When the environment is destroyed, you're destroyed: Achieving Indigenous led pipeline justice

Abstract

Indigenous communities in Canada are at high risk of suffering damage from, and disproportionately impacted by pipeline spills. However, historically their opposition to pipeline development has largely been unsuccessful. Based on socio-legal applied research including a legal analysis, as well as twenty interviews with Indigenous knowledge keepers in Alberta and Saskatchewan, this article explores Indigenous perspectives surrounding oil and gas pipelines, Indigenous pipeline justice, and specifically what an Indigenous led pipeline relation would look like. These research findings offer insight into future Indigenous energy justice. Two foundational pillars of Indigenous pipeline justice are: 1. Sovereignty/Treaty; and 2. Relations with Mother Earth and each other. Both are inextricably intertwined with conceptions of time and trust. Sacred treaty promises included sharing the land and its resources for as long as the sun shines and the waters flow. Mother Earth cannot be valued with money. Results highlight the opportunity for achieving Indigenous pipeline justice by implementing the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People and advancing recognition justice.