Research + Reflections

Over the years, the Ways of Knowing production team has published writing that investigates the numerous topics that are discussed in the film. Here we present an ongoing archive of research and reflections that offer greater complexity to the discourse on historic uranium mining in Navajoland and its continuing effects.

 

Coronavirus Is Attacking the Navajo ‘because We Have Built the Perfect Human for It to Invade’

by Sunny Dooley | Published July 2020 in Scientific American

Navajo Nation was hit especially hard during the Covid-19 pandemic, compelling the Ways of Knowing team to pause production on the film and focus on resourcing community members who we had built relationships with over the years. In this article, producer Sunny Dooley discusses how historic environmental impact, including uranium mining, contributed to the vulnerability of Navajo communities during the pandemic. This piece illustrates how nuclear issues in Navajoland are not an isolated topic, and is instead interconnected with all ways of life in the region.

Due Diligence Dispatch

by Ways of Knowing Production Team | Published 2019 and distributed in Navajoland

At the heart of Ways of Knowing is the determination to produce a project that reflects a diversity of Navajo perspectives. Vital to this has been to sustain intimate relationships with communities across Navajoland and to involve them in each step of the process of realizing the film. This Due Diligence Dispatch is a report on the community-centered approaches to Ways of Knowing that was shared with communities in preparation of the Navajoland soft screenings held in fall 2019.

Extract: Locating Indigeneity in Immigrant Experiences

by Adriel Luis | Published Spring 2019 in Open Rivers Journal

In this article published in the Open Rivers issue themed on water and environmental justice, producer Adriel Luis reflects on his identity as a Chinese American, and wonders if Chinese settlers during the era of the Gold Rush and Transcontinental Railroad considered how their labor affected Indigenous land and communities. He explores what it means to forge an identity as an American that stands in solidarity with Indigenous ways of knowing and self-determination.

Ways of Knowing: Initial Reflections

by Lovely Umayam | Published November 2017 on Bombshelltoe.com

Shortly after leaving her post at the Department of Energy, Lovely Umayam met Sunny Dooley, sparking the collaboration that would become Ways of Knowing. In this piece, Lovely reflects on her first visits to the American Southwest to observe the effects of uranium mining, and how community-centered projects contrast from her experiences from within the nuclear policy field.

Experience

Ways of Knowing

ELEMENTAL STUDY GROUP

RESEARCH + REFLECTIONS