Indigenous Phytopoetics

Plants, Poetry, and Biocultural Justice

Abstract

This article considers the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) concerning the idea of “biocultural justice” as expressed in the work of Indigenous poets. Building on developments in the field of Indigenous ecopoetics, the article proposes the idea of ‘Indigenous phytopoetics’ to signify how texts by Indigenous writers narrativize human-plant relationships, critique ecological issues disproportionately impacting Indigenous peoples’ access to plants, and inspire place-based expressions of cultural-botanical sovereignty. Attuned to biocultural diversity, Indigenous narratives of plants highlight the significance of botanical life to Indigenous genealogies, ontologies, and epistemologies. Moreover, Indigenous phytopoetic work tends to critique imperialist constructions of plants as objects to be appropriated, commodified, homogenized, exhausted, or eradicated. Indigenous phytopoetic narratives inflect a view of plants – and creative engagements with them – as sources of recuperation, resistance, and reciprocity. Poetic works of this genre thus offer a vibrant medium linking creators, audiences, plants, materials, and technologies in a dynamic interchange over time. In addition to Perez’s poetry, notably Habitat Threshold (2020) and other works, some key examples of Indigenous phytopoetics include Bill Neidjie’s Story About Feeling (1989), Steven Edmund Winduo’s Hembemba (2000), James Thomas Steven’s Combing the Snakes From His Hair (2002), and Joy Harjo’s How We Became Human (2004). As a case in point, Aboriginal Australian poet and cultural spokesperson Bill Neidjie’s Story About Feeling is a verse-narrative focused on the botanical knowledge of the Gaagudju people, whose traditional lands encompass World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. Neidjie’s work engages with SDG Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 10 (Reduced Inequalities), 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), 13 (Climate Action), and 15 (Life on Land). This article theorizes the idea of Indigenous phytopoetics concerning these and other poetic texts that bring the dynamism of plant life and human-plant relations to the fore, thus addressing Sustainable Development Goals through biocultural justice