Celebrate Earth Day and Support ICA’s Work to Decolonize Canadian Climate Policy
Advisory Council members Jesse Mike, Deborah McGregor, Tiffany Traverse, and Pamela Beebe out on the land in their territories and biomes with youth and Elders.
“Wahkohtawin, Màmawi pìkiskwéwin, there are many Nehiyewan words that describe how we must work in the natural world. Solutions are before us - through the land and through the teachings of reciprocity.”
- Rebecca Sinclair, lead researcher for Phase 2 of Decolonizing Climate Policy project
It’s Earth Day week once more, and it’s been another year of strange weather, of unprecedented climate disruption, of increasing greenhouse gas emissions, of more oil and gas pipelines forced through Indigenous land without consent, and billions more public dollars spent to support the fossil fuel industry.
We know that Canadian climate policy is failing to drive real climate action. But did you know that the way climate policy has been developed in Canada not only undermines its effectiveness for real climate solutions but actually violates Indigenous Peoples’ rights? Climate policy in this country is not only ineffective, it is deeply unjust.
Canada’s approach to climate policy is failing
First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities offer an abundance of teachings, worldviews, alternative livelihoods and economic systems that value interdependence, reciprocity and respect for all life. These are the counterforce to the extractive, exploitative colonial-capitalist systems at the root of the climate crisis. These are the climate solutions that are urgently needed.
In the recent ICA report which shares the findings from Phase 1 of our Decolonizing Climate Policy in Canada research project, we exposed that Indigenous Peoples were structurally excluded from the decision-making table where these policies and plans were made, despite Canada’s climate plans repeatedly making mention of Indigenous Peoples and our rights and the importance of our knowledge and leadership for climate action. Indigenous Peoples were treated as stakeholders, alongside industry, academia and NGOs rather than as self-determining Nations, communities, and rights holders.
This exclusion is not just poor process and bad faith, it actually violates Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination and to free, prior and informed consent, as affirmed by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It also violates the federal government’s stated commitments to Nation-to Nation, Inuit-Crown and government-to-government relationships.
Our research found that not only was the process deeply unjust, but the contents of Canada’s climate plans are also problematic, promoting climate solutions that ignore the realities faced by many Indigenous communities, creating disproportionate and negative impacts for Indigenous Peoples, and failing to take on many of the ongoing drivers of climate change, including the fossil fuel industry.
Canada’s approach to climate action is failing because it is replicating the colonial capitalist relations and structures that are driving the crisis. Policy-makers and decision-makers need to do better. And if they won’t, then we need to do their jobs for them.
Towards Indigenous-led climate policy
Since the release of the report last month, our research team has launched Phase 2 of the Decolonizing Climate Policy project. In active response to the failure of climate policy in Canada, we are aiming to create Indigenous-led climate policy - climate policies by and for Indigenous Peoples that will raise up and empower Indigenous-led solutions.
As Rebecca Sinclair, lead researcher for Phase 2 tells us:
“Indigenous Peoples need to be at the very table where policy is made. This looks like building relationships, it’s effort, time and trust rehabilitation...taking the time and energy to bring folks to the table. For this we need real funding support to make it economically sustainable for our Elders and Knowledge Keepers to be at the table. And we need policy-making processes that include ceremonies for the land”
As Rebecca makes clear, Indigenous Peoples need to be at the table and we need to have a voice at the table. If Canada refuses to bring Indigenous Peoples to the table, then we need to set our own tables and create climate policy ourselves - envisioning our climate solutions and enacting our sovereign rights to do so.
Introducing the Indigenous-led Climate Policy Advisory Council
The first step we took in embarking on Phase 2 of the project was to convene an Advisory Council of Indigenous Peoples from the five different biomes across so-called Canada to advise and guide our process. A biome is a large geographical area made up of particular soils, plants, animals and climatic conditions, all creating a unique community of living beings. It is through Indigenous teachings that the land and water have a spirit and a voice. Rebecca wanted to ensure that we incorporate the land and water and proposed the idea of inviting representatives from the different biomes as a way to have the land and waters in specific places spoken for in the work we do and the decisions we make.
The council has now been established and includes: Pamela Bebee of the Kainai Nation (Grasslands biome), Deborah McGregor from Whitefish River First Nation (Temperate Deciduous Forests biome), Katherine Whitecloud from Wipazoka Wakpa Dakota Nation (Boreal Forests biome), Jesse Unaapik Mike from Iqaluit, Nunavut (Tundra/Arctic biome), and Tiffany Traverse from Secwepemculew Territory (Mountain Forests biome). We also have Bryanna Brown who is Inuk and Mi’kmaq from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador to represent youth on the Council.
In having two of the six Advisory Council members from the North of Canada, we are aiming to ensure that the North, which is particularly heavily impacted by the changing climate, is very well represented in the work we do going forward.
As our research team begins to reach out to Indigenous Peoples across the country to ask for their ideas on climate policy, we will have the help of these six Advisory Council members - who are well connected to communities in their regions and biomes - to help us reach out widely and make sure a wide variety of Inuit, Métis and First Nation voices are heard and heeded.
Our vision
Over the last month the Advisory Council has been deep in discussion about what it might mean to create Indigenous-led climate policy. They are asking:
How do we go from our critique of federal climate policy to empowering our communities?
What might a decolonial, deeply relational and reciprocal policy-making process look like?
Who needs to be included?
How can we reach a wide variety of people from diverse regions, Nations and communities?
In the end, what do we want to create? And importantly who will these climate policies be for?
We will begin soon with a Canada-wide survey to gather ideas, from as many Indigenous folks as we can reach, about what they want to see this grassroots policy-making process look like and about how this process can best serve their communities. The Advisory Council has visions for knowledge-sharing workshops, for convening a national gathering on the land, to share stories, meals and strategies and for coming together to collectively draft a Indigenous Climate Justice Declaration.
We need your help to make this happen
There are many brilliant, powerful ideas emerging from the Advisory Council process. We have an incredible wealth of experience and knowledge and inspiration at the table. But this project needs support if it is to be as powerful and transformative as it can be.
Colonial structures have long undermined Indigenous self-determination in driving solutions to the climate crisis. At ICA, we uplift the knowledges of our people to build strategies for climate justice. You can actively help us do this work by donating to Phase 2 of our Decolonizing Climate Policy in Canada: Indigenous-led Climate Policy. We are looking to raise $30,000 to support our community engagement strategies and every bit you can chip in helps!
Alone this effort won’t be the solution, but in tandem with growing support and solidarity for Indigenous rights and sovereignty, we are hopeful we can generate the ripple necessary for the transformative change that benefits all our future generations.
*Oh, and by the way, if you’re angry about Indigenous Peoples being structurally excluded from the federal climate policy in Canada, you can let the Feds know through this survey that the government is circulating to get feedback on their climate policies and plans.*