Slow Ontologies and Letting Be: Insights from Island Academics, Activists, and Artists

Abstract

Geographers are increasingly interested in islands as sites of critical and creative transformation, their works often characterized by deep commitments to collaborative research and decolonizing agendas. This article considers how four of its authors have come to understand how five other authors channel their academic, activist, and artistic practices for such ends. Our collective aim is to shed light on how islands are productive and powerful spaces for change and our focus is on four decolonizing island geographies—Okinawa, Crete, Kalaallit Nunaat/Greenland, and Trinidad—to which those five collaborating co-authors trace ancestral and cultural ties. We work to shift the centre-stage of research away from certain colonial tendencies in island studies and island geographies and to reframe the Anthropocene in relation to decolonization. So, using slow ontology and engaging in a twist on participatory research, we document and reflect on lived experiences and practices among island academics, activists, and artists as material expressions of the geohumanities.