October 17, 2024

The In the Works exhibit is different than other spaces at the Museum. It’s a place to test out new ideas to see how visitors respond — in this case, for a future exhibit about Climate and Sustainability. Over the last nine months, several exhibits have come and gone in this room. Some work, some don’t, and each one helps us guide the activities, messaging, and vision of the final exhibit.

We are excited to highlight a new In The Works installation about Rights of Nature, created in partnership with a local Indigenous-led climate action group, 7 Directions of Service. This exhibit also features some work by Museum kids — a group of campers from the Museum’s Summer Camp!

Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck and her husband, Jason Crazy Bear Keck, founded 7 Directions of Service to take climate action, mobilizing local grassroots efforts to take on environmental issues from pollution to land sovereignty. When the Museum reached out about highlighting local climate action in a new exhibit, the 7DS team had the perfect topic.

One of 7DS’s core initiatives is bringing Rights of Nature laws to North Carolina. Rights of Nature is exactly what it sounds like: giving nonhuman beings and natural places legal rights like a person.

Most American laws consider nature a kind of property. You can sue someone who pollutes a habitat — but only if you prove the pollution harmed human beings. Many Indigenous traditions see animals, plants, and rivers as kin, not property. From this perspective, laws should protect nature for its own sake — not just for people’s use.

The 7DS Rights of Nature in NC Toolkit defines the movement as “a new kind of conservation law rooted in Indigenous values, which recognize ecosystems, and the human and natural communities that depend on them, as having legally enforceable rights to exist, regenerate, flourish and be free from pollution.”

The Rights of Nature movement connects science (“how can we undo ecosystem damage?”), philosophy (“what rights do nonhuman beings have?”), and political action (“how do you build support for an idea that’s new to most people?”). The exhibit also connects grown-up climate activists to kids in our community — featuring work by this Summer’s “Call of the Wild” campers!

Campers learned about the Rights of Nature movement and came up with their own version of a “bill of rights” for nature. They thought about their values and experiences, discussed different ideas, and made a list together of rules they think everyone should live by.

We’re asking visitors to the exhibit to share what rights they think nature should have! Discussion and deliberation are an essential part of life in a democratic society, so bring your ideas to add to the exhibit — and the greater conversation about our collective future in a changing climate.

You can learn more about 7 Directions of Service on their website.