Borders and Boundaries

This week we read three pieces, each of which detailed divisions either within the US or between the United States and others. Because of the global implications of climate change, progress in conservation and climate resiliency is dependent on intergovernmental and intercultural movements.

Two of the readings— Gary Paul Nabhan and Austin Nuñez’s piece “Along the Southwest Border, Trump’s Wall Is Only One of the Insults He Left Behind” and the excerpt we read from Rubén Martínez’s “Desert America,”— centered around issues of climate and of equity at or near the US-Mexico border. Both stories come from the Tucson area with input from Tohono O’odham tribe members, Austin Nuñez and Mike Wilson respectively. It’s important to note that while Nuñez was a credited author in his piece and is a leader in the Tohono O’odham Nation focused on protecting his ancestral lands, Wilson was actually the subject of a profile in “Desert America” and has faced opposition from the Tohono O’odham Nation for his activism. Nabhan and Nuñez speak on the disproportional harm caused to US border regions by the Trump presidency including not only the wall but also at best ineffective pandemic responses, tariff wars damaging the agriculture industry and weather events and climatic changes worsened by poor environmental policies. They credit Trump also with increased vilification of the border, though we know sentiments against those who migrate across the border are nothing new. Martínez showed us how that sentiment played out near Tucson in a corridor through Tohono O’odham land with both border patrol and members of the tribe condemning Mike Wilson’s efforts to bring water to the desert. The tribe cited concerns that making the trails more hospitable would lead to greater migration through their land, but Wilson saw it as a moral imperative, continuing in spite of censures as well as direct destruction of his water stations.

Stuart Ching’s short story “Broad Water, Distant Land” focuses more on cultural differences between Japanese Americans and indigenous Hawaiian people within Hawaii. Ching based the story on his own experiences growing up Japanese but Hawaiian-passing. The central conflict of the story is that the narrator Howard’s friend Kenny who is native Hawaiian was evicted from his home with three generations of family members, and that Howard is helping his contractor father build new housing in its place. Howard’s father says of their misfortune “things are as they are,” as if their eviction was inevitable and systemic issues pushing indigenous people from their homes is simply the way of things. In this story Howard and Kenny drift apart because of this inequality but Howard never forgets Kenny’s grandmother saying it was shameful for their home to be taken for another’ economic gain.

Nabhan and Nuñez explain that in order to address issues along the border, livable wages, environmental protections, community engagement and cross-cultural communication are all necessary. These assertions are in line with what Ching advocates for: decolonizing our consciousness, revitalizing culture, restoration of land, reallocation of resources, reeducation on indigenous values for all, and advocacy for native causes from nonnative communities. These aspects do reflect the UN sustainable development goals which include equity goals like ending poverty and hunger but also place a greater emphasis on cultural equity, a factor of sustainability that is often overlooked but absolutely vital to actual resilience.

Two questions I might pose to these authors:

1. To Nabhan and Nuñez I would ask whether they believe Biden has done enough to aid the borders since his election and what they would say is the single most important action he could take now?

2. To Ching I would ask how active is the land-back movement in Hawaii and what would be needed for the movement to make significant progress?