Adaptation through bricolage: Indigenous responses to long‐term social‐ecological change in the Saskatchewan River Delta, Canada

Abstract

AbstractSocial and ecological change in Canada's north challenges Indigenous communities to develop responses that secure the continuation of their livelihoods. Although there is significant evidence that effective response and adaptation opportunities exist in Indigenous communities, understanding of how such locally developed adaptations are constructed remains limited. This paper develops and applies the concept of bricolage to demonstrate how Indigenous societies build their adaptive capacity to address long‐term social‐ecological change. Our concept bridges institutional and productive forms of bricolage to explain how individuals and households make conscious decisions and adjustments to retain their livelihoods. The results of long‐term engagement with residents of Cumberland House, Saskatchewan through field observations, oral histories, and semi‐structured interviews demonstrate that Indigenous peoples improvise, hybridize, contest, and negotiate existing practices to create different kinds of adaptive arrangements. We find, further, that whereas certain livelihood practices have changed, cultural norms such as respect and reciprocity have remained. Our findings strengthen the argument that Indigenous peoples are well‐positioned to take direct roles in adaptation; hence, decision makers should consider them equal partners in adaptation decisions and learn from locally developed responses to focus adaptation planning on the relevant needs of Indigenous communities.