Abstract
This chapter proposes the concept of places of repair as a contribution to contemporary, sustainable urbanism in North America, starting with the everyday urban environment around us. The chapter is inspired by and builds on the work of Native American scholar and activist, Vine Deloria, Jr. by suggesting that Deloria’s work can inform how the everyday built environment is created, experienced, and cared for. I draw from Deloria’s explanation of sacred places by proposing that the agential capacity of places allows for the emergence of new sorts of sacred places, places of repair. This concept is presented through analysis of Deloria’s texts and discussion of two contemporary projects in the built environment of the North American Pacific Northwest.
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Acknowledgements
My thanks goes to the editors for including my essay in this book. I am grateful for the Lummi Nation House of Tears Carvers, the Totem Pole Journey participants, and the many people who brought to life the Native Gathering Gardens at Cully Park for their ongoing work to heal relationships with the Earth and its humans. I also give my thanks to Scott Pratt and Brook Muller for their guidance on this project. To my friend and editor, Toby Veeder, thank you for your endless encouragement and clarity. My deep gratitude goes to the places of the Earth with which I have been so fortunate to entangle and to Vine Deloria, Jr. for his leadership, brilliance, generosity, optimism, commitment, and humor.
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Meier, B. (2021). Emerging Places of Repair: A Sustainable Urbanism Approach to Living in and with Cities—Inspired by Vine Deloria, Jr.’s Agent Ontology of Place. In: Silvern, S.E., Davis, E.H. (eds) Religion, Sustainability, and Place. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7646-1_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7646-1_5
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