The Need for Amplifying Indigenous Voices in the Climate Movement

By Isabella Checa

Graphics by Trinidad Viteri

Between 1964 and 1992, Texaco, now a Chevron subsidiary, spilled 17 billion gallons of crude oil into the Ecuadorian Amazon. This left local Indigenous communities in a myriad of detrimental health threats such as cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects for years during and after Texaco was in Ecuador. These people’s water sources and homes were left in ruins. In 2018, Chevron won the case against the Indigenous people, meaning they would not assume any economic responsibility for the damages from the oil spill. To this day, Ecuadorian Indigenous environmental activists are harassed, attacked, and largely ignored by the government.

Between the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the Ocaina Indigenous people from Colombia were pushed to near extinction as their land was ravaged for rubber. Twenty-five of them were even soaked in petrol and torched by a plantation overseer. For the descendants of the surviving tribespeople, the unspoken grief and images of rubber barons and missionaries haunted them for decades. This year, forty Indigenous and environmental activists were killed in Colombia in just a month and a half. The ones who continue fighting receive daily death and rape threats, making them fear for their lives.

The examples I have provided are just a droplet in a whole sea of environmental injustices committed against Indigenous people. In fact, Indigenous people from all over the world are threatened by environmental and climate problems that originated from developed, capitalistic nations. Among the 212 environmental activists killed in 2019, Indigenous people were disproportionately targeted. Though they only make up 5% of the global population, they were the victims of 40% of murders and of one third of all fatal attacks against environmental activists since 2015.

Indigenous people have a cultural intersection with nature and will continue to endure suffering as their homes are affected by environmental issues, which is why they are the most important advocates for the climate movement. Therefore, we should listen to and amplify their voices in the climate and environmental movements.

Importance of Indigenous Voices in the Climate Movement

Indigenous voices are critical in climate spaces because they are both the most affected by climate change and most knowledgeable about its solutions. In its fifth assessment report, the IPCC states:

“Indigenous, local, and traditional forms of knowledge are a major resource for adapting to climate change. . .Natural resource dependent communities, including Indigenous peoples, have a long history of adapting to highly variable and changing social and ecological conditions. But the salience of Indigenous, local, and traditional knowledge will be challenged by climate change impacts. Such forms of knowledge are often neglected in policy and research, and their mutual recognition and integration with scientific knowledge will increase the effectiveness of adaptation.” 

Native communities are one of the groups most impacted by climate change due to their dependence and close relationship with their land and its resources. Comprising only 5% of the world’s population, their lands encompass 22% of the Earth's surface and are home to 80% of the planet’s biodiversity (Grabel). As illustrated in the beginning, climate change exacerbates problems that Indigenous people already face, such as political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination, and unemployment.

As indigenous people become increasingly vulnerable to climate change, the less chance we have to combat the crisis. Their knowledge has provided sustainable frameworks for us to learn from because their interaction with ecosystems is unique. For instance, one of the most highly effective techniques to mitigate climate change is the climate-smart agriculture proposed by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, which incorporates “traditional and modern techniques based on genetic databanks, set up by private and public initiatives, which benefit from and are often dependent on Indigenous knowledge” (International Labor Office Geneva). A study in 2008 by the IUCN also found many innovative sustainable practices from native cultures such as shoreline reinforcement, improved building technologies, increased water quality testing, rainwater harvesting, supplementary irrigation, traditional farming techniques to protect watersheds, changing hunting and gathering habits and periods, crop and livelihood diversification, the use of new materials, and community-based disaster-risk reduction. Indigenous cultures interpret and react to the impacts of climate change in creative ways that can provide a new perspective to tackling climate change. In the words of Brazilian Indigenous leader Mayalú Txucarramãe,

“While we, as indigenous peoples, may not articulate these problems in scientific terms and categorize them as ‘climate change,' we know their causes well. We also know that we can be part of the solutions, solutions that we have demonstrated over millennia by preserving and taking care of our Mother Earth. Our culture, our traditions, our beliefs depend on the land and we care for her; this is a major teaching we have received from our ancestors.”

Historical Environmental Accomplishments in Indigenous Cultures

Stemming from their fundamental beliefs and culture surrounding the natural environment, according to Greenpeace, Indigenous people feel “compelled to protect it,” which is why in a sense they were the pioneers of the environmentalist movement. Always mindful of the land, Indigenous people have historically provided natural landscaping and extreme care for their surrounding nature. Later on, Indigenous environmental activists kept the principles of care and resourcefulness for the environment and used them to push back against what hurts it, achieving many beneficial victories at both local and international levels. At a local level, the Māori people of New Zealand were able to push for the recognition of legal voice and rights of the Whanganui River (2010). In Ecuador (2008), the Indigenous movement motivated the Ecuadorian government to recognize the rights of nature in its new constitution, including the legal rights of tropical forests, islands, rivers, and air. Legal wins such as the Saramaka People v. Suriname case against logging and mining concessions (2009) and the Voigt Decision for reserved hunting, fishing, and gathering rights in Lake Superior Ojibwe (1983) have served to protect Indigenous environments.

Indigenous activists have also achieved environmental change and garnered credibility at an international level. For example, Indigenous activists included environmental dimensions in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (2007). Furthermore, they ensured that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would include the International Indigenous Peoples’ Forum on Climate Change and support the Indigenous Peoples Biocultural Climate Change Assessment (2014). They have also pressured scientists to recognize Indigenous work in assessment reports such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Arctic Climate Change Assessment, and US National Climate Assessment. It is impossible to fit every single achievement of Indigenous tribes towards environmental justice, but these important events illustrate how Indigenous people are at the forefront of the environmental movement and have historically demanded that their voices be heard and valued.

Learning From Indigenous Voices (not appropriating them)

As it is crucial for the climate and environmental movements to recognize Indigenous perspective and resourcefulness, it is equally important to understand that society should not appropriate Indigenous culture and practices, but instead learn from Indigenous voices. A study in the International Indigenous Policy Journal indicates that enhancing and supporting Indigenous knowledge in public schools, community colleges, and universities will raise awareness of the fact that Indigenous life supports sustainable development. We should provide platforms for Indigenous people to decide to teach us their practices, culture, and ways of sustainability. If we do not amplify their voices, not only are we blocking their personal perspectives and potentially using their cultural knowledge in unintended ways, but we are not letting them speak for themselves.

As climate activists, we must fight to elevate Indigenous people’s voices because Indigenous rights are environmental rights.