Environmental Justice and Indigenous Environmental Justice

Abstract

In this chapter we provide a broad overview of three dominant ways environmental justice is framed within the scholarship and consider how Indigenous peoples’ understanding and demands for environmental justice necessitate a decolonising approach. Despite critiques, many scholars and policymakers still conceive of environment justice through a singular approach (as distributive equity, procedural inclusion, or recognition of cultural difference). Such a narrow reading fails to appreciate the intersecting and interacting processes that underpin environmental (in)justices faced by Indigenous peoples. We argue that the theoretical discussions and empirical research into environmental (in)justice need to extend beyond Western liberal philosophies and instead consider pluralistic approach to Indigenous environment justice which is founded on Indigenous ontologies and epistemologies, which include intergenerational and more-human-human justice requirements.