When our project team reflected on our work together, what repeatedly came up was the ethic of care that Dr. Alook modelled within our team and that we recognized across the many Indigenous climate spaces we were engaged in.  We shared how much we valued the time we made for each other; to arrive at meetings on our own pace, share about our lives, and gain a deeper understanding of what brought us to this work.  This kind of relational space is rare in academic environments, and it made our work feel both supported and genuinely shared. We shared how we felt that the project would not have been possible without this ethic of care, and it is a major reason we were able to stay committed to work that is often heavy, urgent, and emotionally demanding. 

Part of what made this care so meaningful is that global climate work often privileges speed and technical efficiency over approaches rooted in relationships, reflection, and equity. For Indigenous Peoples, whose lands, bodies, and governance systems continue to be harmed by ongoing colonialism, rushed responses frequently reproduce the very harms they claim to address. In our forthcoming chapter, “Working in a Good Way: Lessons About the Ethic of Care from Indigenous Climate Work” we argue that meaningful climate action must be grounded in an ethic of care informed by Indigenous legal traditions and feminist theories of relationality, reciprocity, and responsibility. 

The chapter explores what it means to work in a good way, a phrase that came up again and again throughout our project. In the chapter we detail how to work in a good way means to intentionally engage in the work with respect for Indigenous Peoples, Knowledges, Lands and Territories, uphold Indigenous sovereignty and treaty rights, and honour principles or relationality and reciprocity. This meaning is derived from Indigenous legal traditions, knowledges, and research paradigms, advanced by Indigenous scholars like Deborah McGregor, Shawn Wilson and Kathy Absolon. Their work illustrates the centrality of relationships in Indigenous research, how to be a good relative, and the importance of keeping spirit at the center of what we do.  

The chapter examines how the concept of working in a good way aligns with the feminist insights of bell hooks, Joan Tronto, and María Puig De La Bellacasa who explore how love and care are not private emotions, but foundational practices essential to building a more just world for humans, animals, and the environment.  Their work highlights how care, when enacted collectively, has transformative potential for climate action. 

Beyond our own team practices, we reflect on the caring and collaborative environments cultivated at the Indigenous Peoples Pavilion at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP). There, we saw Indigenous leaders protecting emotional and spiritual wellbeing, rejecting extractive research in favour of collaboration, and organizing in ways that centred humility, gratitude, and mutual support. Practices such as sharing honour songs, gathering in circles rather than hierarchical formats, and making space for ceremony demonstrated how care reshapes both the processes and the possibilities of climate leadership. The chapter also features an excerpt from a conversation between Dr. Henderson and Dr. Alook discussing the importance of an ethic of care beyond the climate sector, underscoring its importance especially within "urgent" work.

By weaving these insights together, we show that an ethic of care is not an option in this work. It is necessary for building just and sustainable climate futures. While climate work can feel overwhelming, frightening, and urgent, those pressures should not lead us to abandon relationality and reciprocity. Instead, they must call for us to deepen our relationships, support one another, and meet the crisis together with care and collective responsibility. 

This summary is from a forthcoming book chapter of the same title by Angele Alook, Adrienne Young, Phil Henderson, Muskaan Khurana.