One of the biggest issues within the debate and plans around climate change is care and provisions for indigenous peoples, who are not only (often) heavily affected by climate change, but are also disconnected from technologies and mitigation resources that fight climate change. The Rockies Institute, a Canada-based charitable organization, attempts to create a more climate-resilient future by connecting First Nations and western scientists. The underlying concept of TRI’s work is that together, traditional climate knowledge and modern scientific information can offer effective solutions to climate change problems.
In March 2018, Edmonton, Alberta hosted the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Cities Conference, to which TRI brought delegates from the Blackfoot Nation and the Blood Tribe to participate in dialogue. The goal in introducing these First Nations was to give a worldwide platform for a discussion about what Canada’s First Nations are facing, what they can offer in terms of adaptation knowledge, and what they need from governments and organizations that have the resources available for large-scale change.
The Blackfeet and Bloods were received quite well at the IPCC conference and were able to establish a connection with larger bodies in the fight against climate change. A poignant message there came from Diandra Bruised Head of the Blood Tribe, who discussed issues with contemporary western education. She asserted that western education is “sedimented” in one way of approaching climate and the environment, and that that sedimentation is full of cracks. As an indigenous person, she stressed the importance of ancestral knowledge of land and climate patterns in understanding and resolving contemporary climate problems. She also emphasized the need for inclusivity of indigenous populations, who are often cast aside—or not even talked about—as the world confronts emerging issues.
Phase one of TRI’s initiative was to establish a coherent dialogue platform for First Nations and the scientific community. Its next phase will be to confront the threat that wildfires increasingly pose to indigenous lands and communities.
TRI is doing important, ethical, and necessary work, with great success. It is the responsibility of the world to advocate for and empower indigenous peoples, who inhabited a great span of this planet first. The insights they have to offer about the history of climate and the adaptation measures they’ve mastered are invaluable tools that the scientific and policy community ought to add to its arsenal; an interdisciplinary approach is almost never a bad thing.