Indigenous Climate Action

Eriel Tchekwie Deranger is a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan
First Nation and the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate
Action. Eriel critiques pointing out that wealthy countries
engaging in "climate action" tend to do so from a co-optive or
colonial framework rather than one of "decolonizing." She argues
this tendency has pervaded environmentalism from the outset, as a
philosophy originating from the upper and middle classes that views
nature as something external that must be protected from humans.
From an indigenous perspective, Eriel says, nature is not an
externality. She emphasizes the importance of solutions to
environmental and climate issues "guided by relationships not only
with each other but across species and with the natural world
itself." We go on to discuss Eriel's personal grievances with the
uranium mines in northern Canada, the impacts of uranium mining on
indigenous communities, and how to balance the unavoidable mining
requirements of energy production with the wellbeing of people and
ecosystems. Eriel argues that by changing our attitudes on
consumption, the land, language, culture, food systems, etc. to
value relationships and reciprocity over extraction, we might
become less dependent on the energy systems that many can't imagine
living without. Learn more about Eriel's work with Indigenous
Climate Action at https://www.indigenousclimateaction.com/