Module 1: The Historical Context of Indigenous Environmental Management

Introduction

Indigenous communities around the world derive intergenerational knowledge systems, cultural wellness and governance practices from direct and enduring relationships to their home Lands and Waters. Additionally, Indigenous communities around the world experience the direct impacts of changing climate conditions, often not only needing to endure unprecedented changes to their traditional territories, landscapes and water-ways, but also the cultural practices and knowledge systems embedded in land-based relationships. Whether it be within the realm of climate adaptation or land management, Indigenous leadership and influence can enhance collective efforts towards the restoration of better-relations and practices with planet earth.

As you begin this course, it is helpful to first and foremost take time to consider your own relationship to Land and Waters. Do you know the traditional names of the territories you live on? What are the histories of these places? How does local Indigenous knowledge inform local initiatives in relation to Land management? You may also feel connected to where you live and/or the place(s) where you grew up. This connection may even have stretched over many generations of your ancestors.

It is not uncommon for non-Indigenous Canadians to not know historical contexts and facts pertaining to local Indigenous Nations as content including Indigenous knowledge, histories and relations are only now included in educational curricula. Understanding that Canada’s colonial history is important in how we re-envision the future. David Isaac and Chief Gordon Planes remind us that each Indigenous community has experienced colonization differently and not all communities are the same:

David Isaac

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David Isaac – Communities are in different places with colonization – Transcript

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes -Working in partnerships – Transcript

Indigenous-Led Climate and Ecological Modelling

This course invites learners into deeper thinking, reflection and content pertaining to Indigenous perspectives in climate adaptation and mitigation. Ultimately, this course provides a space for learners to consider how and where Indigenous leadership can not only restore better-practice across social and political landscapes, but also heal relationships with our shared planet for future generations to come.

Indigenous community governance, shared histories, cultural practices, languages and knowledge systems come from relationships to Land and Waters. These relationships are embedded within systems of accountability, responsibility and worldviews based on values that deem all life as innately interconnected. These relationships and responsibilities have stretched over millennia, therefore locating Indigenous knowledge keepers as vital leaders within Climate and Ecological Modelling systems.

Often you might hear that Indigenous peoples have been here, in what we now call Canada, “since time immemorial.” This means that Indigenous peoples have been stewards of the land for as long as they’ve lived there. It’s a legacy we all can learn from. Within the context of extreme climate changes and unprecedented conditions, it’s important to recognize our common connections and responsibilities to the land and waters. Additionally, it is increasingly important for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors within the realms of climate action and management, to come together and co-create long-standing solutions that serve future generations.

Take the time to listen to Chief Gordon Planes and David Isaac reflect upon the ways in which Indigenous Worldviews and Western Sciences can learn from one another:

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes – Indigenous worldviews and western science – Transcript

David Isaac

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David Isaac-Indigenous Worldview as guiding light in tackling climate crises – Transcript

Traditional Territories and Indigenous Lands

There are more than 630 Indigenous communities in Canada, and 203 in British Columbia alone. Each Nation maintains their own unique relationship to their homelands and waters that reflects the values of what can be described as stewardship. To this day, Indigenous communities maintain that they are a single piece within a larger interconnected web of shared life. The animals, the plants, the trees, the water-ways, the wind, the mountains, humans: all share relatives. In this way, the land is not something that can be owned, but rather, something to be cared for like a relative. From this teaching stemmed social, economic and political expressions that aligned with ethics of accountability, responsibility and shared care for the plant and all living entities.

While Indigenous communities historically lived across territories and water-ways, today, Indigenous peoples live throughout various communities in Canada in reservations, settlements, treaty lands, traditional territories or co-management areas. There is also a large population of Indigenous people residing in cities across Canada.

Listen to Chief Gordon Planes reflect on the important first step of Territorial Acknowledgement:

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes – How can professionals help Indigenous re-adaptation- Transcript

Listen to the interview with Coralee Miller as she reflects upon the ways climate change impacts her traditional territories.

Coralee Miller

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Coralee Miller – Impact on Traditional Territories – Transcript

Traditional territories

Traditional territories are areas that an Indigenous community traditionally inhabited. While they may include reserves as part of the larger territory, they are often geographically larger and may include large urban centres such as Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto etc.

Listen to Indigenous Voices David Isaac and Chief Gordon Planes reflect upon the changes taking place in their traditional territories:

David Isaac 

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David Isaac – Indigenous knowledge systems & fire management – Transcript

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes -Learning from the past – Transcript

Co-management areas

Co-management areas in a Canadian context typically refers to “agreements between government agencies and representatives of Indigenous peoples to jointly make land use and resource management decisions about a tract of government-controlled land (e.g. protected areas) or resource (e.g. fishery).” They include large parcels of land that are often adjacent to the areas denoted by treaty. They often focus on management of wildlife or forestry resource extraction.

Listen to this brief clip with Janis Brooks as she unpacks the importance of Understanding Cultural Difference:

Janis Brooks

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Janis Brooks – Western Time Driven vs Indigenous Values – Transcript

Land acknowledgements: Purpose & Practice

Land or territorial acknowledgements are opportunities for individuals, collectives and institutions to deepen their critical thinking in relation to whose traditional territories they may be currently occupying. They help us say that we recognize that historically the land we are on was cared for and inhabited by Indigenous Nations and that those Nations still have responsibility to the land. Today, territorial acknowledgements are a common practice, often heard before meetings and events or presentations, however it is helpful to move beyond reading a scripted version and instead explore the deeper meaning and purpose of this practice.

Land acknowledgements help us remember that there are governance structures and cultural practices that exist which we must pay attention to in our work with any particular Indigenous community. Simply said, land acknowledgements are a way for non-Indigenous peoples to thank Indigenous peoples for allowing us to be here and to use this land and show respect to the people that are from the community and tied to the earth in perhaps a different way.

Listen to Chief Gordon Planes discuss the concept of Environmental Currency and Seeing through Different Eyes when engaging with climate mitigation work:

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes – Environmental Currency – Transcript

Beyond Words: Developing your Personal Practice

Take the time to familiarize yourself with the names of the traditional territories you are currently located on; including the names of the Nations and languages of these places. Consider how you and your family are in relation to these lands and Indigenous Nations. Start to develop your own statement and or reflection that you can use next time you are invited to open a space in your professional or personal lives.

Developing your own practice is an opportunity to challenge colonial norms that inform how we think about histories and relations to place. Additionally, they are meant to provide opportunities for individuals to contemplate their own personal responsibilities to the Lands that they live on. Beyond basic rhetoric and or reading a scripted version of a land acknowledgement, it is often welcomed to instead share your own thinking and cultivation of your own practice.

Read the Royal Roads Land Acknowledgement.

Finally, it is important to know the difference between Land Acknowledgement and Land Welcome:

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David Isaac – Culture is not static – Transcript

Indigenous Terminology in Canada

When speaking about Indigenous groups in Canada, it is important to correctly distinguish between Aboriginal, Indigenous, First Nation, Métis, Inuit and Non-Status.

Section 35 (2) of the Constitution Act, 1982, defined “Aboriginal peoples in Canada” as including “the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.” However, the term Indigenous is more widely accepted across diverse communities. One reason is that the prefix ab means “away from” or “not,” so aboriginal actually means “not original.” Indigenous comes from the Latin word indigena, which means “sprung from the land; native.”

It is important that when possible to learn and use the specific names of each unique and different Nation. Examples: Cree or Nehiyaw, Ojibwe or Anishinaabe, Coast Salish or W̱SÁNEĆ, Métis or Michif; along with their specific Nations.

Governance structures: An Introduction

As we begin to learn about Indigenous governance within the realm of Land-management and climate action, it is important to also learn about distinct and different governance structures of First Nations communities in Canada. The first are elected band councils and the other is hereditary leadership.

Working with Community

When working with a community over time, including multi-year projects, it is important to also consider the ways in which leadership could change over time. Familiarizing yourself with local governance is a helpful step in grounding your work in local governance and protocols. Keep in mind that some communities do not have hereditary leaders and may rely solely on the guidance of elders to complement the elected band councils. The best thing to do is to ask in the community what the governance structures are, perhaps by visiting the band council to begin relationship-building, and asking if there is a group of hereditary leaders that you should be talking to as well.

Listen to David Isaac reflect upon the ways in which relationships with Indigenous communities and leadership require ongoing consent and cultural awareness:

David Isaac

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David Isaac – Community leadership cant be reduced to who invited you – Transcript

Indigenous peoples and environmental management

“Indigenous peoples have used Indigenous knowledge to inform decisions about environmental management for millenia.”

In 2019, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) and the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs passed resolutions that stated Indigenous peoples were in a climate emergency. Around this time some municipalities started making these declarations as well and talking about the need to do something. The AFN decided to host a national gathering in 2020 and invited thought and climate leaders from across the country to discuss the issues. They shared lessons learned in the National Climate Gathering Report, noting the interrelationship between “The Three C’s: Colonialism, Capitalism and Carbon” and calling the current situation “a people problem, not a climate problem” (pp.6, National Climate Gathering Report). The report highlighted strong linkages between climate action and the health and wellbeing of communities.

Centering Indigenous Leadership

Indigenous communities have been monitoring and adapting to environmental change for time immemorial, yet the Report noted that “adaptation required in response to the changing climate represents a form of colonial deja vu” (pp. 21, National Climate Gathering Report).

The report also states that unless current climate mitigation and adaptation procedures include and centre Indigenous expertise and knowledge, then they risk the perpetuation of colonial structures. Indigenous approaches to climate adaptation and ecological modelling are integrated, multidimensional and complex.

For example, when addressing issues such as food security, Indigenous approaches would also account for traditional food systems, cultural practices, language and knowledge pertaining to these practices. Responses to climate change need to be systems-based, holistic solutions and “First Nations possess a deep and holistic understanding of the root-causes of the climate crisis”, which naturally positions them “as active leaders in the drive to avert catastrophic climate change” (Sadik, T. et al, 2021).

A Future-based Peoples

Finally, Indigenous approaches to Land management and climate mitigation accounts for cumulative impacts that have happened over time and through collective memories. Indigenous governance practices not only account for present-day decisions but how these decisions influence and or impact the future. Often you might hear the term “seven generations”, which means that Indigenous peoples not only think about their relationship with the land in terms of what is happening today, this year, or for this generation, but for at least seven generations into the future. Indigenous peoples not only look back into the past for lessons to inform the present, but to inform all decision making now and into the future, to ensure that nature will continue to flourish and provide for ourselves and our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren.

Listen to Chief Gordon Planes reflect upon traditional Indigenous governance systems in relation to climate mitigation, environmental co-management and land-based communities:

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes -Indigenous asset management cycle of life – Transcript

Watch these video clips to learn more:

Chief Gordon Planes

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Chief Gordon Planes – Introduction – Transcript

Red Tide: Indigenous Climate Action Summit 2018

Interconnected | The Effect of Climate Change on Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Communities Are on the Front Lines of Climate Change | Hot Mess

Guiding frameworks

Within the context of Canada, many non-Indigenous communities are ready to take up the work to reconcile with Canada’s colonial histories and heal relationships with Indigenous Nations and their home territories.