraged to apply those skills to their own lives as well. During a break, visitors got to hold some baby chicks from the Sustainable Practices Lab (SPL) too!
The workshop concluded with a song and a tour led by Tribal Sons. SPP looks forward to expanding opportunities for cultural workshops in the future!
Carolyn Hartness, Indigenous cultural leader and artist. Photo by Emily Passarelli. Cultural objects made by Tribal Sons members. Photo by Emily Passarelli. SPP Coordinator Anneke Wilder and DOC Director for Person Centered Services Megan Pirie look at lichen during the plant teaching workshop. Photo by Emily Passarelli. A workshop student holds a rosebud. Photo by Emily Passarelli. Lyn Dennis and Carolyn Hartness learn from a Douglas fir clipping. Photo by Emily Passarelli. Workshop leader Kendra Aguilar holds two baby chicks that are being raised in the Sustainable Practices Lab (SPL) at WCC. Photo by Emily Passarelli.Workshop student and SPL member Juan Hernandez shows SPL’s vermiculture system to Kendra Aguilar and Lyn Dennis. Photo by Emily Passarelli.
by Joslyn Rose Trivett, SPP Education & Outreach Manager, and Liliana Caughman, SPP Lecture Series Coordinator
This issue is dedicated to Just Sustainability—sustainability redefined to include the needs and inputs of all populations and demographics.
Historically, the environmental movement has focused on the needs and views of a relatively small segment of Americans. This approach has often overlooked the sustainability needs and interests of people beyond the environmental mainstream. People of color, people without college degrees, people from the working class or living in poverty are rarely afforded the benefits of the environmental movement, such as sustainability education and easy access to nature. These populations also bear the brunt of most environmental hazards in the country. Just Sustainability sees cultural diversity as essential to the environmental movement, and resolving long-ignored environmental injustices as the primary focus.
Dwayne Sanders talks about growing starts for the prison gardens and houseplants. His program is in Washington State Penitentiary’s Sustainable Practice Lab, which hosted nearly 300 program tours in a year; tour guide and program clerk Ray Chargualaf stands in the background. Photo by Ricky Osborne.
Even less attention has been paid to how cultural diversity would benefit the environmental movement itself. To take on the scale and complexity of environmental challenges, the environmental movement needs more diverse buy-in and input. Extending ownership opens up myriad new ways for taking on environmental problems and creating solutions. Affluent, highly educated people cannot achieve national or global sustainability without help. “Sustainability will be achieved, if at all, not by engineers, agronomists, economists and biotechnicians but by citizens.” (Prugh, Costanza and Daly 2000)
Butterfly technicians pose in front of educational poster set up for visiting Girl Scouts Behind Bars. Photo by Seth Dorman.
What does inclusiveness look like? It means inviting input and investment from all citizens and promoting sustainability programs in all communities and institutions. It requires us to learn across differences. Inclusive sustainability, Just Sustainability, is a path of mutual transformation.
Lecture series students take in a presentation on raptor biology and conservation from West Sound Wildlife. Photo by Joslyn Rose Trivett.
In Washington State prisons, we have found willing, inventive champions of sustainability. They have transformed prison culture and operations. Because of their work, we are better prepared to transform the world at large. SPP staff asked a few incarcerated SPP partners—most of them Roots of Success instructors—if they would write what Just Sustainability means to them. This newsletter shares five responses, and we will publish several more on our blog in the coming months.
Paula Andrew, a member of DOC staff and a champion of SPP programs, and Green Track program coordinator Emily Passarelli enjoy the chickens at Washington Corrections Center for Women. Photo by Ricky Osborne.
