Cultivating Engagements: Ethnic Minority Migrants, Agriculture, and Environment in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

Abstract

Despite decades of challenge to the Enlightenment dualisms of Western environmental thought, they remain deeply embedded with respect to agriculture because of the ways in which cultivation is implicated in humanity’s move out of nature and into culture. In contrast, in non-Western contexts, scholars have more commonly discussed cultivation as a close engagement between humans and the more-than-human world. Emergent research examines how environmental engagements change in the encounters of migration from Majority to Minority Worlds, providing new ideas and practices for sustainable futures. We contribute to these debates with a study in the Sunraysia region of Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin, an area facing significant climate change impacts. We examine environmental engagements of ethnic minority migrants (Burundian, Hazara, Tongan, Vietnamese, and Italian) alongside Anglo-Australian residents. Findings identify both differences and connections between these groups and show complex interweavings of environmental engagement, ethnic background, migration history, and generational change. Groups perceive and respond to the local environment differently and in the context of their premigration experience, challenging dominant (Minority World) perceptions of environment as a freestanding and separate entity. The strongest cross-cutting theme is valuing environment for its food provision, associated with positive emotions and an ethic of care. Participants relate to food gardens rather than farms as places of pleasure and close engagement. Australian farms are understood as places where different rules apply and harmful chemicals must be used. Food gardens are an important site of cross-cultural encounter and experiment that can move environmental scholarship forward in the search for alternative futures. Key Words: agriculture, cultivation, migration, settler colonialism.

仅管数十年来对西方环境思想启蒙式二元对立主义的挑战, 但该对立却仍因栽种意味着人类离开自然、进入文明的方式而深植于农业之中。反之, 在非西方的脉络中, 学者更常探讨栽种作为人类和非人类世界之间的亲密交涉。有逐渐浮现中的研究, 检视从主流到边陲世界的迁徙境遇中, 环境交涉如何改变, 并为可持续的未来提供新想法与实践。我们研究澳大利亚的莫累–达令河谷的米尔迪拉区域——一处面临显着气候变迁冲击之地, 对上述辩论做出贡献。我们检视少数族裔移民（蒲隆地、 哈札拉、汤加、越南与义大利）与英格兰—澳大利亚居民的环境接触。研究结果指认这些群体之间的差异和连结, 并展现环境接触、族裔背景、迁徙历史, 以及世代变迁之间复杂的相互交织。各群体以不同的方式认知和回应地方环境, 并在其迁徙前的经验脉络中, 挑战了（边陲世界）将环境视为独立且分离之物的支配性观点。最强健的横贯主题, 是重视环境提供粮食的价值, 并且关乎正面情绪和照护伦理。较农田而言, 参与者更能连结至粮食花园作为娱乐和亲密接触的场所。澳大利亚的农田, 被理解为适用不同规范且必须使用有毒化学物质之地。粮食花园则作为能够推进环境研究以寻求另类未来的跨文化接触和实验之重要场域。关键词：农业, 栽种, 移民, 迁佔者殖民主义。

Pese a las décadas durante las que se han retado los dualismos de la Ilustración en el pensamiento ambiental occidental, éstos siguen profundamente vigentes en lo que se refiere a la agricultura en razón de las maneras como el cultivo de la tierra está implicado en la movida de la humanidad fuera de la naturaleza y hacia la cultura. Por contraste, en contextos no occidentales los estudiosos más comúnmente han discutido el cultivo de la tierra como un íntimo compromiso entre los humanos y el mundo situado más allá de lo humano. La investigación que surge al respecto examina el modo como las agendas ambientales cambian en los encuentros de la migración de los Mundos de la Mayoría a los de la Minoría, proveyendo nuevas ideas y prácticas para futuros sustentables. Contribuimos a estos debates con un estudio realizado en la región de Sunraysia, situada en la Cuenca del Murray-Darling, en Australia, un área que está enfrentando impactos de cambio climático significativos. Examinamos los compromisos ambientales de migrantes de las minorías étnicas (burundios, hazaras, tonganos, vietnamitas e italianos) frente a los de los residentes anglo-australianos. Los descubrimientos del estudio identifican tanto diferencias como conexiones entre estos grupos, y muestran entrelazamientos complejos de compromisos ambientales, antecedentes étnicos, historia migratoria y cambio generacional. Los grupos perciben y responden de modo diferente al medio ambiente local, y en el contexto de la experiencia pre-migratoria desafían las percepciones dominantes (Mundo de la Minoría) del medio como una entidad independiente y separada. El tema de cobertura y trascendencia más fuerte es la evaluación del entorno por su provisión alimentaria, asociado con emociones positivas y una ética del cuidado social. Los participantes se relacionan más con huertas alimentarias que con las granjas como fuentes de placer y compromiso íntimo. Las granjas australianas son percibidas como lugares donde aplican reglas diferentes y donde deben usarse químicos peligrosos. Las huertas caseras son un sitio importante de encuentro intercultural y experimento que puede impulsar el movimiento ambiental un poco más en la búsqueda de futuros alternativos.

Palabras clave:

• agricultura
• colonialismo de colonizadores
• cultivo
• migración

Acknowledgments

The authors thank our numerous research participants in the Sunraysia region, our bilingual coresearchers, and the following organizations and groups for their involvement in this project: Robinvale Network House; Tree Minders, Robinvale; Sunraysia Mallee Ethnic Communities Council; Mildura Twitezimbere Burundian Community Association; Hazara Community Association Mildura; and Food Next Door Co-operative. We gratefully acknowledge Tess Spaven and Paul Mbenna for providing research assistance.

Notes

Notes

1 We follow Punch (2000) by using the terms Minority World and Majority World (rather than North–South, developed–developing world and First World–Third World) because they do not contain embedded geographical inaccuracies (as in North–South) and avoid the implication of inferiority (as in First–Third and developed–developing). We use Western in relation to environmental thought and scholarship influenced by Enlightenment approaches, while also being aware that the term is subject to critique.

2 We use the terms ecological and environmental interchangeably here, because they are both commonly used diversely in the literature.

3 We acknowledge that in some places the terms ethnic majority and ethnic minority are not straightforward; for instance, in California where the culturally dominant white population is no longer a numerical majority (given a large and growing Latino population).

4 Rabbits are not native to Australia but were introduced by early settler-colonists.

Additional information

Funding

The research reported on in this article was funded by an Australian Research Council grant (DP140101165).

Notes on contributors

Lesley Head

LESLEY HEAD is a Professor and Head of the School of Geography at The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research examines human–environment relations, both conceptual and material. She focuses on long-term changes in the Australian landscape and the interactions of both prehistoric and contemporary peoples with these environments.

Natascha Klocker

NATASCHA KLOCKER is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities and a member of the Australian Center for Culture, Environment, Society and Space (ACCESS) at the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include ethnicity, migration, and the environment; migrants and refugees’ involvements in agriculture; and migration-led knowledge transfers between the Majority and Minority Worlds.

Olivia Dun

OLIVIA DUN is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Geography at The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia, and an Honorary Associate Fellow in the School of Geography and Sustainable Communities at the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests lie at the intersection between environmental change, agriculture, migration, and international development.

Ikerne Aguirre-Bielschowsky

IKERNE AGUIRRE-BIELSCHOWSKY is an Honorary Fellow in the School of Geography at The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include environmental consciousness and practices, cultural differences, children’s environmental education, and energy literacy.