My name is Sarah Gonzalez Coffin, and I moved to Colorado about two and a half years ago to get my PhD in Ecopsychology: the study of the way that people’s psychology relates to nature. So looking at the individual person and their attitudes, their beliefs, and their values, and then how that relates to the way that we interact with nature, whether that's the way that we connect to the natural environment, or respond to disasters, or live symbiotically–or not, basically the way we choose to relate to the natural world around us. There's this human nature relationship where our wellness is inextricably linked and intertwined, so I wanted to study environmental psychology or ecopsychology in that way. Just as we have caused environmental problems, as humans, we have human based solutions. Politically, who is running the administration has a lot to do with the money available and what we research and what people will put grants out there for in the first place. It seems like to get around that it's like a patchwork quilt; we get a little bit from here a little bit from there, then ultimately, it comes together and you can move something forward. 

How can the way that we communicate about our water processes or technologies, how can we communicate about those in a way where people can still make the decision for themselves? That one is particularly exciting to me, because of growing up in California and having a lot of droughts and water restrictions, and I think water just hits really home for me where that water is life. You know, we are protectors of water as people and as Indigenous people. And I think that it's important to tie all those things together. There has been a huge devaluing of Indigenous knowledge, and there's been a recent trend of some more people valuing that. So I think over time, being able to create those international spaces where a lot of the folks who are impacted are Indigenous and bringing in those Indigenous voices and highlighting those maybe non-western ways of knowing in science is super important. 

I think you can't talk about climate change without talking about gender equity, or racial equity, or so many other types of equity. We saw a huge uptick in valuing Indigenous voices and knowledge and kind of acknowledgement of like, “Hey, there has been a disproportionate impact for some groups versus others,” and an acknowledgement of white privilege and fragility and things like that. There is a widespread valuing of Indigenous knowledge still, and I think that primarily comes down to methodology where there is a rigorous standard of measurement and evaluation and data collection that Indigenous knowledge doesn't fit into as cleanly as Western standards in terms of survey research, or what we would ask questions about or how to measure the spiritual value of an animal, for example. But I think that people are open to doing something different because we are out of time. 

I think that's been like a very slow, unraveled identity for me, and something that I'm definitely stepping into now, it feels right when I step into it, and beautiful and raw and conflicting, and it just feels like you're not a part of either of those worlds. But you still at the end of the day, especially in an academic setting, I can't help but think that it is a privilege and honor to represent Indigenous people in this space. At the same time, I feel like I sacrifice certain parts of myself to fit into the structure that is existing, because I feel like to an extent you have to infiltrate, for lack of a better word, existing structures to be able to make the most change. So I feel like there's a trade off that I do of selling out part of my identity to have the benefit of that positionality to do something. 

I think there is also this kind of feminist side of nature where nature has been exploited and misused and treated in such a way that is not valued equally, and I think women experience that same thing. Indigenous women have a really long history of being protectors of water and protectors of land. And just as the land kind of gives life we give life and I think we share a lot of those really beautiful things. I think those values–I have a word for it now–but I think those values kind of unfolded for me as I kind of learn more about the interconnectedness between things and now I'm in a place where that fuels my relationship to nature and why I'm willing to fight for it. It's kind of a messy journey, but I feel like if I don't embrace and lean into that, who will? And there are so few indigenous researchers–like so few, it's incredible, that I kind of feel a sense of responsibility to bring that into this space and I want to leave behind something I'm proud of and that's part of who I am.