Source: Fitzpatrick, M and Hersher, R. "'He Needs to Listen to Us' Protestors Call on Trump to Respect Native Sovereignty" WBUR, March 10th, 2017.
From the Paris Agreement, to COP26, the need to fight the climate change crisis is urgent and demands a united global effort. Yet in fighting the effects of climate change and ensuring a sustainable future, one voice is frequently missing from the table of world leaders, global institutions, and corporations: Indigenous voices. This is a major oversight. The vast amount of knowledge within indigenous communities, and their connection to the land should not be ignored in global environmental policymaking. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states in its fifth assessment report, despite the potential of Indigenous, local, and traditional knowledge systems and practices as a major resource for adapting to climate change, this major resource has not been used in existing adaptation efforts.
It is evident that the integration of these forms of knowledge into existing practices is a necessary step towards taking effective climate action; these communities hold a vast amount of knowledge about the land around them, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) also recognizes that indigenous knowledge, cultures, and traditional practices need to be respected as they contribute to sustainable and equitable development, and proper management of the environment surrounding them. And yet across the globe, indigenous communities do not have sovereign rights, and the destruction of their languages and peoples have made it increasingly more difficult to maintain these sustainable practices and traditions. The impact of settler-colonialism has resulted in an erasure and destruction of these lands. Inevitably, mass consumption and Western perspectives of the land have further hindered the efforts to mitigate climate change.
Canada itself has a tumultuous and dark history of erasing indigenous voices and excluding first nations communities from the decision-making process. This issue still persists today as treaty rights violations and lack of consultations in climate action policies continue. For instance, Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs in British Columbia were never consulted about the Coastal Gaslink project, despite the fact that this pipeline will run through indigenous sovereign land. This sparked a massive protest in support of their cause, highlighting the clear environmental impacts of the project and the violation of treaty agreements and indigenous rights by the Canadian government. Additionally, in Nova Scotia, Mi’kmaq fishers pursuing their right to a moderate livelihood have faced racist attacks and discrimination by commercial, non-Indigenous fishers who have even gone as far ransacking catches, and burning one of the lobster pounds to the ground. One representative on the side of commercial fishers argued that the practice was unsustainable, but this is simply not true.
As is stated by Magni in her 2016 UNESCO article, “Respect for nature and its conservation as well as community-based management of lands and natural resources are central to the indigenous ideas of well-being.” Indigenous traditions and practices remain committed to the preservation of the planet and oceans, and the Mi’kmaq were afforded these rights by the Supreme Court of Canada in R. V. Marshall in order to not only maintain their livelihood but also preserve their traditional practices and pass on the local culture and knowledge. Therefore, in taking decisive climate action, it is not simply enough to respect treaty rights, indigenous leaders and representatives should be able to participate in decision-making processes and lead the movement towards a sustainable future.
Thus, in looking towards a sustainable future, giving the traditional land back to Indigenous peoples and granting them the rights they need is essential not only for curbing the major human rights violations they face, but also to effectively utilize indigenous knowledge that will pave the way forward to mitigating climate change. Earlier this year in the United States, the Supreme Court made a landmark decision which declared half of eastern Oklahoma to be Native land. The prominent oil sector in the region will have to answer to Indigenous tribes and look to their decision making in regard to oil and gas wells, refineries and pipelines. This decision ensures that Indigenous rights are restored, and that governments and corporations can be held to account for their harmful decisions against the environment. Indigenous self-determination allows for autonomy to maintain the traditions of protecting the land, which ultimately leads to more sustainable practices and development.
Integrating Indigenous knowledge into environmental practice and policy will ensure more successful efforts to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change. This Indigenous knowledge, or traditional ecological knowledge, is a living system of environmental governance which is rooted in Indigenous cosmologies and cannot be uncoupled from the people, the land, or from the ways it is generated, understood, shared or enacted. There is a need then to allow space and opportunity to implement Indigenous practices and traditions pertaining to the environment. After all, such approaches to sustainability are not new, rather they have been hidden due to centuries of oppression and assimilation from neoliberal and Western colonialism and neo-colonialism. Therefore, it is imperative to change the western perspective on sustainability and look towards Indigenous knowledge to adapt and produce effective strategies against ecological crises.
This requires Indigenous knowledge, local (non-Indigenous) knowledge of the environment, and science knowledge which combined together create what is known as the Hybrid Space. For instance, the Climate and Oceans Support Program in the Pacific has implemented a project funded by the Australian department of foreign affairs which looks to work with local indigenous communities to document their knowledge of weather and climate forecasting and incorporate it with conventional scientific methods. This space of cooperation will allow us to adapt and actually target environmental issues locally from a bottom-up approach. This cooperative form of environmental governance is key to responding to the challenges of climate change.
It is imperative now more than ever to listen to Indigenous voices and include them in the conversation on climate change. Indigenous sovereignty is not only an issue of human rights but also a path to sustainable and effective climate action. Climate justice cannot and should not leave anyone behind. It is only through equal cooperation that change can be made.
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