In this episode, Landscape Architecture Professor Rod Barnett based in Aotearoa New Zealand shares his provocative insights on the role of landscape design in the Anthropocene with our host, Carry Kim. With a focus on indigeneity and community sovereignty, Rod delves into the history and future of landscape architecture, its impact on social ecologies, and the necessity of reimagining our relationship with the land. Listen as we unravel the threads of colonization and discover the emergent systems that could redefine our world.

The word landscape derives from Dutch and originally meant “region or tract of land.” By the early 1500s, it came to also reference pictures depicting scenery on land in artworks. In this Anthropocene Era, we are encouraged to consider planetary environments and landscapes as systems that span a wide range of biomes, flora, fauna & funga. Landscapes can reflect regional networks of community empowerment where humans & “more-than-humans” become entangled within shared lifeways that respect and encourage diversity.

Perhaps landscape architecture or design can be honestly understood as an evolutionary, contemplative and disruptive practice; one that considers the intersections of environmental justice, climate activism, community sovereignty and indigeneity that empowers local peoples and enhances and restores the landscapes in which they live. Indigenous design remains the key to the future of settler nation landscapes in the Anthropocene.

Rod Barnett, founder of the non-profit landscape architecture practice, Kaihanga Awawhenua [Riverland Design https://www.nonlinearlandscapes.com/] joins us for a compelling discussion on the potential of landscape design to evolve generative landscapes that resonate with the aspirations of the local community.

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LINKS

Utu in the Anthropocene (placesjournal.org) Utu, the Māori principle of reciprocity, accords all beings the same ontological status. It is profoundly interpersonal.https://placesjournal.org/article/redesigning-colonial-landscapes/?cn-reloaded=1

Rod Barnett is a professor of Landscape Architecture based in Aotearoa also known as New Zealand. He runs a non-profit experimental landscape design practice, Kaihanga Awawhenua [which translates from the Maori to Riverland Design https://www.nonlinearlandscapes.com/], within the intersection of environmental justice, climate activism and community sovereignty. His aim is always to empower local peoples to enhance and restore the landscapes in which they live. Wherever he works across the world the values and practices of Indigenous peoples are his compass and guide

Prior to heading the school of architecture at Victoria University of Wellington/Te Herenga Waka, he served as chair of the graduate program in landscape architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Carry Kim, Co-Host of EcoJustice Radio. An advocate for ecosystem restoration, Indigenous lifeways, and a new humanity born of connection and compassion, she is a long-time volunteer for SoCal350, member of Ecosystem Restoration Camps, and a co-founder of the Soil Sponge Collective, a grassroots community organization dedicated to big and small scale regeneration of Mother Earth.

Podcast Website: http://ecojusticeradio.org/ Podcast Blog: https://www.wilderutopia.com/category/ecojustice-radio/ Support the Podcast: Patreon https://www.patreon.com/ecojusticeradioPayPal https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=LBGXTRM292TFC&source=url

Executive Producer and Intro: Jack EidtHosted by Carry Kim Engineer and Original Music: Blake Quake Beats

Episode 217Photo credit: Rod Barnett