Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Breath Back is a collection of poems written throughout the first 18 months of a doctoral study based in the petro-state of Western Australia. As a Wadjela (non-Indigenous) climate justice activist-researcher, Alston adopts poetic autoethnography as an embodied, intuitive praxis to critically and reflexively examine limitations, positionality, power, privilege, and voice throughout their research process. This collection is deeply intertwined with Alston’s deepening connection to Country, specifically through the seasonal cycles of Wardandi Noongar Boodja (Country) in south-west Western Australia.
Non-Traditional Research Output
Original Creative Work
Document Type
Book
Date of Publication
1-24-2026
Research Statement
Climate change acts as a “threat multiplier” by creating dangerous and disproportionate impacts across the entire planetary ecosystem (Goodman & Baudu, 2023, p. 1). Western Australia (WA) is predicted to experience more days with extreme temperatures, longer fire seasons, sea level rise, lower average rainfall, increased rainfall variability, and extreme rain events (Government of WA, 2021). Community service organisations (CSOs) provide support and services to people who are structurally positioned to be more vulnerable to the physical, mental, and social impacts of climate change, including impacts on food, water, and housing (Mallon et al., 2013; Tehan, 2017; Weeramanthri et al., 2020). Aboriginal leaders, people with Lived Experience, practitioners, and an interdisciplinary team of Edith Cowan University academics are currently developing a Climate Justice and Resilience Toolkit (CJRT) to support CSOs to embed “climate justice” principles and actions throughout programs and operations. At its core, climate justice reframes climate change as a symptom of unjust systems rather than a cause of unjust outcomes. This PhD adopts critical realist, ecofeminist, and decolonising participatory approaches to understand and support the climate-just transformation of WA CSOs in real-time. This PhD project encompasses two phases. The Imagining phase involves a Critical Realist Review (CRR) of existing perceptions, understandings and interpretations of climate change within the WA community services sector. The Enabling phase focuses on how climate justice can be enacted and embodied by CSOs using a co-designed Eco-Feminist Participatory Action Research (Eco FPAR) methodology. Researcher meta-reflexivity will also be captured using poetic autoethnography. This research will conclude with a thesis by publication.
Medium
Text, collage, photography
Dimensions
A5
Type of File
Publisher
Edith Cowan University
School
School of Arts and Humanities / Centre for People and Planet
RAS ID
88293
Funders
School of Arts and Humanities HDR Research Communication funding of $1500
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
ISBN
978-0-7298-0003-7
Included in
Place and Environment Commons, Poetry Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons, Quantitative, Qualitative, Comparative, and Historical Methodologies Commons
Comments
Alston. B. (2026). Breath Back. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/4gtt-rm94