Remediation as an act of reconciliation

Image credit: Waankam logo by Miri Villard

My research starts from an interest in how remediation of contaminated land and water can be understood also as relational and cultural healing. As landscape architects we have a lot to contribute to this conversation as our profession has long responded to social and ecological needs. Our profession fundamentally understands that humans are an integral part of the landscape and that human societies impact the land, just as it impacts us. Our discipline is more than the designs we make, it is also advocating for a way of being one with the landscape. Long before biophilic design became fashionable, Ian McHarg told us already in the late 1960s to design with nature. His seminal book on the topic became the inspiration for the creation of GIS, a technology that has wide applications in many fields today.  

Addressing the current planetary crises forces us to not only look for nature-based solutions, but also to fundamentally question what it means to be a steward. Do we make decisions that merely benefit humans, or do more-than-human community members factor into our decision making? If they do, how do we achieve that goal? How can we acknowledge our responsibilities as stewards, and more importantly, reflect that role in our work?  

Across the globe, indigenous peoples are recognized as protectors of biodiversity. As diverse as the ecotypes they inhabit, indigenous peoples share a commonality understood as traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). This phrase refers to not only the knowledge indigenous people hold about the regions they inhabit, but also how this knowledge is produced and integrated into their societies. A core aspect of TEK is the ethical underpinnings of respect, responsibility, kinship, and reciprocity. In TEK practicing communities, the world is imbued with spirit, and all members of existence are relatives and should be treated with respect. This understanding is extended not only to the typically understood animate creatures, but to rocks, water and land as well. “Land” in an indigenous sense is more than just the physical elements of the landscape, it also includes those webs of relationships, reciprocity, kinship and respect.  

What then does all this mean for those of us not from an indigenous background? How can we embed our work as landscape architects with that same web of relationships, reciprocity, kinship and respect? How can we ensure that as we try to embrace this understanding we are not simply appropriating and extracting ideas for our own self-aggrandizement? These are not easy questions to answer but they are ones that I consider in my research. 

In my research, I am asking the question of how communities can be engaged in the processes of remediation and restoration of contaminated riverine landscapes. However, underneath that question swirls the eddies of pondering on my role as a researcher and landscape architect, as a settler in not one, but two countries, and as a mother of two boys during a time of planetary crises.  

The fundamental motivation for my work comes from the realization that we need to heal our relationship with our Mother (Earth). My thesis is that through the physical act of healing the scars of industrialization (remediation) we can also heal our relationship to the earth (reconciliation). To explore this theory, I have been researching the environmental history of two contaminated rivers: the St. Louis River in the US and the Kymijoki in Finland. To understand how the contamination and remediation of these rivers has impacted the socio-ecological systems of the landscapes in question, I have been developing an ecological justice framework to analyze those histories and help to inform future actions on the rivers. Through this framework, I also hope to answer afore mentioned questions of how as landscape architects we can embrace an indigenous understanding of land in our work.  

Author: Nicolette Slagle, doctoral researcher in department of Landscape Architecture. Ongoing doctoral research: "Citizen Engagement in Contaminated Land Restoration".

Read more about research in Landscape Research Laboratory from the link below: