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Texas brush

Seek to do good but do no harm

Human Rights, Migrant Death, Reflections

Do No Harm is a central ethical value in anthropology and in philanthropy. However, it can be difficult to predict every challenge one may encounter when working as an anthropologist in philanthropic or humanitarian contexts. Anthropologists must continually reevaluate their work to ensure that it does not harm the communities in which they work. While anthropologists, like my team, never intend harm, we must always be mindful of the unintentional consequences of our work. Exploring the topic of “Philanthropic Harm” provides some important points for us to consider as we work in these volunteer humanitarian crisis situations. As I depart for my 13th trip to the Texas Borderlands spanning the past decade, these are some of the questions I ask myself:

Are we diverting resources? We are visiting a mass disaster situation that our colleagues are faced with year-round. Are we disrupting the normal patterns in a way that diverts time, energy and resources to us and away from the main goal of saving lives? Are we truly participating in actions that are best for the community or wasting the time and resources of our community partners with each trip?

Team members performing a line search
Systematic Line Search

Are we reinforcing the status quo? A common critique of humanitarian and philanthropic work is that institutional philanthropy supports causes that serve the elite. Are visiting and volunteer forensic scientists perpetuating dominant power relationships? Are the motivations meant to serve them and their institutions rather than the communities they claim to serve?

Can we even predict the unintended consequences of our actions? There are many reasons why good intentions can go wrong, and the probability of this occurring increases with the increasing complexity of the situation. Knowing the politically charged and sensitive nature of this work, we must always try to predict how our actions potentially have unintended outcomes.  

Team members cleaning water stations
Cleaning barrels for redistribution

Are we being culturally insensitive with our actions? A common critique of humanitarian work is that the volunteers impose their own sense of values on the community instead of being sensitive to the particular situation in which they are working. Am I fully preparing my students to step away from their own preconceived biases and perspectives in order to better serve this community?

These are just a few of the questions I ask myself each time we prepare for a trip to the Texas Borderlands. At what point have we peaked in our contributions? Because after that it is only about us and what we are getting from these experiences. Critically reflecting on our experiences and paying careful attention to our environment and actions allows us to begin to assess some of these questions. At this time, we are eager to begin our trip early tomorrow morning. We will continue to update the blog daily while we are there. Thank you for your support and for following our journey!

~KEL

The Tourist Returns…

Environment, General, Human Rights, Migrant Death, Snapshots, , ,

Less than a week already! I am so thankful to have been chosen to be on this team once again. In my last blog post, I wrote about leaving Texas feeling like I was leaving with unfinished business, and I have thought about that since that day. The work done by the UIndy Beyond Borders Team is something I am so grateful to be a part of, and I am very ready to get back to work.

My last pretrip post was more about packing and food and very superficial things, simply because I didn’t have the experience or knowledge to even want to speak on what the next week would entail. Now, I am honestly worried about much different things. Of course, I still worry about packing the right elements for this trip. Texas heat in May is not for the faint of heart. I’ve been a part of many band camps in the Louisiana heat, and I am still worried about the heat. I’ve been trying to recall any advice from old coaches of how to keep cool, how to best stay hydrated, and how to fight off the swarms of mosquitos. I have not forgotten the hazards of hidden cacti and everything being sharp, but my biggest worry is rooted in the emotional perils that come with this work.

Texas ranch land
Brush

In January, we mostly encountered evidence of people passing through the areas we were searching, whether that was as recent as the night before or as long ago as us finding fully rusted cans as the evidence. We do this work to try and bring closure to the families who may have lost someone on this dangerous journey. After the trip in January, I feel as though I am so much closer to this cause than ever before. It’s very easy when working to compartmentalize the emotional and harder parts of the job, but I know this trip will impact me harder than ever before. Being more knowledgeable of the humanitarian crisis occurring at the US-Mexico border makes every step you take to find someone’s loved ones, to give help to those in need, to educate your community mean so much more than it ever had before. The more I learn about it, whether that is through reading about it, hearing someone’s personal account, or talking to those also involved in this work, the more I feel motivated to do everything in my power to help those affected by this crisis.

I’m looking forward to seeing Eddie and Don and everyone else who we worked with previously. By the end of the trip, I considered everyone a friend on top of being a teacher, a leader, and some of the most amazing people I’d ever met. Our team this May is made up of Dr. Latham, myself, Olivia, Jordan, and Austin. I am excited to see how we grow over this trip not only as teammates but friends as well.

See ya soon, Texas! Izzy

Preparing For Texas

Snapshots

Preparing for the trip to the Texas/Mexico border has been exciting, it’s getting very close to time to go! The opportunity to attend this trip will cause many great changes, not only to me as a person but to the way I will strive to practice forensic anthropology in the future. The mission of this trip is important to me not only because I will be learning new techniques and applying those I already know to a different environment. But also because I feel strongly about the humanitarian crisis that we are able to lend some assistance to while in Texas. I feel like the ability to combine both forensic anthropology and humanitarian work in practice is very important for those in the field to experience and getting to do so as a student is invaluable.

I expect to face not only emotional challenges but physical ones as well. I am a bit nervous, as I have yet to experience anything like this before. I know that through the preparations I have done like speaking with those who have been on the trip before and reading many different materials related to the trip there is only so much I can gather. Experiencing it first-hand will be different but I believe that I have done what I can to be as prepared as possible. I believe the biggest physical challenge I will face will be the temperature. I am not often in environments where the temperature is as high as it is predicted to be in Falfurrias while we are there (high of 104!). This will be a challenge but I believe I am well prepared to face it.

 I am excited to work with the current team for this trip! I have had the ability to work with each person in class or while doing casework on campus but I am interested to see how we grow and work together in this new situation. It may be a bit of a challenge at first to adjust to the new situation but I think that we will all work well together and accomplish what we have set out to do. I have heard many amazing things about Eddie and Don who will be showing us the ropes while in Texas and I am very excited to meet and work with them as well!

Although there may be challenges I will face while in Texas it is nothing compared to what the migrants are being forced to face. I am happy to face them if it means I am able to help in any way. The experiences I will have and the memories I will make will stay with me forever and I am very grateful for that.

Jordan