Preparing Our Home by reclaiming resilience

Abstract

<jats:p>Indigenous communities in Canada are faced with a disproportionate risk of disasters and climate change (CIER, 2008). Indigenous communities in Canada are also at the forefront of climate change adaptation and resilience solutions. One program in Canada that aids in decolonizing curriculum for reclaiming resilience in Indigenous communities is Preparing Our Home (POH). Drawing on three POH case studies, this article seeks to answer the following question: How can community-led decolonial educational processes help reclaim Indigenous youth and community resilience? The three communities that held POH workshops, which this article draws upon, include: The Líľwat Nation, where Canada’s first youth-led community-based POH Home curriculum was developed at the Xet̓ólacw Community School; The Siksika Nation, where the workshop engaged youth with experienced instructors and Elders to enhance culturally informed community preparedness through actionable outcomes by developing a curriculum that focused on hazard identification, First Aid, and traditional food preservation; and Akwesasne Mohawk Nation, where political leaders, community members, and community emergency personnel gathered together to discuss emergency preparedness, hazard awareness and ways to rediscover resilience. The participants shared their lived experiences, stories, and knowledge to explore community strengths and weaknesses and community reaction and resilience. The article concludes with a discussion section, key lessons learned in these communities, and recommendations for developing Indigenous community-led curricula. These recommendations include the importance of Indigenous Knowledge, intergenerational learning, land-based learning, participatory methodologies, and the role of traditional language for community resilience. We contribute to the Indigenous education literature by providing specific examples of community-owned curricula that move beyond decolonial education to Indigenous knowledges and experiences sharing, owned by the people and led by the community.</jats:p>

Indigenous climate change adaptation: New directions for emerging scholarship

“…While Indigenous peoples’ concerns and aspirations have not always been central in the climate debate (Middleton, 2015), a burgeoning literature helps to reframe and decolonise climate adaptation in line with Indigenous peoples’ lived experiences. Currently, few climate scholars present their work as directly influenced by decolonising theory or methodologies (Cameron, 2018; Chen, 2020; Fair, 2020; Inamara and Thomas, 2017; Jones, 2019; Lyons et al., 2020; Panikkar and Lemmond, 2020; Pasisi, 2020; Pelaez, 2019; Robin et al., 2020; Timler and Sandy, 2020; Veland et al., 2013; Whyte, 2017; Wijsman and Feagan, 2019; Yumagulova et al., 2020). However, there is a wealth of emergent literature about climate change, adaptation and Indigenous peoples (Arbon and Rigney, 2014; Carter, 2018; Nursey-Bray et al., 2019; Sawatzky et al., 2020) that draws on some of the fundamental components of decolonial theory and practice, and which we refer to in this review as decolonising climate and adaptation scholarship (DCAS).…”

Indigenous-Led Nature-Based Solutions for the Climate Crisis: Insights from Canada

“…Indigenous knowledge and science, intergenerational learning, land-based learning, participatory methodologies, and the role of Indigenous languages for community resilience are important social factors that support adaptation at the community scale [90]. In a review of recent peer-reviewed literature, Yumagulova et al (2021) document how intentional efforts to reclaim Indigenous community resilience by recovering cultural identities, ancestral knowledge, skills, spaces, and languages support and build adaptive capacity [90].…”

“…Indigenous knowledge and science, intergenerational learning, land-based learning, participatory methodologies, and the role of Indigenous languages for community resilience are important social factors that support adaptation at the community scale [90]. In a review of recent peer-reviewed literature, Yumagulova et al (2021) document how intentional efforts to reclaim Indigenous community resilience by recovering cultural identities, ancestral knowledge, skills, spaces, and languages support and build adaptive capacity [90]. Yumagulova et al (2020) and Gabriel et al (2019) also discuss how to provide opportunities to support adaptation to climate impacts (e.g., loss of winter roads, increasing wildfire, inland flooding, and coastal erosion), while also creating opportunities for addressing the contexts constraining Indigenous adaptive capacities [15,91].…”

Indigeneity versus diversity

“…Research and Indigenous Peoples, Smith casts light on the ways in which academic research is dominated by Western thought and how imperialistic perspectives influence research methods and contribute to maintaining established power relations (Smith, 2012). A central concern of decolonial approaches to education is how indigenous perspectives, values and cultural knowledge are or should be represented in teaching materials and curricula and taught about at school or university (e.g., Yumagulova et al, 2020;Smith, Tuck & Yang, 2018;Nutti, 2016). An overarching goal is to ensure that indigenous people are given the possibility to regain and develop their indigenous identity and dignity through education.…”