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Indigenous Youth: Leaders and Collaborators in the Fight Against Climate Change

Indigenous youth are fighting against climate change and advocating for Mother Earth through collaborative projects across the globe. Their leadership and collective engagement inform a resurgence of Indigenous traditions and an incorporation of new technologies to address persistent problems caused by climate change.

For example, In the Tata Province of Morocco, the hot summers and cold winters, and threatening extremes in rainfall have led young people to restore and maintain the khettara system, an ancient system of water irrigation – “a network of wells and sloped underground canals that delivers drinking and irrigation water from aquifers to fields, relying only on gravity.” And while the “over-extraction of groundwater” continues to be an issue, especially during severe drought and heatwaves, the presence of solar-powered pumps has enabled collective access to water. The khettara system had fallen into disrepair and neglect, and youth are calling for a return to a collective community-based approach to maintaining the khettara system, including the removal of detritus after floods.

Rapid changes in climate have an impact on hunting in the Canadian Arctic. The Igliniit Project involves a collaboration between Inuit hunters in Canada and geomatic engineering students. Together, they use digital technologies, including GPS, to collect and map data about climate change (including weather conditions and changes in sea ice) and the movements of animals. The project started in 2006 and it continues in 2023. Igliniit is an Inuktitut word for “trails routinely travelled.”

In the Yukon, Indigenous youth have been recruited to assist in implementing a vision to address climate change and uphold the self-determination of First Nations. Over a two-year period, the Council of Yukon First Nations partnered with the Assembly of First Nations Yukon Region and called upon people under thirty years old to determine, for all 14 Yukon First Nations, how to take climate action over the long term. The resulting youth-driven climate plan called Reconnection Vision, was released on June 30, 2023.  The Reconnection Vision is not a rigid document, rather it draws in readers and implicates them to consider their “role and responsibility to the children, land, and life of tomorrow.” The Reconnection Vision draws from the intentions that were planted in the “Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow” document from 1973 that led “the federal government to begin a negotiation process a modern-day treaty, the first in Canada.”

To mark the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, on August 9th, Indigenous youth shared their experiences and initiatives online at the Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change. The event was designed by youth for youth, to offer them a virtual platform over a twenty-four-hour period, to hold space for one another, and discuss their climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts.

As stewards of Mother Earth, Indigenous youth are leading the way, inviting collaboration with Indigenous governments and diverse knowledge keepers, to tackle the impact of climate change on the livelihood, culture, and well-being of their communities.

 

By Leela Viswanathan

 

(Image Credit: Kalen Emsley, Unsplash)

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Indigenous-led Conservation of Caribou

Indigenous-led efforts to conserve caribou, highlight efforts to sustain cultural and ecological connections among First Nations and endangered species. According to a 2013 report by the Assembly of First Nations and the David Suzuki Institute, in Canada, “boreal woodland caribou herds share the land with approximately 300 First Nation communities.” Both boreal caribou and Southern Mountain caribou, in British Columbia, Canada, are listed as “threatened” under the Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Caribou contribute to the lives and cultures of Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island (the continent of North America). For example, caribou is a traditional food among the Inuit and the parts of the caribou that are not eaten, such as the skin and fur, are transformed into material for tents, clothing, and bedding. The hunting and harvest of caribou play social and spiritual roles in maintaining kinship and community relationships.

Indigenous led-conservations efforts are saving caribou from local extinction (also referred to as extirpation), thus contributing to the protection of Indigenous self-determination. For example, the size of the Klinse-Za caribou herds (one of 54 subpopulations of caribou in British Columbia) on the traditional territories of the West Moberly First Nations and the Salteau First Nations, have declined from approximately “250 in the 1990s to only 38 in 2013.” However, about nine years of conservation efforts by these First Nations have increased the size of the herd to 101 caribou in 2021, and more recently, to 114 caribou . The increase in the numbers of caribou, is attributed to the leadership and conservation actions undertaken through a conservation partnership agreement between West Moberly First Nation and the Salteau First Nation. The partnership agreement provides habitat protection for the Klinse-Za and for other caribou subpopulations in neighbouring areas. In addition, the agreement aims to “stabilize and expeditiously grow the population” to self-sustaining levels and to maintain consistency between traditional caribou hunting practices and harvesting practices and Aboriginal and Treaty rights. The conservation agreement also invites the reinstatement of cultural traditions of caribou hunting.

The degradation of caribou habitats has contributed to the steep decline of caribou in British Columbia as well as in other parts of Canada. For example, in Northern Québec and Labrador, the George River caribou herd has declined by 98% since 2001. Although the numbers of caribou in the herd went up slightly in 2020, they went down again in 2022, and while non-Indigenous people are banned from hunting the caribou, the Innu and Cree Nations are also taking measures to curb hunting. On January 24, 2022, the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee and Innu Nation of Québec jointly signed the Maamuu nisituhtimuwin/ Matinueu-mashinaikan atik u e uauinakanit or mutual understanding, that “establishes mutually agreed upon terms by which Innu communities in Québec will be able to access caribou within the Cree traditional territory of Chisasibi, Eeyou Istchee.”

Indigenous-led caribou conservation protects not only the caribou, but also Indigenous ways of living with the land, and “maintaining balance” between Indigenous cultures and biodiverse ecosystems.

 

By Leela Viswanathan

 

(Image Credit: Orna Wachman, Pixabay)

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