“When I ask people about the roots of the environmentalist movement and the pioneers of this field, I get many answers like: Rachel Carson, John Muir, and Aldo Leopold. But the first environmentalists are often overlooked. In truth, they are Indigenous people,” writes Kaitlin Grable at Greenpeace, in an article for their website about why Indigenous resistance is more important than ever.
Yet while her ancestors might have been the first environmentalists, she adds, it’s important to remember that the word “environmentalist” doesn’t quite cover all that Indigenous beliefs, culture, and practices encompass: “For our people, protecting the environment surpasses the issue of preserving lands, livelihoods, wildlife, and water. There is a spiritual and religious component unique to Indigenous environmentalism since many of our ancestral and traditional practices are tied to the natural world.”
All over the earth, Indigenous communities are currently engaged in protests and legal battles to protect their lands, their livelihoods, and their traditions. Right now, in Minnesota, for example, environmental organizations have joined Native groups to fight against Line 3, a pipeline that would carry climate-polluting tar sands from Alberta, Canada into the United States. In France, meanwhile, a coalition of Indigenous activists and environmental groups are taking the French supermarket Casino to court under allegations that their Latin American stores are selling meat linked to land-grabs and deforestation in the Amazon. New research by the NGO Forest Peoples Programme finds that – from The Democratic Republic of the Congo to Indonesia – violence towards Indigenous communities has recently worsened, with mining, infrastructure projects and landgrabs increasing as a response to the economic downturn caused by the pandemic.
As these stories show, “Indigenous” is a broad term – it’s estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous people spread across 70 countries globally. Yet what could be said to unite these groups, according to the UN, is that “Indigenous Peoples are the holders of unique languages, knowledge systems, and beliefs and possess invaluable knowledge of practices for the sustainable management of natural resources.”
In other words, Indigenous Peoples are not just those who live closest to nature but hold the most wisdom when it comes to how to protect it. “Long before modern technology and science, Indigenous People created complex systems to thrive off the land while caring for and maintaining it in turn,” Kaitlin explains. “When European colonizers came to present-day America, they marveled at the seemingly untouched fertile landscape of possibility. But in truth, this landscape was a result of thousands of years of land management by Indigenous People.”
The colonization of Indigenous lands continues today, if not always through conquest or settlement. Indigenous lands encompass 22% of the earth’s surface (although only 10% is legally recognized) and they are home to 80% of the planet’s biodiversity, however, these numbers are rapidly falling, as Indigenous communities all over the world are driven from their homes by deforestation, pollution, and land-grabbing, but also by the broader impacts of climate change.
Environmental activist and XPRIZE Rainforest Advisory Board member Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is one of the world’s leading voices on this topic and explains that flooding, fires, and droughts affect those in developing countries and Indigenous communities most directly. In her TED Talk, for instance, she tells of how temperature rises have impacted the nomadic farming community in Chad, where she was raised; resources like food to water are depleting, meaning that men are driven to migration and women are left to bear the brunt of protecting their families.
In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report finally acknowledged the critical role Indigenous communities have to play in the urgent fight against climate change, not just as those who are most affected but as those with significant knowledge to help us rebuild the systems causing so much damage. However, this idea of uplifting and collaborating with Indigenous communities must be more than lip service, says Hindou:
“We entered a new era with the 2015 Paris agreement, we were supposed to aim to keep below 1.5 degrees, that was the global goal accepted by all the countries that signed it. But the US failed on their actions because of political will during the Trump administration,” Hindou said. “This means that we can have the agreements, but the politicians will decide, and that makes me really sad because we cannot be reliant on politicians in order to act.” The same goes for the Biodiversity Convention, Hindou adds: “We say we have to reduce emissions but at the end of the day there was no political commitment. And who are the victims? The most vulnerable – developing countries, Indigenous Peoples, and small islands seeing the sea rise.”
The good news, she continues, is that even without leadership upholding the agreement, action has been taken: “For the four years that the US wasn’t in the Paris Climate Agreement, we’ve seen actions by Indigenous Peoples and across private sectors. So we know people can make a big change and technology can play a big part. But still, it cannot apply if we are not united,” she concludes, adding that under President Joe Biden America needs to play a strong supportive role to developing nations in the Agreement.
Beyond these broad-scale and international commitments, there are things we can all be doing on a more individual level to support, collaborate with, or join Indigenous resistance movements. A fundamental place to start is to read up, gain knowledge, and decolonize history. We can do this by buying books written about Indigenous culture, and specifically by Indigenous authors, or by following Indigenous leaders online. People like Hindou herself, Deb Haaland – who has just been confirmed as the US’s first Native American Cabinet Secretary, or 20-year-old rapper, environmentalist, and Indigenous rights activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, for example.
Knowledge is power, but actions are powerful too; another powerful way to collaborate with Indigenous activists is to support an organization that fights for Indigenous rights, either financially or by dedicating time, skills, and resources, as well as joining the struggle by attending protests or signing petitions where possible. In North America, check out the Indigenous Environmental Network, Indigenous Peoples Power Project, and Seeding Sovereignty, just to name a few.
Elsewhere, Amazon Frontlines is a great organization defending Indigenous rights to land, life, and cultural survival in the Amazon rainforest. "Indigenous peoples are risking their lives to save the forests that protect us all from biodiversity loss and catastrophic climate change,” says Mitch Anderson, the organization’s Founder and Executive Director. “You can support their vital work by donating to Amazon Frontlines, which provides the tools, resources, and networks Indigenous Peoples need to secure their rights, govern their ancestral territories, and protect the Amazon rainforest for generations to come."
Strengthening Indigenous institutions is not just crucial for achieving climate and biodiversity goals, it’s a human rights issue. It’s about recognizing that states should not be able to enact violence on communities with force or make decisions about sacred land without the participation of the people who live on it. It’s about recognizing that destroying our planet also means destroying communities that have long been caring for it.
“Indigenous People have for thousands of years been directly connecting to nature and relating to nature,” summarizes Nemonte Nenquimo, Waorani leader and Indigenous rights activist. “She’s been providing for us and for our survival. We’ve been learning about her and we respect her. What’s happening in civilization and the cities is that people are living apart from nature and it allows them to more easily destroy nature without understanding the consequences. Now, the world is waking up to the fact there are consequences.”