A philosopher, prolific writer, artist, and singer-songwriter , Eva Meijer seems to have her fingers in every pie imaginable. When I catch her, she has just returned home to the Netherlands from Poland where, she tells me with surprisingly little fanfare, she may have become the first person on Polish television to advocate for better care for animals. Growing up with animals, Meijer felt a special connection with them early on, becoming vegetarian when she was eleven.
She began writing songs and poems at fourteen and studied singing and art at the Royal Conservatoire and Royal Academy of the Arts, before pursuing philosophy.
Whether academic or artistic, for Meijer each form is simply a new language through which she can give meaning to different experiences. Her PhD thesis and resulting books Dierentalen Animal Languages and When Animals Speak explore the use of language in animal groups and between human and non-human animals, making the case that animal language is, in fact, political.
She researches, writes, paints, photographs and makes music around the themes of animal and human language, politics and communication. She has written 14 books which have been translated into over 20 languages. North Holland, Netherlands. Her post-doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam takes these ideas a step further. Since many animals have clear ideas about how they want to live, Meijer argues that their capacity to make decisions about that life and to maintain it should be respected and protected.
Humans, for our part, need to engage in conversation with other animals as active participants in their own existence. This means listening to what they have to tell us about their own experience, about the kind of future they want, and what relationshipβif anyβthey want to have with us. Whilst this might sound idealistic or outright strange to some, Meijer emphasizes that there are already places where this co-creation is happening, particularly outside of Western social constructs.
