Climate Change Through an Intersectional Lens: Gendered Vulnerability and Resilience in Indigenous Communities in the United States (original) (raw)
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Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples: A Synthesis of Current Impacts and Experiences
A growing body of literature examines the vulnerability, risk, resilience, and adaptation of indigenous peoples to climate change. This synthesis of literature brings together research pertaining to the impacts of climate change on sovereignty, culture, health, and economies that are currently being experienced by Alaska Native and American Indian tribes and other indigenous communities in the United States. The knowledge and science of how climate change impacts are affecting indigenous peoples contributes to the development of policies, plans, and programs for adapting to climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This report defines and describes the key frameworks that inform indigenous understandings of climate change impacts and pathways for adaptation and mitigation, namely, tribal sovereignty and self-determination, culture and cultural identity, and indigenous community health indicators. It also provides a comprehensive synthesis of climate knowledge, science, and strategies that indigenous communities are exploring, as well as an understanding of the gaps in research on these issues. This literature synthesis is intended to make a contribution to future efforts such as the 4th National Climate Assessment, while serving as a resource for future research, tribal and agency climate initiatives, and policy development. Norton-Smith, Kathryn; Lynn, Kathy; Chief, Karletta; Cozzetto, Karen; Donatuto, Jamie; Hiza Redsteer, Margaret; Kruger, Linda E.; Maldonado, Julie; Viles, Carson; Whyte, Kyle P. 2016. Climate change and indigenous peoples: a synthesis of current impacts and experiences. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-944. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 1-138.
Indigenous women-led climate change solutions
UBC Journal for Climate Justice, 2024
This paper explores Indigenous women-led climate solutions through an anti-racist lens. Indigenous communities, particularly women, are disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis Yet, they possess valuable knowledge and resilience rooted in their deep connection to the land and environment. By centering Indigenous women's voices and experiences, this reflection aims to shed light on their innovative strategies, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and countering their intersecting oppressions. Following decolonial and relational theoretical frameworks, we learned that Indigenous women's leadership and traditional land-based knowledge offer unique perspectives and solutions for climate mitigation and adaptation. We emphasize the importance of respectful and reciprocal relationships, listening to Indigenous voices, and amplifying their calls for justice and equity. Indigenous women helped us to challenge systemic injustices and work towards collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable climate solutions that centre Indigenous women's knowledge, leadership, and self-determination. We can forge a path toward a more just and resilient future for all by uplifting Indigenous voices.
Indigenous Masculinities in a Changing Climate: Vulnerability and Resilience in the United States
Literature Review: Despite its relevance, little research has analyzed the ways in which gender shapes climate change experiences. Even less research has focused on the impacts of climate change on Indigenous masculinity. With this backdrop, we foreground Indigenous men and masculinities with respect to climate change vulnerability and resilience. We open this chapter by briefly describing pre-contact Indigenous conceptions of gender in the U.S., followed by a discussion of how settlement has affected gender roles, relations, and gendered traditional knowledge in Indigenous communities. We then describe some of the ways in which Indigeneity and masculinity are intersecting (or may intersect) with climate change in four key arenas: health, migration and displacement, economic and professional development, and culture. We follow this with a discussion of Indigenous men's roles in political resistance and climate change resilience. We conclude by summarizing the key implications for Indigenous climate change initiatives and for the ongoing reconstruction and reassertion of Indigenous gender identities.
Indigenous Women, Climate Change Impacts and Collective Action
Like other communities, Indigenous peoples must adapt to climate-induced ecological variations like sea level rise, glacier retreat and shifts in the habitat ranges of different species. In ongoing conversations on climate change, some Indigenous women articulate how seriously they take the specific responsibilities they perceive themselves to have within the systems of responsibilities that matter to their communities. Such responsibilities can range from acting as custodians and teachers of local ecological knowledge to acting as conveners of political movements aiming at respectful co-existence with neighbors. For these Indigenous women, the responsibilities that they assume in their communities can expose them to harms stemming from climate change and other environmental changes. Yet at the same time, their commitment to these responsibilities motivates them to serve as enablers of adaptation and mitigation. efforts. This paper offers a starting point for the following positions: Some Indigenous women have their own unique capacities for collective action that advance adaptation and mitigation. Non-Indigenous parties’ political responsibilities should involve deferring to Indigenous women’s own knowledges of and motivations for collective action. Deference can be expressed through political institutions that bolster the conditions needed to support Indigenous women’s collective actions. In many cases, deference is incumbent on Indigenous national governments and political organizations. Further work beyond this paper should seek to further clarify the political reforms needed to support Indigenous women’s collective agencies for adapting to and mitigating climate change.
The recognition of climate change issues facing tribal communities and indigenous peoples in the United States is growing, and understanding its impacts is rooted in indigenous ethical perspectives and systems of ecological knowledge. This foundation presents a context and guide for contemporary indigenous approaches to address climate change impacts that are comprehensive and holistic. Tribal communities and indigenous peoples across the United States are reenvisioning the role of science in the Anthropocene; working to strengthen government-to-government relationships in climate change initiatives; and leading climate change research, mitigation and adaptation plans through indigenous ingenuity. Unique adaptive capacities of tribal communities stem from their ethics and knowledge, and help frame and guide successful adaptation. As documented in the Special Issue of the Change Journal on the impacts of climate change to U.S. indigenous communities (Maldonado and others 2013), these issues include the loss of traditional knowledge; impacts to forests, ecosystems, traditional foods, and water; thawing of Arctic sea ice and permafrost; and relocation of communities. This collaboration, by more than 50 authors from tribal communities, academia, government agencies, and NGOs, demonstrates the increasing awareness, interest, and need to understand the unique ways in which climate change will affect tribal cultures, lands, and traditional ways of life. Climate change is expected to affect animal and plant species that indigenous people depend on for their livelihoods, health and cultural practices. The impacts of climate change on forests and other ecosystems that are home to many of these species require tribal engagement in climate change research, assessments, and adaptation efforts. This paper synthesizes key issues and case studies related to climate change impacts on tribally valued forest resources and tribal adaptive responses to climate change.
INDIGENOUS WOMEN & CLIMATE CHANGE
INDIGENOUS WOMEN & CLIMATE CHANGE, 2020
Author: (Rocío Silva Santisteban) Number of pages: 154 ISBN number: 978-87-93961-00-5 Publication language: English Region publication is about: Latin America Financially supported by: Norwegian International Climate and Forest Initiative Release year: 2020 Release month/day: January, 15 Related partner: SERVINDI Intercultural Communication Service Against all the odds, and despite the challenges that climate change represents for Latin America, women are demonstrating day in, day out that they have the ideas and the unique and essential skills to propose a radical change in the matrix of civilisation at this crucial point in humankind’s history. This book, now being published in English, explores those challenges and this first edition differs slightly from the Spanish version published in January 2019. It seeks to go beyond simple public policy aspirations in order to reconsider the impacts of climate change on women on the basis of their actions of resistance, their daily practices, the links between these practices and the need to re-think their contributions from the centres of power.
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