Sustaining All Our Relations: Indigenous Environmental Justice and the Climate

103. ZUG-Minisymposium / 16th Rachel Carson Center Lecture

Präsentation:

Dr. Heather Dorries; Assistant Professor

Dept. of Geography and Planning and Centre for Indigenous Studies, University of Toronto

Moderation:

Dr. Christina Spitzbart-Glasl

Zentrum für Umweltgeschichte, Institut für Soziale Ökologie, BOKU University

Globally, Indigenous peoples bear significant burdens related to climate change, akin to the historical injustices of colonial processes. As Farhana Sultana (2022) explains: “Climate change lays bare the colonialism of not only of the past but an ongoing coloniality that governs and structures our lives, which are co-constitutive of processes of capitalism, imperialism, and international development.” Focusing on the Canadian context, this talk will examine how climate change causes displacement from traditional territories, while also affecting Indigenous peoples’ health, sovereignty, and self-government.

However, Indigenous peoples are not simply impacted by climate change. Indigenous knowledge systems can help address the current environmental crisis. Drawing on the work of Anishinaabe scholars, this talk will illustrate how Anishinaabe ways of understanding our place in the world, relations to other beings, and forms of political and social organization, can effectively confront today´s climate crisis.

If you are unable to attend the minisymposium in person, it is also possible to follow the event via zoom. Please contact umweltgeschichte(at)boku.ac.at to get the link.