Climate Change Communication and Indigenous Publics

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Candis Callison
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Development Economic ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Climate Agreements

Indigenous experiences with climate change have become increasingly visible through media stories of rising sea levels, heavy storms, and coastal erosion due to climate change in places as different as Tuvula in the South Pacific and Shishmaref in the Alaskan Arctic. Despite these bursts of attention, indigenous concerns and experiences have not been well or diversely represented in media coverage, nor have they been consistently studied in media scholarship—nor until recently, have indigenous people or knowledge been mentioned in major climate agreements and scientific assessments. There is, however, a growing body of interdisciplinary scholarship that draws on indigenous knowledge, experiences, and activism related to climate change. Indigenous peoples comprise 5% of the world’s population and live in over 90 countries around the world. Because indigenous communities are often located outside major urban centers, indigenous peoples are likely to suffer disproportionately from the impacts of climate change. Many indigenous people live in close connection with the ecosystems in their region, and collectively held Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) is passed down through multiple generations, providing in-depth, systematic, meaningful, and historically informed views of climate change and potential pathways for resilience and adaptation. Indigenous people have often been portrayed in media coverage as victims with little attention paid to TEK, communal resilience, human rights and climate justice frameworks, or the historical contexts that may amplify climate change impacts. While indigenous people have diverse circumstances and histories, many are likely to have suffered enormous upheaval in recent centuries due to colonialism, resource development, economic shifts, loss of human rights, and lack of self-determination. Climate change often intensifies existing vulnerabilities and risks. These deeply intertwined social and environmental crises create distinct challenges for considering how and what climate change means for diverse indigenous peoples, how to address it at all levels of governance, and how media can and should be accountable to and represent indigenous publics.

scholarly journals Concrete Lessons: Policies and Practices Affecting the Impact of COVID-19 for Urban Indigenous Communities in the United States and Canada

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather A. Howard-Bobiwash ◽  
Jennie R. Joe ◽  
Susan Lobo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The United States ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Policies And Practices

Throughout the Americas, most Indigenous people move through urban areas and make their homes in cities. Yet, the specific issues and concerns facing Indigenous people in cities, and the positive protective factors their vibrant urban communities generate are often overlooked and poorly understood. This has been particularly so under COVID-19 pandemic conditions. In the spring of 2020, the United Nations High Commissioner Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples called for information on the impacts of COVID-19 for Indigenous peoples. We took that opportunity to provide a response focused on urban Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. Here, we expand on that response and Indigenous and human rights lens to review policies and practices impacting the experience of COVID-19 for urban Indigenous communities. Our analysis integrates a discussion of historical and ongoing settler colonialism, and the strengths of Indigenous community-building, as these shape the urban Indigenous experience with COVID-19. Mindful of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, we highlight the perspectives of Indigenous organizations which are the lifeline of urban Indigenous communities, focusing on challenges that miscounting poses to data collection and information sharing, and the exacerbation of intersectional discrimination and human rights infringements specific to the urban context. We include Indigenous critiques of the implications of structural oppressions exposed by COVID-19, and the resulting recommendations which have emerged from Indigenous urban adaptations to lockdown isolation, the provision of safety, and delivery of services grounded in Indigenous initiatives and traditional practices.

Indigene Landrechte in Zeiten des Klimawandels und der Verhandlung um das Freihandelsabkommen Mercosur am Beispiel Brasilien

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 116-148
Author(s):  
Margret Carstens
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Rights ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Indigenous Territories ◽  
Indigenous Land Rights ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Indigenous Land

How to assess the issue of indigenous land rights in the face of man-m⁠a⁠d⁠e climate change and Amazon fires? How to classify the EU free trade agreement „Mercosur“ and relevant climate, environmental and indigenous rights? What are legal opportunities for indigenous people(s) on the international, inter-American and EU level, to prevent the loss of land and forests, and to protect themselves from climate change? On the basis of indigenous land and environmental rights in Brazil and reactions to the Amazon fires, environmental regulations of the "Mercosur Pact" as well as concerned human and indigenous rights are discussed. Further, this article deals with relevant inter-American law (individual indigenous land rights) and international law (collective land rights). Environmental and climate law provide legal and political options for indigenous people(s), for instance in Brasil. Negative impacts of climate actions on indigenous peoples, the competition between environmental protection areas and indigenous territories, the inclusion of indigenous knowledge in sustainable environmental protection and the allocation of Global Public Goods are discussed. There are various interactions between climate and biodiversity protection, human rights, indigenous peoples rights, and free trade between the EU and South America. While protecting forests as a carbon sink, negative environmental or social consequences must be avoided. Like trade agreements, environmental standards for the protection of the Brazilian Amazon rain forest should be enforceable. To reduce deforestation and to confine the effects of climate change, indigenous peoples rights have to be strengthened. The free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples to projects that may affect their territories is essential. It requires effective, coordinated solutions to protect human rights and indigenous land rights, and it needs a sustainable preservation of climate and forests - nationally and internationally. A collapse of the Amazon forest ecosystem would have global climate effects. In Brazil, alternatives to deforestation and destruction are: strengthening the rule of law and agro-ecology, and to defend indigenous territories.

scholarly journals Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Climate Change Adaptation: The Sa’ban experience

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (14) ◽  
pp. 63-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadzirah Hosen ◽  
Hitoshi Nakamura ◽  
Amran Hamzah
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Traditional Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Local Climate

Indigenous people often rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. This reliance increases their vulnerability towards the impacts of climate change, and coping with increased climate variability is a significant challenge for such communities. This research, conducted among the Sa’ban tribe of Long Banga in interior Sarawak, Malaysia, explored observations of local climate change, climate change impacts and tribal adaptation strategies. The results show that drought, wildfires and uncertain weather conditions are the Sa’ban’s primary concerns. However, the tribe have demonstrated their adaptation strategies through the use of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). Keywords: indigenous people, traditional ecological knowledge, adaptive capacity, climate change adaptation eISSN 2514-7528 ©2019 The Authors. Published for AMER, ABRA & cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/jabs.v4i14.339

scholarly journals Using Traditional Ecological Knowledge to Adapt to Climate Change in Interior Sarawak

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 185
Author(s):  
Nadzirah Hosen ◽  
Hitoshi Nakamura ◽  
Amran Hamzah
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Traditional Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Adaptation Strategies ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Local Climate Change

Indigenous people often rely on natural resources for their livelihoods. This reliance increases their vulnerability towards the impacts of climate change, and coping with increased climate variability is a significant challenge for such communities. This research, conducted among the Sa’ban tribe of Long Banga in interior Sarawak, Malaysia, explored observations of local climate change, climate change impacts and tribal adaptation strategies. The results show that drought, wildfires and uncertain weather conditions are the Sa’ban’s primary concerns. However, the tribe have demonstrated their adaptation strategies through the use of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK).Keywords: indigenous people, traditional ecological knowledge, adaptive capacity, climate change adaptationeISSN: 2398-4287 © 2019. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/e-bpj.v4i11.1716

When Rights Embrace Responsibilities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Sajeva
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Group Rights ◽  
Potential Applicability ◽  
Protection Of Human Rights ◽  
Relationship Of

The conservation of environment and the protection of human rights are two of the most compelling needs of our time. Unfortunately, they are not always easy to combine and too often result in mutual harm. This book analyses the idea of biocultural rights as a proposal for harmonizing the needs of environmental and human rights. These rights, considered as a basket of group rights, are those deemed necessary to protect the stewardship role that certain indigenous peoples and local communities have played towards the environment. With a view to understanding the value and merits, as well as the threats that biocultural rights entail, the book critically assesses their foundations, content, and implications, and develops new perspectives and ideas concerning their potential applicability for promoting the socio-economic interests of indigenous people and local communities. It further explores the controversial relationship of interdependence and conflict between conservation of environment and protection of human rights.

Indigenous climate change adaptation: New directions for emerging scholarship

2021 ◽  
pp. 251484862110224
Author(s):  
Danielle Emma Johnson ◽  
Meg Parsons ◽  
Karen Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Adaptation ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Food Sovereignty ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Indigenous Development

Although Indigenous peoples’ perspectives and concerns have not always been accommodated in climate change adaptation research and practice, a burgeoning literature is helping to reframe and decolonise climate adaptation in line with Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences. In this review, we bring together climate adaptation, decolonising and intersectional scholarship to chart the progress that has been made in better analysing and responding to climate change in Indigenous contexts. We identify a wealth of literature helping to decolonise climate adaptation scholarship and praxis by attending to colonial and neo-colonial injustices implicated in Indigenous peoples’ climate vulnerability, taking seriously Indigenous peoples’ relational ontologies, and promoting adaptation that draws on Indigenous capacities and aspirations for self-determination and cultural continuity. Despite calls to interrogate heterogenous experiences of climate change within Indigenous communities, the decolonising climate and adaptation scholarship has made limited advances in this area. We examine the small body of research that takes an intersectional approach to climate adaptation and explores how the multiple subjectivities and identities that Indigenous peoples occupy produce unique vulnerabilities, capacities and encounters with adaptation policy. We suggest the field might be expanded by drawing on related studies from Indigenous development, natural resource management, conservation, feminism, health and food sovereignty. Greater engagement with intersectionality works to drive innovation in decolonising climate adaptation scholarship and practice. It can mitigate the risk of maladaptation, avoid entrenchment of inequitable power dynamics, and ensures that even the most marginal groups within Indigenous communities benefit from adaptation policies and programmes.

scholarly journals Us Mob Online: The Perils of Identifying as Indigenous on Social Media

Genealogy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 52
Author(s):  
Bronwyn Carlson ◽  
Tristan Kennedy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Insight Into

Social media is a highly valuable site for Indigenous people to express their identities and to engage with other Indigenous people, events, conversations, and debates. While the role of social media for Indigenous peoples is highly valued for public articulations of identity, it is not without peril. Drawing on the authors’ recent mixed-methods research in Australian Indigenous communities, this paper presents an insight into Indigenous peoples’ experiences of cultivating individual and collective identities on social media platforms. The findings suggest that Indigenous peoples are well aware of the intricacies of navigating a digital environment that exhibits persistent colonial attempts at the subjugation of Indigenous identities. We conclude that, while social media remains perilous, Indigenous people are harnessing online platforms for their own ends, for the reinforcement of selfhood, for identifying and being identified and, as a vehicle for humour and subversion.

scholarly journals Facilitating Sustainable Disaster Risk Reduction in Indigenous Communities: Reviving Indigenous Worldviews, Knowledge and Practices through Two-Way Partnering

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 855
Author(s):  
Tahir Ali ◽  
Petra Topaz Buergelt ◽  
Douglas Paton ◽  
James Arnold Smith ◽  
Elaine Lawurrpa Maypilama ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Indigenous People ◽  
Natural Hazards ◽  
Disaster Risk Reduction ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Indigenous Research ◽  
Ecological Knowledge ◽  
Community Members

The Sendai Framework of Action 2015–2030 calls for holistic Indigenous disaster risk reduction (DRR) research. Responding to this call, we synergized a holistic philosophical framework (comprising ecological systems theory, symbolic interactionism, and intersectionality) and social constructionist grounded theory and ethnography within a critical Indigenous research paradigm as a methodology for exploring how diverse individual and contextual factors influence DRR in a remote Indigenous community called Galiwinku, in the Northern Territory of Australia. Working together, Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers collected stories in local languages using conversations and yarning circles with 20 community members, as well as participant observations. The stories were interpreted and analysed using social constructivist grounded theory analysis techniques. The findings were dialogued with over 50 community members. The findings deeply resonated with the community members, validating the trustworthiness and relevance of the findings. The grounded theory that emerged identified two themes. First, local Indigenous knowledge and practices strengthen Indigenous people and reduce the risks posed by natural hazards. More specifically, deep reciprocal relationships with country and ecological knowledge, strong kinship relations, Elder’s wisdom and authority, women and men sharing power, and faith in a supreme power/God and Indigenous-led community organizations enable DRR. Second, colonizing practices weaken Indigenous people and increase the risks from natural hazards. Therefore, colonization, the imposition of Western culture, the government application of top-down approaches, infiltration in Indigenous governance systems, the use of fly-in/fly-out workers, scarcity of employment, restrictions on technical and higher education opportunities, and overcrowded housing that is culturally and climatically unsuitable undermine the DRR capability. Based on the findings, we propose a Community-Based DRR theory which proposes that facilitating sustainable Indigenous DRR in Australian Indigenous communities requires Indigenous and non-Indigenous partners to genuinely work together in two-directional and complementary ways.

Competing Values in World Culture and the Emergence of Middle Ground

2008 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-50
Author(s):  
Eun young Song
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Protected Areas ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Wild Plants ◽  
Biological Knowledge ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Cultural Rights ◽  
Rights Issues

AbstractThis paper, focusing on a Botswanan case of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM), illustrates how globalized norms in seeming competition nonetheless reveal a potential middle ground. In Botswana there have been conflicts between regimes of environmentalism and indigenous cultural rights. Environmental protectionism has been based on a concept of “pristine nature” which does not allow for human interaction. Thus, the more protected areas are designated, the more indigenous peoples' lands are claimed as nature reserves. This forces local peoples to abandon cultural practices such as hunting animals and gathering wild plants. In contrast, impelled by the ascention of human rights issues, advocacy groups for the unorganized fourth world and indigenous communities have been struggling to protect indigenous people's cultural rights, thereby giving prominence to human rights issues. NGO advocates for indigenous peoples as well as professionals involved with indigenous groups have found that indigenous people's practices are in fact not harmful to the ecosystem. Rather, their ethno-biological knowledge and customary activities contribute to balancing the local ecosystem. This means that conflicting guidelines can be harmonized in “buffer zones” around protected areas, and the buffering program that has resulted, that by CBNRM, has been widely accepted in Botswana and is likely applicable to other countries in which we find similar value competition.

scholarly journals Climate Change, Mining and Traditional Indigenous Knowledge in Australia

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Birch
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Depth Of Knowledge ◽  
The North ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Indigenous Society

Australia, in common with nations globally, faces an immediate and future environmental and economic challenge as an outcome of climate change. Indigenous communities in Australia, some who live a precarious economic and social existence, are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Impacts are already being experienced through dramatic weather events such as floods and bushfires. Other, more gradual changes, such as rising sea levels in the north of Australia, will have long-term negative consequences on communities, including the possibility of forced relocation. Climate change is also a historical phenomenon, and Indigenous communities hold a depth of knowledge of climate change and its impact on local ecologies of benefit to the wider community when policies to deal with an increasingly warmer world are considered. Non-Indigenous society must respect this knowledge and facilitate alliances with Indigenous communities based on a greater recognition of traditional knowledge systems.

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