Who Should Wake Coyote?

Abstract This article explores Lucy Wright and Joseph Beuys’ creative engagements with folklore and traditional knowledge. It considers the degree to which these European artists’ work might mitigate or promote resilience to the impacts of climate change globally. If there is potential to be gained from engaging creatively with folklore to support more sustainable life ways, who has the right to do this and what are the potential challenges around this kind of work? While recognising that intangible cultural heritage traditions often display vital human interconnections with local landscapes, such that their protection may also constitute a form of environmental protection, it asks whether supporting, or perhaps rather shifting European reactions to climate change need always be achieved with reference to European folklore, or whether trans-continental work may also be valuable. Reflecting on the Anthropocene, the article asks how it frames, supports, elides or limits action on climate change. It then turns to indigenous stories of coyote as exemplary stories, pedagogical narratives which initiate creative processes of personal and collective interpretation and guide people to a sustainable relationship with their environment. Finally, it draws on Randazzo and Richter's recent work to consider how such traditions might be turned to in ethical ways to critique the Anthropocene thesis, opening up other possible ways to support ongoing life on earth.