“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” –Lilla Watson, Australian Aboriginal artist/activist
I saw this quote posted by a friend on Facebook this morning and it really resonated with me. I’ve always been a little uneasy with the language of ‘rescuing,’ ‘saving,’ ‘fighting for‘ animals. These terms, in my opinion, seem to deny the animal’s agency and reify the human ‘rescuer’ as saviour. I know this certainly is not the intention of many animal ‘rescue’ workers who devote themselves tirelessly to helping animals, but the language of ‘helping the helpless’ and ‘speaking for the voiceless’ is somewhat troubling to me nonetheless. Animals are not voiceless. They are sometimes, but not always, helpless. Animals resist.
In truth, animals, like children, and some other extremely vulnerable populations do need help in their struggle for liberation. This is, in large part, due to their legal status, but this is a topic for another post. Practically speaking, cages and spaces of captivity for animals are designed specifically to make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to break free on their own. Humans have also altered the environment, the animals themselves, and animal habitats so much that often humans are needed in some way or another to facilitate a safer life for animals. In these ways and others, humans are, indeed, critical actors in animals’ struggle for liberation. But they are not the only actors and this, I think, is sometimes forgotten in the language we use. I’ve always liked that bumper sticker that is shaped like a paw print and says “Who rescued who?” because it turns this notion of ‘rescuing’ and ‘saving’ on its head.
What I like so much about the quotation above from Lilla Watson is that it rejects the frequent condescension that comes with “helping” — the condescension that often comes with being a member of a privileged group involved with trying to “save” someone less privileged — be that someone human or animal. It recognizes a more interconnected, more intersectional understanding of liberation struggles and power relations. The power relations at work in ‘rescuing’ or ‘saving’ or even ‘helping’ someone are uneven and problematic sites for negotiation even in the most well-meaning of cases. This is certainly not to say that we should never try to help others — of course, we should, and we should be grateful to receive help from others as well — but we should also be aware of the way this is bound up with power and privilege in complex and not altogether unproblematic ways.
Perhaps we might think about it not as fighting for animals’ liberation, but instead as fighting alongside animals in joint liberatory struggles that recognize the consequences of structural violence that impact us all in unique ways?
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