Time and date：23rd October 2021, 14.00~

　　Guest speaker：Noriko Ishiyama

　　Format： ZOOM

Oscar Wrenn

Our third research seminar of 2021 gave us the opportunity to invite political/human geographer Ishiyama Noriko to talk about her recently published monograph, ‘Giseikuiki’ no Amerika: kakukaihatsu to senjuuminzoku (America as ‘sacrifice zones’: nuclear development and indigenous peoples. Tokyo Iwanami Shoten), and discuss how themes of pollution and cleansing run through the experiences of indigenous people within the history of nuclear development and more broadly ‘settler colonialism’.

Ishiyama began the seminar with a short talk, outlining some of the key themes brought up in her book and persuasively arguing for an understanding of settler colonialism as an ongoing process etched in the history of nuclear development in America, specifically in its encounters with, and spaces inhabited by, indigenous communities. Whilst outlining the multiple spaces used in nuclear development - including key sites for the Manhattan Project, uranium mines, and nuclear waste storage sites – Ishiyama explained how the ‘sacrifice’ of these places located within or near indigenous reservations, and the people inhabiting them, was justified by American military development and, more broadly, structured forms of discrimination. Specifically, Ishiyama talked about the erasure of indigenous people, spaces and stories, as they are pushed to the edges and made invisible, pointing out that even progressive political discourse in America is founded on a form of multiculturalism which assumes the land as a blank, fertile, canvas for the American dream to be played out on, despite its indigenous history. Ishiyama wrapped up her talk by connecting the themes of her book to the issues of ‘dirtiness’ and ethics, asking what it means for land or water to be polluted (and decontaminated); how pollution might be understood within in a context in which indigenous people draw a sense of themselves and their existence through their relationships with their surrounding land; and how issues of dirtiness/purity intersect with race and racial politics.

Following Ishiyama’s talk, a general discussion gave us the opportunity to dig down into some of the key issues raised by Ishiyama, particularly those related to the way in which space/place serves as a productive frame to examine pollution and structural forms of discrimination. Some participants brought up the issue of temporality in relation to pollution, specifically in terms of the monumental time-spans that radioactive material requires us to think in. A comment from one of Ishiyama’s research subjects about the survival of indigenous peoples within the land over thousands of years sparked discussion on the ways in which indigenous peoples experience and deal with multiple temporalities: of radioactive material, of the land, and of their own survival. Though leaks in radioactive material storage facilities produce (initially invisible) harm which will continue over many generations, indigenous relationality with a ‘sacred’ landscape, one which is both feared and trusted, frames a different choice: on the one hand an irradiated, but in some senses ‘untouched’, landscape; and on the other a modern form of cultural erasure as indigenous spaces are taken over by economic development and commodification. In this sense, the development of a typical American high street can, from an indigenous perspective, also be seen as an alternative form of ‘pollution’.

These choices between different forms of pollution also link to another issue brought up in the discussion, about the historical layering and intersection of different forms of pollution within space. The violence inherent in the names of indigenous lands – Skull Valley, Death Valley and so on – point to the ways in which spaces are formed and hemmed in through a systematic history of violence, distancing, and erasure. The overwriting of names, the redrawing of reservation boundaries, or the changing of local ecologies through the introduction of new species, point to the cumulative intersection of power (and in particular military and governmental interests), physically and symbolically pushing indigenous spaces to the ‘invisible’, pollutable, peripheries. And yet, within this discussion of encroachment and erasure, Ishiyama was keen to point out the rootedness and survival of indigenous groups; whilst the history of the creation of reservations might be one of forced movement, the fact that many have stayed and endured layers of pollution and discrimination speaks to the importance of particular landscapes for indigenous people, and their constant engagement with them.

There were also comments about the issue of the romanticisation of indigenous relationality. Radioactive materials represent a form of pollution that is actively related to, for example through fishing in polluted rivers, despite clear knowledge of the harm inherent in such activity. Ishiyama neatly summarised this point by emphasising that ‘not all relations are good’, arguing for the importance of including multiple indigenous perspectives. Furthermore, the continued consumption of wild food, despite the obvious dangers, was also suggested to be a possible form of resistance against the erasure of indigenous people, making their presence known despite their ‘invisible’ existence.

Finally, discussion of settler colonialism, historical injustices, and polluted space was framed by comments and questions about ongoing struggles for justice, and specifically indigenous and environmental justice movements. ‘Purification’ can be seen to be central to these movements, whether in the decontamination of irradiated sites or the ‘purified’ (romanticised) understandings of indigenous livelihoods, stories and history. This ‘purification’ of space and people and its intersection with other justice movements, however, also entails navigating contradictions and the (im)possibilities of political action. The broader landscape of racial politics and environmental justice in America includes other groups suffering discrimination with distinct relationships to the land. Plantation slave labour, for example, is etched into the landscape such that discourses of ‘natural’ relationships with the environment used by indigenous peoples hold stigma for many black Americans, also shaping struggles for land rights which intersect with indigenous rights of original settlement.

Though online, Ishiyama’s descriptions of her fieldsites and the individuals who make up these disparate American indigenous landscapes evoked a strong sense of being grounded in physical spaces. As such, the spatial configuration of pollution as experienced by American indigenous peoples was cast not only as an abstract structural process, but as something physically and emotionally engaged with, whether in encounters with signs warning of the dangers of irradiated land and water, or in lamenting the pain caused by nuclear weapons tested on their land. This will no doubt remain an important take away from the seminar as we explore ‘dirtiness’ in future workshops.

This research seminar was financially supported by the Suntory Foundation 2021 Grant for Collaborative Research in Humanities and Social Sciences.