Dr Joanne Peers is a Researcher at the Origins Centre at The University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She is the awardee of a seed grant in the Engaged Scholarship against Climate Change (ESCC) project at The Vrije University of Amsterdam. Joanne holds a PhD from The University of Oulu in Finland in Environmental Humanities and Education Research. Her dissertation focussed on relationality through thinking with bodies, water, time, memory and spirituality. Joanne has over twenty years experience in education in both early years and higher education. Working hydropoetically as an artist, educator and researcher through storytelling, mending methods & relational mapping creates possibilities for approaching issues of radical care and justice.
PUBLIC ARTICLE: Death in the River Mouth: Witnessing Whiteness and its Toxic Conservation
Last night, I meet two white men with a bucket & three sharks pulled from the mouth of the river.
Still alive. Still dying.
Two pajama sharks heaving & gasping for air & one suffocating leopard catshark.
This is where conservation collapses.
At the mouth of the Keiskamma river, is where white privilege reveals its violence yet again!
OPEN LETTER: Soup, Wine, and the Quiet Violence of White Invitations
I received an email on Wednesday, 11 June 2025. This email is a window into the more than common archive of emails many people of colour receive. Before I get to the email, I think that the figure of Karen has been overused and it is high time that another figure appears, so I am introducing Colleen. The excerpts of this email will be the words of Colleen: she is Colin’s favourite sister (Colin’s full name is Coloniser). Join me as an audience to my dialogue with Colleen.
Relational Researcher 