Abstract

This thesis analyzes two works: Rise: From One Island to Another (2018), a video-poem by Marshallese artist Kathy Jetñil-Kijiner and Kalaaleq artist Aka Niviâna, and Arkhticós Doloros (2019), a poem and performance by Kalaaleq artist Jessie Kleemann. The 350.org production of Rise: From One Island to Another (Rise) demonstrates how climate change is affecting Indigenous communities in Kalaallit Nunaat (“Greenland”) and Aelon Kein Ad (“Marshall Islands”), focusing on glacial melt and severity of floods due to rising sea levels. Arkhticós Doloros presents Kleemann’s personal engagement with melting glaciers in Kalaallit Nunaat. These works are part of a growing movement of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) artists who highlight how discourses around the anthropocene— the era in which human activity has significantly altered the environment and climate—do not fully account for the relationship between colonialism and climate change. Indigenous scholars, such as Kyle Whyte (Potawatomi) and Zoe Todd (Métis), argue for a decolonization of the anthropocene that is rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing about the land, waters, and relationships with human and non-human life. Aligned with these scholars, this thesis argues that Rise and Arkhticós Doloros call attention to the need for a decolonization of the anthropocene by advocating for Indigenous communities’ knowledges and experiences. Drawing on Hupa/Yurok/Karuk scholar Cutcha Risling Baldy and Diné scholar Melanie K. Yazzie’s notion of radical relationality—an Indigenous feminist framework that considers decolonization by establishing relationships with and through the waterways—this thesis considers Kalaallit and Marshallese artists’ relationships with and through melting glaciers and rising seas.