Nonhuman Agency in the Anthropocene Epoch 

The temporal nature of the Anthropocene manifests itself by dissipating into our air, water, and soil, simmering ominously while enveloping our environment. The rate at which this evolving ecological change is occurring is difficult to perceive, and even more cumbersome to those living in less developed areas. The exhibit How to Breathe Forever offers the public an opportunity to conceive how nonhuman agency and essentialism is of urgent concern in the Anthropocene epoch. Curator Lisa Deanne Smith fuses artists who are demonstrating this ecological awareness through their artwork by listening to the land, and hearing its reciprocity. A matter of incorporating Indigenous epistemology of human and nonhuman kinship is a pressing framework which needs to be systematically addressed - How to Breathe Forever disseminates these frameworks emphatically. 

A video installation piece called I Want to Breathe by Li Xinmo is of particular significance, as a Chinese migrant worker is shown coughing continuously, exasperated - his lungs are failing him as he’s developed silicosis due to inhaling mine dust. Displayed on a video screen close to the scale of an iPad, the viewer is encouraged to feel that familiarity of holding a device such its size in your hand, as you would outside the gallery. Floating in the wall, just below eye level, this video is not challenging the viewer but revealing a piece of information. The message reveals the shocking reality behind the exploitative nature of coal mining in Guangxi, China; not only contaminating the air, water and soil circumferential to the mine, but also removing the very right for this man to breathe. The video permits us to witness the esoteric phenomenon of resource extraction, and the transposable nature which violating agency produces. 

The effects of extracting resources are an immediate threat to its surrounding area, while the global effects linger in an unfolding of time. Guanxi, China, over 10,000km from Canada, may make some viewers feel somewhat unaffected by Li’s video. But when you consider the cause and effect of this man’s suffering - the exploitive mining industry - relevance prevails, as a counter analysis into Canada’s statistics are appalling. As addressed by Judith Lavoie’s article in The Warhal , Canada is far more relatable regarding detrimental mining practice, noting: 

"During the last decade there have been seven known mine tailings spills in Canada, only one less than reported in China, which tops the list, says the report.It is estimated that, since 2008, mining waste failures have killed more than 340 people, damaged hundreds of kilometers of waterways, affected drinking water sources, wiped out fish populations, destroyed heritage sites and monuments and jeopardized the livelihoods of many communities." [1] 

This data is helpful for understanding the impact of the mining industry, not just in China, but globally. As the nonhuman is stripped of its agency, humans are used as pawns to suffer the socioeconomic consequences of hegemonic industrial motives around the world. 

The mining industry is so corrupt, that even the rights for extracting resources in Canada prevails over aboriginal land. Just this year, RCMP officers have been using repressive techniques, disregarding reconciliation statements by the government, and enforcing cruel power and control over the agency of Indigenous land. As stated in Canada’s mining industries’ watchdog, MiningWatch, a true bipartisanship with indigenous communities is overlooked: 

"Mining prevails over Aboriginal land claims. The current system does not recognize or take into account Aboriginal land claims. Current federal free entry laws do not require consultation with, or protection for First Nations. Nor does it provide them with a role in land resource decisions as required by Delgamuukw . In general, exploration activities and the nature of free entry have a disruptive effect on native land claims." [2] 

A planned pipeline is to be installed by Kinder Morgan carrying oil from Alberta to British Columbia, parallel to a pipeline that was installed in 1952, forcing First Nations group Secwepemc people out of their homes [3] . In Northwest British Columbia, the Wet’suwet’en of the First Nations have been raising serious concerns against this forced natural gas pipeline on indigenous land, indicating the criticality of harming the land and environment surrounding it, and moreover asserting sovereignty over their rights to land – an unending battle. 

This is a directret reflection of Vanessa Watts’ research acknowledging and reaffirming the verity of agency in all beings, evidently better understood in Indigenous culture. [4] The effect anthropogenic emissions have on life is connoted in Li’s video, revealing the immediate and physical sufferings of a mine worker, but also, a body which represents infringement upon the human and nonhuman (land) collectively. The Wet’suwet’en even revealed that an archeological impact assessment wasn’t completed prior to condemning the land the pipeline would be built on. [5] Mining as a source of energy is the worst pollutant, and the various steps in preparing a mine provokes an uninhabitable response in the land: deforestation; air, water and soil pollution; the death of wildlife, flora and fauna - ushering a highly contaminated ecosystem [6] . This response in the land, according to Vanessa Watts’ prose in Indigenous Place-Thought & Agency Amongst Humans and Non-Humans, is the land consciously perceiving and reacting to its manipulated environment . By inherently encouraging a sense of wokeness in the viewer - an ability to become more aware of the injustice prevalent in the world we live, beyond what’s in our familiar environment - Li suggests the audience look at pressing matters in a broader context. 

Watt’s contends that the land, or the non-human, has always had agency, with its own set of rights and treaties, and speaks to us reciprocally. [7] Watt’s recognizes this as place-thought, or the non-human’s ability to perceive and react to its environment. In this sense, placement of agency in the non-human, and identifying human power over nature is an evolutionary concept misconceived through social construct. Human suffering and dying as a result of anthropogenic factors is a reciprocal reaction of the land being ripped of its flesh, reclaiming its right to sovereignty. Watts’ proposition is to facilitate an increased understanding of place-thought as recognizing the body as land, and therefore the agency in humans as equivocal to agency in place. [8] Li’s video installation alludes to this agency in its entirety as synonymous to all life on Earth; we as humans are not exempt from the reciprocal nature of our environment, or our perceptibility of its rhythm, because we are unified. 

Understanding the temporality of the Anthropocene is of incredible value to our perceptibility of the ecological system. Adverse reactions of contaminated life are not always immediate, such as in the development of Silicosis from inhaling dust from coal mining. The most common degree of silicosis develops ten years after first contact with silica dust, however, acute silicosis develops only weeks after contact, quickly leading to death as the lungs drown in their own fluid. [9] The concept of the longue durée is introduced in Randy Lee Cutler’s Folding the Longue Durée into Deep Time: Marina Roy’s Entangled Worlds – recognizing the anthropogenic epoch as a temporal phenomenon that is better analyzed over 100-200 years of data [10] . Cutler emphasizes the act of discovery as a trajectory revealing the subliminal ecological nuances we miss when only focusing on specific dates and people. We must consider alternative policies of governing our land through bipartisanship with ourselves, and with the nonhuman space we occupy. 

The exhibit How to Breathe Forever reiterates Watts’ and Cutler’s message, questioning our ability to recognize the nonhuman life as equal to the agency of humans. Our deficient awareness of agency in land brings harsh consequences for everyone, as is the case in Li Xinmo’s piece revealing mining as an urgent, global crisis. Unfortunately, these workers are facing the bitter results of exploitive government led industrial practice, torturously killing human and nonhuman lives well beyond the range of the extraction sites. Smith utilizes the curatorial position as a means to stimulate dialogue regarding the environmental crisis in relation to displacement of agency. The exhibit incubates how humans impact the land as well as themselves, through a unique vantage point displaying symptoms that a lack of nonhuman agency has on the Earth’s inhabitants - an intelligible diagnosis. 

 [1] Lavoie, Judith. "Canada Has Second-Worst Mining Record in World: UN | The Narwhal". The Narwhal , 2017, https://thenarwhal.ca/canada-has-second-worst-mining-record-world-un/. Accessed 3 Feb 2019. [2] Kuyek, Joan. Canadian Mining Law And The Impacts On Indigenous Peoples Lands And Resources . Miningwatch, 2005, p. 1, http:///www.miningwatch.ca/sites/default/files/Canadian_Mining_Law.pdf. Accessed 2 Feb 2019. [3] Brake, Justin. "‘It’s Going to Be A Hot Indian Summer’: Secwepemc Women Warriors Call Land Defenders to B.C.". Aboriginal Peoples Television Network , 2018, https://aptnnews.ca/2018/07/15/its-going-to-be-a-hot-indian-summer-secwepemc-women-warriors-call-land-defende rs-to-b-c/. Accessed 3 Feb 2019. [4] Watts, Vanessa. "Indigenous Place-Thought & Agency Amongst Humans and Non-Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go on A European World Tour!)". Re-Visiones.Net , 2019, http://re-visiones.net/index.php/RE-VISIONES/article/view/228. Accessed 3 Feb 2019. [5] "Wet'suwet'en Complaints About Pipeline Builder to Be Probed by Government, Police | CBC News". CBC , 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/wet-suwet-en-complaints-coastal-gaslink-work-permits-1.4997184. Accessed 3 Feb 2019. [6] Pandey, Bhanu & Gautam, Meenu & Agrawal, Madhoolika. “Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Coal Mining Activities and Their Possible Mitigation Strategies” . Research Gate, 2017, ttp://www.researchgate.net/publication/320628155_Greenhouse_Gas_Emissions_From_Coal_Mining_Activities_an d_Their_Possible_Mitigation_Strategies. Accessed 4 Feb 2019. [7] Watts, Vanessa. "Indigenous Place-Thought & Agency Amongst Humans and Non-Humans (First Woman and Sky Woman Go on A European World Tour!)". Re-Visiones.Net , 2019, http://re-visiones.net/index.php/RE-VISIONES/article/view/228. Accessed 3 Feb 2019. [8] Ibid. [9] National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.” Silicosis: Learn the Facts! ” U.S. Department of Health And Human Services Centers For Disease Control And Prevention, 2002, https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004-108/pdfs/2004-108.pdf. Accessed 4 Feb 2019. [10] Cutler, Randy Lee. "Folding the Long Durée Into Deep Time: Marina Roy's Entangled Words". Backflash Magazine , 2018, pp. 44-48.