Your Next Steps  

The reflections and actions suggested here will help you achieve the learning outcomes of this module. You may also wish to undertake additional next steps based on ideas that have come up for you during this section.

Take the time that you need to do your own thinking and work related to this module’s topics. We invite you to capture your thoughts in written form and/or speak to individuals or groups in your social and work circles about what you are learning.

Suggested Reflections

1. Think about a climate-related project you are currently working on, or that you recently completed. If Indigenous knowledge was not asked for or included in the project, how do you think outcomes might have been achieved more successfully if they were? What contribution would Indigenous perspectives have made to that project? If you are currently working on a project where you are equally seeking out Indigenous knowledge to support the work, take note of the benefits the project has experienced because of this decision.
2. Think about some of the people in your life or at your workplace, particularly those from different generations than you or people with different racial or cultural backgrounds. What knowledge do they hold that you don’t? What could you gain from learning more about their perspectives? These people, just like Indigenous community knowledge keepers, possess information that you don’t. How could intentionally seeking it out benefit you and something you might be working on right now?
3. If you and your team were tasked to consider research in an area determined as “Sacred” by an Indigenous community, how would this change the way you approach your work and or research? What do Sacred sites mean to you? Take some time to consider how this concept relates back to the content presented in Module 3.

Suggested Actions  

1. Watch the film “Run to Be Visible”. What are some important teaching moments presented in the film? How does this film challenge notions of the dominance of Western science by centring Indigenous knowledge. Choose one Indigenous scholar mentioned in this film and see if you can read a piece of their work.
2. Take some time to learn about local Indigenous-led environmental initiatives, including the knowledge holders within these projects. How can you reach out to Indigenous-led initiatives at your own institution to access learning opportunities led by local knowledge keepers?
3. Create a working definition of the term “decolonization”, how can your definition inform the current work you do and hold you accountable to Indigenous knowledge as expertise within climate mitigation work?

Further Reading and Research

Books

Kimmerer, Robin Wall (2015). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions.

Articles and Reports

Cameron, Emilie S. (2012), Securing Indigenous politics: A critique of the vulnerability and adaptation approach to the human dimensions of climate change in the Canadian Arctic, 2012.

Carter, Lyn., (2019) Indigenous Pacific Approaches to Climate Change.

Charles-Norris, K.A. (2020), Indigenous Lens on Climate Change Adaptation Planning. Environment Partnership Coordinator Cambium Indigenous Professional Services.

International Labor Office (ILO) (2017), Indigenous peoples and climate change: From victims to change agents through decent work. Geneva

Macchi, Mirjam et al. (2008)., Indigenous and Traditional Peoples and Climate Change.

Teegee, Terry Chief. (2020) Cultural Rights of First Nations and Climate Change.