Weather geographies: Talking about the weather,considering diverse sovereignties

Abstract

In this era of climate crisis, weather, once deemed the ultimate ‘natural’ force within dominant Western accounts, is being deeply (re)considered. Yet these (re)considerations often approach theories of weather, and weather itself, as aer nullius, dismissing or downplaying prior relationships, belongings and becomings with/as weather and the power relations that mediate what weather means and does. In this article, we aim to speak back to aer nullius and consider weathers' many diverse sovereignties. We engage with weather in ways led by Indigenous scholars and their allies and trace our own positionalities and responsibilities through what it means to weather on unceded Indigenous land. Our focus is brought to power and weather, to the enrolment of weathers' beings and becomings to differentially discipline and empower. Entwining its way through these accounts, but in ways not generally acknowledged, are the sovereignties of weather knowledges and the sovereignties of weather itself. The beings and becomings of weather have their own Law/s, their own knowledges, their own survivances, their own sovereignties. We end the article with a consideration of academic positionalities and responsibilities as we weather and are weathered in entangled, more-than-human ways.