ILFI: How can the environmental movement be more inclusive and diverse?
Lawerence Pitre: Work with other cultural communities to enable and empower them to be more knowledgeable. Allow them access to the tools and resources to be an active participant in the movement. There needs to be a redistribution of wealth, resources, and power. Our communities are still on the outside looking in. We want this movement to be inclusive and sustainable yet our communities have little to no say in the decision-making process.
We also have to take responsibility for ourselves. We need to be promoting engineers, mathematicians, tech professionals, architects, and designers within our own communities. To create the type of environment that enables us to contribute and not be entirely dependent on others.
ILFI: How can artists create a new narrative for change?
LP: By challenging the system. By giving themselves that opportunity to look beyond what’s in front of them. By exploring new methods, new technology and incorporating that into their artwork. Whether it be dance, music, theatre. Don’t settle. I just created a new canvas. Made out of mud. Literally. Don’t be afraid to explore. Some of the greatest inventions come from not even knowing what you’re doing. That’s how I came up with the mud technique. I was working on a different project and I was trying to figure out a way to hold something down so that it wouldn’t would rip up the paintings. By not knowing what you’re doing, you’re already innovating.
ILFI: Can you describe how the intersection of the sustainability movement and the social justice movement are important?
LP: You can’t make a pie without filling. But I would have to rephrase that. I’m not really sure if we’re using social justice in the right way. My social justice might not be the same as my counterparts. My social justice may be hitting you over the head with a rock. You can’t tell me I’m wrong? But if we’re talking about humanity and creating a better way of life, I don’t even know if I want to use the word justice. I would want to say survivability, because we like to dumb things down. And the reality is we don’t have anything without each other.
As a human species, we have come to a crutch in our lives where we have depleted our resources for our own personal existence. We have polluted our waters, killed off our fish, food chains are being broken, and we’re still trying to figure out how to no longer use coal. I’m trying to figure out if this is just a game or if the rich just don’t get it. But they intersect in one way, and that’s life. If we don’t do something, we are going to die and something tells me that might just be the plan. Our species has a funny way of killing ourselves off. We have reached critical masses in our existence. The world also changes in its own way. If we don’t change and adapt with it, then guess what happens? We become extinct. So, at this intersection, there has to be a point where we can either increase our numbers or allow fate to take its course. Do we allow nature to take its own course to a point of extinction? Or do we help ourselves and take responsibility for our own actions?
Humanity is at a crossroads right now. We have to be honest about the conversation. No one seems to want to have the honest conversation. We talk about life. But we hardly talk about death. We have to be accountable and we need to hold others accountable. We have to force people to change. We need to look at it not as a movement but as life itself. It has to be a way of life!
Lawrence will be discussing his work and more next week at Living Future ’19, April 30-May 3. unconference.living-future.org
