Dr Leanda Mason (she/they), Curtin University. 

Ngala kaaditj Wadjuck Nyungar moort, kura, yeye, boordah, keyen kaadak nidja boodja.

I acknowledge Wadjuck Nyungar peoples, past and present, as original custodians of the land where I live.

Scientific endeavours and discovery make science an exciting and rewarding discipline to be involved with, and I truly love doing my spider conservation ecology research. Some truly unique challenges I have had to face are that the majority of funding goes towards the more charismatic species or economically rewarding research proposals and that in itself has been a hard and painful truth to accept. My personal gripes about the apathy towards the 98% of animal species constituting the vast majority of biodiversity aside, there are truths for other Early Career Ecologists that I feel may be helpful to recognise, if not advice as such… Namely, that science does not occur in an objective, and isolated bubble – there is a socio-cultural context of when, where and how we do ecology. Privilege, oppression and intersectionality, all impact on the people who do are doing ecology. Intersectionality considers how individuals may have a variety of factors that contribute to privilege or oppression due to the uniqueness of people and their social environments. For example, I have white (despite my Minang Nyungar heritage) privilege, but oppressed as a queer, non-binary female. Although unchangeable factors, it does help attitude change. For example it may make it easier to recognise those instances where another person receives opportunities over you may not be due to a lack of quality or quantity in your work, but rather a self-perpetuating in-group bias of privileges. So instead of beating yourself up for not being enough, perhaps use that energy to usurp an unjust system. Also, if you are a particularly privileged ecologist in that you have had fewer barriers to overcome to achieve desired outcomes, be a good ally and usurp the system that oppresses others, even if it benefits you.

Actionable advice for oppressed peoples: I think it is particularly important to learn when to say ‘no’, seek support, and have firm boundaries. There are still some discipline areas within ecology that are male-dominated, and these will be difficult for many reasons. Some of these difficulties will be smaller issues like saying ‘no’ to some opportunities to have a healthy work-life balance. But some of these difficulties may be more serious for women, gender and sex diverse people. Not just subtle sexual discrimination and female-role stereotyping, but more serious instances like harassment and overt hostility or threatening behaviour. Statistically, these issues are much more prevalent for people with high intersectional oppressions such as (but not limited to) woman of colour, disabled and LGBTQI+ identifying peoples. Having firm boundaries as to what level of stress one can tolerate is also important – look after yourself, especially your mental health. Leave if you feel unsafe. Do not report offenders if you feel unsafe doing so. Do not blame yourself for what has happened to you – this is a part of trauma not the reality of the situation. Your career goals are not worth the associated trauma. Go where you are valued and supported. Seek help. 

Hopefully, by allowing ecologists an opportunity to reflect on their own intersectionality, then some constructive truths can be recognised moving forward together.

More about Leanda:

Unit coordinator (Indigenous Cultures and Health Behaviours), Lecturer, Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University.

PhD ‘Living on burrowed time: trapdoors spiders of Perth’, BSc (Hons) Conservation/Zoology

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Advisory Board member for Pacific Conservation Biology journal CSIRO Publishing

For Science Communications regarding ‘world’s oldest recorded spider’ please visit leanda.life