Indigenous Sovereignty
In conversation with Nadia Joe
Nadia Joe (she/her) also goes by ƛiƛetko which translates to “rain falling on water” in her mother’s language. She received this name in ceremony after spending time working in the communities of the Nicola valley, where she worked to establish one of Canada’s first agreements between Indigenous and crown governments to collaboratively manage water resources. Her name in her father’s language is Gä̀gala. Nadia belongs to the Crow clan of the Champagne & Aishihik First Nations situated in southwestern Yukon, northwestern BC and Southeastern Alaska. She is a part of the most privileged generation of Indigenous people in Canada, which is the first generation not to attend Indian Residential School. Nadia recognizes that it’s a daily effort to ensure the journey that we walk is a journey made in healing and reconciliation.
Q: How do traditional Indigenous ways of knowing and being connect to climate justice?
A: One of the first pieces that we need to think about climate justice is recognizing that the populations that are most deeply impacted by the effects of climate change are the populations whose relationships are so dependent on the lands that they occupy. I think about the various displacements and dispossession of Indigenous peoples that have occurred over the century. I think about it in three ways:
The first wave of injustice occurred with the active removal of Indigenous people from their lands, the creation of the reservation systems, the creation of many of our laws and policies by the Crown government to ensure rights for mineral tenure, water tenure, forestry tenure. The second wave of injustice is the wave is in which Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and from their homes. They were being dispossessed by not only their families and land, but also of their culture. Now we are in a third wave of dispossession for Indigenous peoples. If we think about the wildfires and floods in B.C. recently, Indigenous communities have witnessed their reserve lands completely disappear.
We need to think about climate justice within this broader framework and how it’s impacting Indigenous peoples. When we think about Indigenous ways of knowing and being, I think there are some natural solutions that emerge from how Indigenous peoples understood the land: not as separate from, but as an extension of. We ensure that, for what we take, there is enough left to continue to give to future generations. So, we practice better ways of knowing and being in the land. That can only occur when we operate being in a community not only with the land but with each other and learning ways to walk with each other. In ways that don’t endanger each other and all the other beings that depend on the lands together. That’s what comes to mind when I think about Indigenous ways of knowing and being in relation to the issue of climate justice.
A: One of the first pieces that we need to think about climate justice is recognizing that the populations that are most deeply impacted by the effects of climate change are the populations whose relationships are so dependent on the lands that they occupy. I think about the various displacements and dispossession of Indigenous peoples that have occurred over the century. I think about it in three ways:
The first wave of injustice occurred with the active removal of Indigenous people from their lands, the creation of the reservation systems, the creation of many of our laws and policies by the Crown government to ensure rights for mineral tenure, water tenure, forestry tenure. The second wave of injustice is the wave is in which Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families and from their homes. They were being dispossessed by not only their families and land, but also of their culture. Now we are in a third wave of dispossession for Indigenous peoples. If we think about the wildfires and floods in B.C. recently, Indigenous communities have witnessed their reserve lands completely disappear.
We need to think about climate justice within this broader framework and how it’s impacting Indigenous peoples. When we think about Indigenous ways of knowing and being, I think there are some natural solutions that emerge from how Indigenous peoples understood the land: not as separate from, but as an extension of. We ensure that, for what we take, there is enough left to continue to give to future generations. So, we practice better ways of knowing and being in the land. That can only occur when we operate being in a community not only with the land but with each other and learning ways to walk with each other. In ways that don’t endanger each other and all the other beings that depend on the lands together. That’s what comes to mind when I think about Indigenous ways of knowing and being in relation to the issue of climate justice.
When initiating my graduate studies, I went to my Elders and asked them: what kinds of resources would you want to see in terms of research that would be in service to community values? There was a consensual agreement that, as Indigenous people, we needed to protect our water. Elder Angela Sidney talks about her way of life and her way of being and interacting on our land and with our land and with community, she expresses it as simply, “We, as Indigenous people, are part of the land and part of the water.” |
Q: How can non-Indigenous people show solidarity with Indigenous communities? A: One of the challenges that confront us right now as Indigenous peoples, as a direct result of colonization, is the fracturing within communities, the divisiveness that happens within communities, positioning pro-resource-extraction versus land defenders. We need people to understanding within the larger framework of land protection and cultural protection, it can’t just be a choice between one or the other. Settlers and outsiders need to ensure they aren’t contributing to further division within the communities. It’s an ongoing conversation, it’s a willingness to continue to explore both your own strengths, energy, expertise and boundaries, what it is you are willing to get involved with, what you are engaged with, what you are excited about. It’s about working through relationships, accessing relationships you currently have within communities. It's about finding appropriate ways to build those partnerships and relationships. There needs to be a reframing, thinking of it less as helping communities. Helping makes it seem as though communities aren’t in a position to help themselves. Instead, we need to look for ways we can demonstrate respect through strengthening and empowering the work that communities are doing. We need relationships that are non-extractive, that are identifying solidarity and doing it through mutual and respectful practices. |
Q: What can youth do to support Indigenous land & water defenders?
A: The first and most important thing is to know yourself: know where your strengths are, your energies, and the passions you are willing to bring. Know those safe places that you can go to get support because engaging in this work is really challenging. The second piece of advice I would offer is to do the background work you need to do in order to understand the full spectrum and complexity of issues. If we’re really in support of Indigenous self-determination and self-governance, you also have to be willing to confront and explore the messy space of “Will I continue to support Indigenous governments that pursue activities that I don't agree with?” There’s a need to explore that before you engage in some of these movements of solidarity. It needs to be thought of in this broader understanding of what those injustices that have occurred as a direct result of colonization, that have stripped those cultural riches and essentially only present extraction as a pathway out of poverty. Instead, we need to start exploring alternative futures: what alternatives exist for a just transition. That’s at the heart of being a good ally, an ethical ally in those spaces.
Q: Do you think that reciprocity is important in achieving both social and climate justice?
A: Part of the shift that we’re working towards through a lens of climate justice is thinking about questions of power and considering what elements of power we do want to uphold and uplift. Is it the power to oppress, to be divisive, to continue to enact the principles of power that have emerged from colonization, or are there other opportunities for us to recenter, reframe, and recast what power sounds like, looks like, and feels like? Who holds power and how does that move us towards a more just and equitable system? And what would that look like instead of centering power and profits to a very select group of few? There are certainly lessons that need to be reanimated, lessons from Indigenous ways of knowing and being in relation to the land that we can learn from in order to create a more just and equitable and sustainable world system.
Resources