The Four Rs, Ecology, and Academic Kinship: Anticolonial Turns for Rhetorical Studies

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ABSTRACT Ecology is a keyword regularly invoked by rhetoricians invested in environmental communication. Attention to ecology in rhetorical studies coincides with calls from rhetoricians to engage with Indigenous thought and theory and with critiques of #RhetoricSoWhite. We argue that notions of ecology in rhetorical studies could benefit from anticolonial turns that center Indigenous thought and theory through direct engagement with the field of Native American and Indigenous Studies (NAIS). More specifically, we explore four key concepts from NAIS – relationship, responsibility, reciprocity, and redistribution – as productive sites for challenging white, colonial, and Eurocentric understandings of ecology. Rooted in NAIS scholarship on ecological relations, we conclude by reflecting on each term as a starting point for fostering more anticolonial relations and academic kinship between the fields of rhetorical studies and NAIS.