Indigenous Climate Change Studies: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene

Abstract

Indigenous and allied scholars, knowledge keepers, scientists, learners, change-makers, and leaders are creating a field to support Indigenous peoples’ capacities to address anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Provisionally, I call it Indigenous climate change studies (Indigenous studies, for short, in this essay). The studies involve many types of work, including Indigenous climate resiliency plans, such as the Salish-Kootenai Tribe’s Climate Change Strategic Plan that includes sections on “Culture” and “Tribal Elder Observations,” policy documents, such as the Inuit Petition expressing “the right to be cold,” conferences, such as “Climate Changed: Reflections on Our Past, Present and Future Situation,” organized by the Indigenous Peoples Climate Change Working Group, and numerous declarations and academic papers, from the Mandaluyong Declaration of the Global Conference on Indigenous Women, Climate Change and REDD to a special issue of the scientific journal Climatic Change devoted to Indigenous peoples in the U.S. context.