"Shift That Paradigm of Thinking of the Land As a Commodity Versus the Land As Relationship" Promoting Indigenous Approaches to Addressing the Climate Crisis

Background & Purpose

Climate change is widely regarded as one of the greatest threats of the twenty-first century, and Indigenous Peoples are particularly vulnerable to its effects. Indigenous climate leaders have identified the climate crisis as symptomatic of ongoing processes of colonialism, patriarchy, dispossession, and capitalism. While governments and institutions take incremental steps to address climate change, achieving the radical change required for a just transition to a sustainable future requires prioritizing Indigenous climate leadership. This paper is part of a broader research initiative that seeks to promote Indigenous climate leadership through exploring and elevating Indigenous climate solutions and supporting Indigenous community members to become climate leaders. The focus of this presentation is to explore Indigenous climate priorities and understand how to best support Indigenous climate leadership by drawing on structured conversations with community members.

Methods

Two small gatherings of Indigenous community members (n=9) were convened at York University in Tkaronto. Each gathering had four Indigenous contributors and was facilitated by an Indigenous climate expert. Community members were asked questions about their involvement with climate action, the impact of the climate crisis, and their hopes for the future. Gatherings were audio recorded and transcribed. We applied a reflexive thematic analysis, including listening to gathering recordings and reading through the transcripts to immerse ourselves in the data, coding portions of transcripts to develop an initial codebook, meeting with the team to discuss codes and reflect on emerging themes, applying the codebook to collate themes, and discussing the relationship between themes to finalize the analysis.

Results

Analysis resulted in seven overarching themes, including colonialism, extractivism, false solutions, resistance, Indigenous sovereignty, role of educators, and traditional Indigenous knowledges. The first three themes describe the barriers to Indigenous climate leadership, highlighting the impact of colonialism and disconnection to traditional ways of being, resulting in loss of language, knowledge, and culture. They also recognized the immense challenge of unsustainable extraction of resources from their home territories and criticized Western climate solutions, noting they often exclude Indigenous communities and do not adequately address the urgent nature of the climate crisis. The final four themes encompass community member’s roles as Indigenous climate leaders. Indigenous climate leadership was described as multifaceted, encompassing resistance against colonialism through activism and cultural revitalization, the embrace and promotion of Indigenous sovereignty, and the passing down of stories, lessons and wisdom from elders and knowledge keepers to Indigenous youth.

Conclusions & Implications

This research emphasizes the essential role of Indigenous community members in addressing climate injustice. Indigenous climate leadership is expansive, necessitating paradigm shifts from colonialism to ensure a just transition to a sustainable future where Indigenous sovereignty is upheld, Indigenous climate solutions are prioritized, and traditional knowledges are respected. This entails acknowledging the challenges they confront, such as cultural disconnection and unsustainable resource use, while also recognizing their resilience and commitment to instigating positive change. Supporting and amplifying Indigenous voices can pave the way for a more comprehensive and impactful approach to tackling the pressing issues posed by climate change.