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- Convenors:
-
Jan Peter Laurens Loovers
(University of Aberdeen)
Tatiana Argounova-Low (University of Aberdeen)
Sarah C. Moritz (Thompson Rivers University)
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- Chair:
-
David Anderson
(University of Aberdeen)
- Format:
- Roundtable
- Sessions:
- Wednesday 27 October, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This round-table examines climate change and climate justice in the North. At the heart will be policy-oriented conversations about confronting and surpassing colonial practices and legacies. The round-table seeks Indigenous communities or academics with Indigenous collaborators.
Long Abstract:
This round-table in invites papers to examine climate change and climate justice in the North. The North, or Arctic, has been at the forefront of radical and erratic changes in the weather, the land, and the ice. Indigenous Peoples are among the first to bear the greatest and immediate consequences of rapid climate change due to Southern capitalist endeavors. Subsequently, the colonial histories continue to reverberate in Indigenous lives. Calls for climate justice and Indigenous rights have intensified and move beyond the continuous demands that Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge is paramount to any scientific discussion about climate change. The demands are certainly necessary, and indeed Indigenous Knowledge should lead the way of scientific discussions, but they are dismissed in the decision-making processes by non-Indigenous policy-makers and stakeholders. This also has implications when addressing conservation. Climate change affects every aspect and initiative to safeguard Indigenous livelihoods where hunting, fishing, trapping, and gathering (medicinal) plants and berries are pivotal. The round-table seeks Indigenous communities or academics with Indigenous collaborators to have conversations how to surpass colonialism in the North. The conversations we seek here are policy-oriented with COP26 in mind.
Accepted participant details:
Session 1 Wednesday 27 October, 2021, -David Anderson (University of Aberdeen)
Short bio:
I propose to lead a discussion on forms on philosophies of decolonisation authored by indigenous scholars. Escuing abstract philosophical principles, work on food sovereignty, treaty and reconiliation, and evocative ritual are models of decolonisation
Additional details:
I propose to lead a discussion on forms on philosophies of decolonisation authored by indigenous scholars. Escuing abstract philosophical principles, work on food sovereignty, treaty and reconiliation, and evocative ritual are models of decolonisation
Kelly Panchyshyn (UBC - Okanagan)
Short bio:
In partnership with the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, I work with Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the wild plant harvest community, in Whitehorse, Yukon, to explore ways of supporting their practice while challenging the Settler-patriarchal underpinnings of northern land planning.
Additional details:
Over 60% of the residents of Whitehorse, Yukon, secure a portion of their food from wild sources, yet strategies for the protection of wild harvest spaces and practices are seldom addressed within local food and land planning (City of Whitehorse, 2017, 6). As a result, harvest is threatened by the region’s increased development and climate variability. In partnership with the Kwanlin Dün First Nation, I examine both the social and environmental impact of omitting harvest from the planning process, linking this exclusion to historical and ongoing attempts to undermine the knowledge and authority of Indigenous peoples and, more specifically, of Indigenous women. Our research reveals that when activities like plant foraging are deemed feminine they are left out of land planning on the reasoning that they cannot or do not contribute adequately to the ‘advancement’ of the community. In this way, current approaches to land-management reinforce colonial power dynamics by naturalizing gendered hierarchies of land-use and by limiting the diverse claims Indigenous communities have to land. Conversely, however, our findings suggest that bolstering harvest practices can help confront the injustice of Settler-patriarchy. Towards this aim, KDFN and I collaborated with Indigenous and non-Indigenous members of the harvest community to design policy options and advocate for their implementation. I am applying to the “Conversations on Collaboration and Colonialism in a Climate Changing North” panel because I seek to share our project insights and explore further how our work can contribute to strengthening decolonization and promoting climate justice in the North.
Sarah C. Moritz (Thompson Rivers University) Garry John
Short bio:
Based on collaborative action anthropological and St‘át‘imc research, we examine St‘át‘imc peoples’ political and social attention to the (hi)stories and reclamation processes of key fire and water places during the age of colonial jurisdictions, a rapidly changing climate and decolonial activism.
Additional details:
Fire and water are radically entangled in Interior Salish St‘át‘imc water management, past and present, in and around the Fraser River Valley of British Columbia. The influence of fire and controlled burning on how wetlands and riverine environments function is re-emerging as a prominent topic of discussion among researchers, activists and policy-makers, and further social scientific research is sorely lacking. We address this gap by providing a detailed picture of how Upper St‘át‘imc across the vastly diverse coastal mountains and the dry Interior Plateau region are envisioning and practising the revitalization of controlled burning to heal mountains and forests and reclaim sacred places and practices within a traditional territory during the age of a rapidly changing climate and activism. Knowledge and practices centering on the reciprocal kind of balance, predictability and stewardship of these key elements offers an important questioning of the (in)adequacy of colonial, scientific and non-Indigenous attitudes and governance regimes of land, water, and (wild)fire management.
Water and fire as ancestral, sentient and mythical beings and affective, moral or spiritual engagements with water’s aesthetics and sacred qualities as a solution to flooding, out-of-control destructive wildfires, insect infestations, landslides and water contamination will be a key focus. We question the seeming universal indispensability of water which prompts our cross-cultural comparisons and the consideration of the status of such universals. Reflections on the entanglement of Indigenous title, rights and the protection of the land through collective land use planning strategies will be shared.
Ellis Doeven
Short bio:
In this presentation I show 9 years of photography taken in Point Hope, a whaling community in the Arctic and the place of birth of my husband Othniel (Art) Oomittuk Jr. This is a portrait of the people, that are now my family, and a place that I regard my second home.
Additional details:
In 2008, I went to Point Hope, an Inupiaq whaling community on a landspit in the Arctic Ocean. As a Dutch photographer I was to make pictures for an article about Shell’s plans to drill for oil.
During my two day stay in Point Hope I was so intrigued by life in this remote community that I planned a return, six months later, to make a photo-reportage about whaling. This time I stayed for two months, which was still too short to say anything about whaling, but long enough to fall in love with local artist and whaler Othniel Oomittuk Jr.
The following years were spent living between Point Hope and Amsterdam. I was accepted into the community. I learned about Inupiaq culture and values, about life in the Arctic, about the hunt. It wasn’t always easy. I had to let go of a set of fixed believes to be open enough to listen and learn. I observed and I photographed over 9 years.
Then I looked at my work and realised that what had so intrigued me about Point Hope was its unwavering sense of community and belonging. Western culture is focused on individuality, personal development, achievements, about making your own way. Living in Point Hope brought out the craving in me for community and opened my mind and heart for another way of living.
In 2018 I published the photobook ‘Maktak and Gasoline’ about life in Point Hope. I would like to present this work at RAI 2021.
Othniel (Art) Oomittuk jr.
Short bio:
Since first contact with the Western culture, my culture has resisted assimilation. We fought for our existence, whether it was against the extraction of whale oil or crude oil. I was born in a village of Whale Hunters. My name is Othniel Oomittuk Jr., I am a descendent of the Sovereign Arctic.
Additional details:
I never imagined that what my father did as an environmental protection officer for the NSB in Barrow, Alaska, would have an impact in my life. He died at the age of 46 in 1983 from cancer. Here we are in 2021 and I am trying to protect the circumpolar arctic environment at the age of 58, fighting issues that involve climate change and the effects of colonialism in the Inuit cultures.
Hunger knows no law in the Arctic. We hunt to feed our people and from that hunt comes resources that feeds the souls of my ancestors’ beliefs since time immemorial, since before Tulunigraq harpooned the first whale that became Tikigaq, Point Hope, Alaska.
Since first contact with the Western culture the Tikigaqmiut have resisted assimilation. We’ve had to fight for our village existence, whether it was against the extraction of whale oil or crude oil. The Inupiaq language was shamed from my tongue through the teachings of the School District.
Alaska became a United States territory in 1867. In 1890 religion was introduced to Point Hope and caused the degeneration of Shamanism, which is a vessel for my culture as a whaling village. Effigies that made Inua possible were taboo in the eyes of “civilization” of the colonizers.
I am an artist. With my art I express the identity of a sovereign nation, who has not been given the chance to govern and own their own land in this modern era.