Briony Penn: Inspiring deeper connections to place through community mapping
Briony Penn is a naturalist, mother, writer, artist, and citizen who's been trained as a geographer, which she notes is likely the closest western science comes to an integrated worldview that looks at our relationships to the earth and each other.
In this podcast episode, Briony sheds light on the potential limitations of specialized fields of western science in conservation; how the maps that we’ve been taught to understand the world through have shaped our cultural and societal values; and more.
To start, get a glimpse below into the conversation between Briony and Green Dreamer Podcast's host, Kamea Chayne.
“Mapmakers traditionally held the money, power, or expertise to create those maps. The classic example of that is that Europeans were making maps of North America where they could write all over them ‘Terra Nullius’, there’s nobody here.”
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This is a conversation on Green Dreamer with Kamea Chayne, a podcast and multimedia journal illuminating our paths towards ecological regeneration, intersectional sustainability, and true abundance and wellness for all. This preview has been edited for clarity. Subscribe to Green Dreamer Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or any podcast app, and support Green Dreamer on Patreon so we can keep the show going and accessible to a wider audience!
On looking to Indigenous wisdom:
"The falling away of traditional patterns has led to these very modified, unhealthy forests, higher risk of fire, lower sequestration of carbon, higher risks of drought and flooding, and declining biodiversity.
Just in that one little example, that longer-term, geographical, Indigenous world view on it is the solution.
And it's only now that all of these other disciplines in my particular part of the world have finally come to this realization through the long route. I just imagine all of the Elders I work with, who are so patient, know that one day all of us will come to the same conclusion."
On maps shaping values and understandings of the world:
"People create maps to communicate what they're interested in. Mapmakers traditionally held the money, power, or expertise to create those maps.
The classic example of that is that Europeans were making maps of North America where they could write all over them ‘Terra Nullius’, there's nobody here.
Of course that was the biggest lie of the millennium and it created a narrative and understanding that was so wrong it continues to have an impact on people today."
Final words of wisdom:
"Keep doing what you're doing. Educating yourself is incredible. Make sure you go to your place, get outside, and dream.”
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