Life Beyond Ruin: Diné Presence in the Anthropocene

Abstract: This essay is concerned with the overdetermination of frameworks of “ruin” and “loss” in studies of the Anthropocene and the epistemic-political effects of such framings for Indigenous Peoples. While planetary harm is well established, the unique effects of crisis-oriented research on Indigenous Peoples demands critical reflection. I argue that such persistent frameworks of ruin/loss in fact open a space for “settler sustainabilities” to get smuggled in: designs that entrench the status quo of capitalism and colonialism, while at the same time claiming to perform “alternatives.” With little comprehension of Indigenous history, politics, and place, settler sustainabilities effectively further Indigenous dispossession and profit from the loss/ruin ontology. Drawing upon collaborative and ethnographic research with Diné (Navajo) colleagues, and thinking with the growing scholarship in Indigenous political ecology, I show through empirical examples how Diné-led projects of territorial care in fact complicate narratives of loss/ruin as foundational framings for Native lives and landscapes. I suggest that attending to the empirics of innovations on the ground show an historical and decolonial sensibility, offering an ethic of land-based practice in times of crisis that does not accept ruin as the defining condition of possibility and futurity for Diné life.