Kinship and Environmental Justice

MREA Executive Director Nick Hylla hosts Kyle Whyte, a 2022 MREA Energy Fair keynote speaker. Kyle is a Potawatomi climate/environmental justice scholar and organizer and professor at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. During this conversation, Kyle addresses the environmental justice issues we currently face and the work he’s done to combat them. He also explains the concepts of kinship and knowledge sovereignty and highlights the real impacts they have on our lives. For the second part of today’s podcast, Nick speaks with MREA's Events Coordinator, Hailey Johnson. Hailey talks about the many volunteer opportunities before and during the Energy Fair along with the opportunities outside of the fair. ----------- ----------- Show notes: (1:18) - What is environmental justice and how it’s being addressed? (13:24) - Kyle explains the importance of “kinship time” (20:37) - Kinship in indigenous traditions and how it’s been impacted by colonization (26:26) - How a lack of kinship impacts our modern lives (32:07) - Kyle explains the idea of knowledge sovereignty and its important to the Anishinaabe people (47:42) - What Kyle is optimistic for in the future (51:37) - Nick introduces Hailey Johnson, MREA Event Coordinator (54:17) - Hailey talks about the volunteer opportunities at the MREA Energy Fair (57:07) - How you can become an MREA member for free (59:42) - What are the other volunteer opportunities with MREA? (1:02:46) - The career and continuing education opportunities the Fair will offer (1:04:02) - How to sign-up and get involved? ----------- ----------- Links: The Energy Fair: https://www.theenergyfair.org/ MREA: https://www.midwestrenew.org/ Volunteer Opportunities at MREA: https://www.midwestrenew.org/volunteer/ — Justice40 Initiative: https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/briefing-room/2021/07/20/the-path-to-achieving-justice40/ The Dawn of Everything: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeverything