Film: Blinman Slag
Grayson Cooke
Southern Cross University
Blinman Slag: Creative enquiry into the legacies of colonial copper mining in the Flinders Ranges
Grayson Cooke
Southern Cross University
Of Earth – For Earth
Kathryn Moore and Dana Finch
University of Exeter
Extracting closure: Regulating mine rehabilitation in Australia and Canada
Lisa Mills
Carleton University
Navigating shifts in the governance of natural resources: the environmental impacts of mining in Brazil – creating new ‘veins’ or channels through policy?
Alexandra Mallett
Carleton University
Comments 7
Kia ora koutou,
Thanks so much Grayson, Kathryn, Dana, Lisa and Alexandra for your excellent presentations. There’s a heady mix of approaches in dialogue here: fine art, theory and public policy (and more!).
Grayson’s comment that “we move with the force of volcanoes across the planet” really hit home when watching Alexandra’s presentation, with those terribly powerful images of Brazil’s Vale tailings dam disaster, which looks like – and is – volcanic in its impact.
Clearly, the issue of contamination – and toxic legacies – is central to all your presentations (and your work more generally). Since this panel showcases quite different methods – from Kathryn and Dana’s artistic-philosophical project to interrogate “the meaning of the word ‘mine'”, to Lisa and Alexandra’s policy-driven approach, pushing for “laws that stick and have teeth”, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on any potential inter-relationships between imagining mining differently, and regulating mining differently?
A re-imagining of a more diverse mining sector has been tackled as part of the H2020 IMP@CT project (hosting the Of Earth – For Earth narrative): http://impactmine.eu/. Importantly, the concept of small-scale mining was reworked in both a European and global context. There will be a presentation about this within the Extraction: Tracing the Vein conference – Moore et al, Wednesday 8 July. Moreover, it has translated into a publication by Sidorenko et al (accepted Resources Policy 2020) and a policy brief that is available online:
Policy agenda towards socially responsible small-scale mining in Europe. Impact Policy Brief No.1 (Sidorenko et al, 2020)
https://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20200587/index_en.html
Small-scale mining is not well-supported by the current mining paradigm, but it has the potential to: support greater equitable distribution of wealth; support rural communities; reduce geographical concentration of raw material supply; integrate with regional value chains for security of supply; and operate at lower economic risk to mining operators. The development of policy that regulates small-scale mining is an essential task in the development of enabling frameworks.
Greetings Tom,
Thanks for your comment and thank you to all the fellow panelists for such interesting, thought-provoking presentations! I found them particularly interesting too in terms of the engagement of different disciplines / mediums / methods / perspectives about mining. I think one way to think about re-imagining mining is something that was mentioned in the presentations — namely an acknowledgement about the symbiotic nature of the Earth and humans; that we’re integrated and can have such profound effects on the Earth, so as to mimic metamorphic forces that occur naturally. I think one area to look at is to really call for some self-reflection about how we as humans ‘fit’ within the Earth – akin to some Indigenous world views. For instance, by virtue of revealing the amount of waste and impacts over time that occur in mining through various means (historical accounts; close-ups of the minerals / metals’ etc.), as well as how we think about mining and its definitions, may bring rise to some of these new imaginings.
In thinking about policy, I see some potentially encouraging changes, such as having progressive rehabilitation through laws as in Queensland, while on the other hand (in both Brazil and Queensland), this may in turn cause a reaction from forces that favour convention that may ‘double down’ to further entrench systems providing ‘lip service’ to change (such as through laws, while practices deviate). So perhaps through some of these interdisciplinary / multi-disciplinary / systems-based endeavours, these new imaginings can start to arise. For instance, I thought Kathryn’s presentation about the art exhibit occurring alongside the technical conference (where the typical audience would be engineers, geologists, and so on) was a really interesting idea. Something like this would be interesting for policy makers and industry executives too — as well as the general public [e.g. do school kids really understand all that is involved in producing the smart phones that they use daily and the implications of these processes]?
Finally, I thought Kathryn’s point about small scale mining was a good one too. In our discussions in Brazil, one narrative that arose was that the ‘blame’ on environmental impacts was often due to small scale miners who [were argued to] often operate illegally, did not comply with environmental laws, etc. However, as pointed about by Kathryn, the current regime favours large mining corporations; hence smaller scale operations in certain jurisdictions can be more ‘fly by night’.
I love the Blinman Slag film. It is really interesting and revealing, and beautiful. Thank you. I continue to investigate the relationship between the arts and the mining world, and how they can work together to bring new solutions to old problems, with the human relationship to the planet at the heart of this dialogue.
Thanks very much Dana. And likewise it was great to see the creative works in the Of Earth For Earth project. In terms of Tom’s question – about potential inter-relationships between imagining mining differently, and regulating mining differently – yes, that’s the crux of the matter! And not one, sadly, that any of us can just wave our magic wand at and make our artistic critiques have immediate political effect! But – and i suspect that other panels and papers at this conference will underline this: I’d suggest that the gradual spread of ‘rights of nature’ legislation, which frequently is coupled with and brings legal weight and framing to Indigenous perspectives, might offer a glimmer of hope. For example: with colleagues at Southern Cross University I’m involved in a project about rivers, and using interdisciplinary and creative methods to understand rivers in more holistic ways, ways that contest the predominant extractivist approach to them in Australia (typified by the fate of the rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin). My colleagues in law are theorists of environmental jurisprudence, tracking the growth of rights of nature legislation around the world. This has most often been developed in relation to rivers (e.g. of course in NZ the Te Awa Tupua act recognizing the Whanganui river as a spiritual and physical entity with legal standing), but is not restricted to rivers. These legal developments are frequently derived from Indigenous knowledges and practices that may understand a river as a kind of resource – it gives life to the people who live on and around it, after all – but its status as resource is framed within cultural and spiritual bounds. So on this project, we argued that the confluence of art, environmental science, Indigenous knowledge and environmental jurisprudence, represents a particularly cogent set of arguments and languages for pushing for real change in extractivist policies, practices and understandings.
Thank you all for a fascinating panel – I was really struck by all the various ways to speak to this topic and by how the different approaches all brought something different to the table. As a social scientist who has worked with creative practitioners on the issue of coal mining, it’s particularly interesting to see the input from creative practice. Grayson, Kathryn and Dana, I was wondering if you could tell us more about how your ‘artefacts’ (for want of a better word) have been received, and by whom. Colleagues and I have just done a review on the potential of creative practice to ‘build resilience’ to floods and droughts in the global south and one of the reviewers picked up on the lack of evidence/discussion of how ‘effective’ art is at supporting people with change. What do you think of that debate? And have you got any insights from your own work?
I was also struck by the difference in tone between some of the presentation. I felt that Kathryn and Dana’s, on the whole, was full of hope whereas I experienced more negative emotions, including fear for the future whilst listening to Lisa’s and Alexandra’s. I wondered if the authors could talk to that a little, and whether emotions/affect are things that they have come across in their work. In particular, Lisa and Alexandra, I’m not sure that we often think of emotions when it comes to policymaking and regulations but I believe that those can be emotional realms too. Is that something you’ve come across at all? And what would the impacts be of recognising this in regulating extracting industries? This is really a musing so no worries if it doesn’t resonate.
Thanks!
Mel
Hi Mel,
Thanks for your comment. In teaching in a public policy school now (gulp for over 10 years now this month), one comment I get from students is that they’re looking for the extent to which emotions / values play a role in policy making. I tell them to ensure they ‘keep their passion’ (that’s often what gets them studying policy in the first place!); it does play an important role. This acknowledgement has led to the rise of ‘storytelling’ and narrative in policy making. With respect to Brazil and mining, emotions have played an important role at various times that I’ve seen examining this issue — for instance, in reactions in response to the tailings dams failures; when the previous government of Temer wanted to open up a national copper reserve for development in the Amazon (called RENCA) and attempted to quickly change legislation to do so but was stopped by the courts [and public outcry]; and most recently as a response to Bolsonaro’s (referred to as the tropical Trump) attempts to develop the Amazon further [at the behest of ruralistas, or the large agricultural lobby, as well as mining firms] — targeting Indigenous lands. For instance, see here:
https://www.dw.com/en/brazils-indigenous-communities-resist-bolsonaro/a-51909742
In thinking about Grayson’s point earlier regarding the move increasingly towards more rights for nature, through incorporating more Indigenous world views, there are examples in Canada too, on biological conservation / hunting. See here about Indigenous communities and conservation:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/redefining-conservation-in-the-north-1.5467599