Mutual AID For The End Of The World

Conversations with disabled, trans, and racialized survivalists who are changing what it means to be a disaster prepper

- Kelly Rose Pflug-Back

A us Bahadur doesn’t look anything like the doomsday preppers you’d see on reality TV. When I walk into their workshop, they’re holding a mobility cane and wearing a T-shirt that reads “Low Femme Weirdo.” In their early 30s, the Toronto resident invokes a casual, sardonic humour as we discuss potential scenarios that could end or seriously alter our lives in a future marked by climate change – from floods to fire to scarcity of food and potable water.

Aus started teaching the GOAT (Get Out Alive, Together!) workshop series in Toronto in 2016, in response to the overwhelming number of people teaching survival and disaster-preparedness skills from a right-wing, individualist perspective. GOAT is rooted in principles of mutual aid and collaboration, with a focus on marginalized identities – centring the people who mainstream disaster narratives often paint out of the picture, portray as a threat, or assume would succumb to the Darwinian logic of “survival of the fittest.”

“I identify as ‘multiply marginalized,’ which is a simple way to say a very complicated thing,” Aus explains to me. “I’m PoC [a person of colour], I’m mixed-Black, I’m from a low-income family. I have mobility issues and chronic pain, as well as obsessive-compulsive and anxiety disorders.” By virtue of these things, they explain, even the decision to leave the house involves risks ranging from physically inaccessible infrastructure to harassment from police.