“We are blessing the space for them, and they don't even realize it;” Uplifting Indigenous Peoples Rights, Knowledge Systems, and Feminisms at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 

Authors: Adrienne Young, Dr. Graeme Reed, Ana de Almeida Cardoso, Lydia Johnson, Hunter Bidder, and Dr. Angele Alook

Summary by Muskaan Khurana

International climate gatherings such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) have become important spaces for discussing responses to climate change. Although Indigenous Peoples have participated in these conversations for decades, increased recognition of Indigenous rights and knowledge has not necessarily resulted in greater decision-making power. “We are blessing the space for them, and they don't even realize it;” Uplifting Indigenous Peoples Rights, Knowledge Systems, and Feminisms at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change  examines this gap by centering the experiences of Indigenous climate leaders who attended COP27. Through their stories, the article considers both the colonial barriers Indigenous Peoples continue to encounter and the ways they create their own forms of climate leadership through relationships, ceremony, community, and self-determination.

The research draws on the experiences of nine Indigenous climate leaders who participated in COP27. Rather than approaching participants simply as research subjects, the authors use Indigenous Storywork, which understands stories as sources of knowledge and teaching. Storywork also involves responsibilities for those who receive and carry another person’s story. This approach allows participants’ experiences to guide the analysis and reflects the article’s larger argument that Indigenous Peoples should have greater authority over how their knowledge is understood and represented.

Participants describe several barriers within international climate negotiations. Although Indigenous Peoples are increasingly visible at COP, they are often positioned as observers rather than decision-makers. They must also navigate institutions and processes structured around colonial languages, governance systems, and understandings of climate action. Participants discuss the emotional labour involved in continually advocating for Indigenous rights and explaining Indigenous knowledge within these spaces. They also raise concerns about proposed climate solutions, including renewable energy projects that may continue extracting resources from Indigenous territories without respecting Indigenous governance. From this perspective, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy does not necessarily create climate justice if the relationships surrounding extraction remain unchanged.

At the same time, the stories demonstrate that Indigenous Peoples are not simply responding to exclusion. They are actively creating and practicing different forms of climate leadership. Participants describe relationships with Land, Water, animals, community, and future generations as central to their understandings of climate responsibility. They also discuss supporting Indigenous youth, creating spaces for ceremony, sharing knowledge, and developing relationships with Indigenous Peoples from other parts of the world. These practices challenge approaches that understand climate action primarily through formal policy or technological solutions.

The article provides several concrete examples of Indigenous climate action already occurring within communities, including land defence, food sovereignty, buffalo restoration, water protection, traditional ecological knowledge, and community education. Participants also emphasize the importance of Indigenous women, Two-Spirit people, youth, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers within climate leadership. At COP27 itself, carrying medicines, speaking Indigenous languages, sharing songs, participating in ceremony, and gathering in the Indigenous Peoples’ Pavilion allowed participants to bring parts of their communities and cultures into an international space. These practices were not separate from their political work but part of how participants understood and practiced climate leadership.

Based on these stories, the authors offer three recommendations for strengthening Indigenous climate leadership within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). First, climate policy needs to move away from colonial and technological “false solutions” and meaningfully recognize Indigenous rights, knowledge, and governance. Second, Indigenous networks and solidarity should be better supported, particularly by creating opportunities for Indigenous youth and communities to build relationships across Nations. Third, greater attention needs to be given to the mental health and wellbeing of Indigenous climate leaders, especially given the emotional demands of representing communities and continually advocating within colonial institutions.

Ultimately, this article demonstrates that meaningful Indigenous participation requires more than increasing Indigenous representation within existing climate institutions. Indigenous Peoples are already leading climate action through their communities, knowledge systems, relationships, and responsibilities to Land. The stories shared by participants show both the difficulties of working within international climate negotiations and the possibilities Indigenous Peoples create within and beyond these spaces. By using Storywork to center their experiences, the article asks readers to understand climate leadership not only through policy outcomes, but also through relationships, responsibility, cultural continuity, and Indigenous self-determination.

This is a summary of the article "Storywork at COP 27: Indigenous Climate Leadership, Solidarity, and Decolonizing Climate Action." The full manuscript is under review for academic publication.

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Las guardianas del Agua en las Arenas Petrolíferas de Alberta, Canadá

Author: Dr. Angele Alook

Summary by Muskaan Khurana

Water is essential to life, but colonial systems have often treated it primarily as a resource that can be controlled, managed, and extracted. In *Keepers of the Water in the Oil Sands Region: Renewing Indigenous Relationships to Water*, Angele Alook challenges this understanding by centering Indigenous relationships with water. Drawing on Indigenous feminist scholarship, her own experiences, and the work of Water Protector Jessie Cardinal, Alook shows that water is not simply a natural resource but a living relation. Protecting water is therefore connected to Indigenous governance, women’s leadership, and responsibilities to Land and future generations.

Alook begins the chapter with a personal experience from a gathering of Elders and Knowledge Keepers in her home community. She arrived expecting to share her own knowledge about colonialism and Indigenous women’s empowerment, but instead found herself learning from the women around her. Elders spoke about gathering water for their families when they were young girls, and these stories helped Alook think differently about what decolonization can mean. The act of collecting water was connected to responsibilities that linked women to their families, communities, ancestors, and future generations. Decolonization, in this sense, involves more than resisting colonial institutions. It also means renewing relationships and responsibilities that colonialism has attempted to disrupt.

These relationships are particularly important within the context of oil sands development in Alberta. Focusing on Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 territories, Alook discusses how resource extraction has affected Indigenous Lands, waters, and communities. Pollution, changes to water quality, and damage to ecosystems are not presented as environmental problems that exist separately from colonialism. Instead, they are connected to longer histories of dispossession and the exclusion of Indigenous Peoples from decisions concerning their territories. Although governments and industries may use the language of consultation, these processes can still prioritize resource development while limiting Indigenous authority over Land and water.

Indigenous feminism is also central to Alook’s analysis. Colonialism did not only dispossess Indigenous Peoples from Land; it also disrupted gender relations and the roles Indigenous women held within their communities. Alook explains that women in many Indigenous Nations have longstanding responsibilities as Keepers of the Water and carry knowledge related to water, ceremony, community, and stewardship. However, Indigenous women continue to be marginalized within many environmental and resource-management decisions. Restoring women’s leadership is therefore not simply about ensuring better representation. It is connected to the renewal of Indigenous governance and the relationships necessary for protecting water.

The experiences of Jessie Cardinal, Executive Director of Keepers of the Water, make these ideas more concrete. Cardinal’s work demonstrates that protecting water involves much more than conventional environmental advocacy. It is also connected to Treaty rights, cultural revitalization, community wellbeing, and responsibilities to future generations. Her experiences show how Indigenous Water Protectors approach environmental issues through relationships and responsibilities rather than viewing water as an isolated resource requiring management. This also challenges the idea that climate or environmental justice can be separated from Indigenous sovereignty.

Ultimately, Alook asks readers to reconsider what it actually means to protect water. Colonial legal frameworks and technical forms of environmental management are limited when they continue to treat water as a resource and Indigenous Peoples primarily as groups to be consulted. Instead, Alook emphasizes Indigenous resurgence, including the renewal of Indigenous laws, governance, ceremony, knowledge, and relationships with Land and water. Centering Indigenous women and Water Protectors changes environmental governance from a question of how water should be managed to one of how relationships and responsibilities to water can be renewed. The chapter shows that protecting water is not only an environmental concern, but also part of a larger process of supporting Indigenous sovereignty, self-determination, and responsibilities to generations yet to come.

This is a English language summary of the chapter "Keepers of the Water in the Oil Sands Region: Renewing Indigenous Relationships to Water," published in the edited volume Tejiendo re-existencias indígenas: Luchas por la defensa del agua y el territorio en México y Canadá. The published version in Spanish can be found here:

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Reclaiming Energy Transitions
in Canada; Centering Indigenous Peoples, Rights, and Knowledges for Decolonial Climate Solutions

Authors: Dr. Graeme Reed, Ana de Almeida Cardoso, Dr. Angele Alook, Adrienne Young, Lydia Johnson, and Kelly McLay

Summary by Muskaan Khurana

As governments respond to the climate crisis, transitioning away from fossil fuels has become an increasingly important priority. In Canada, commitments to net-zero emissions have led to growing investments in renewable energy, critical minerals, and clean technologies. However, Reclaiming Energy Transitions in Canada: Centering Indigenous Peoples, Rights, and Knowledges for Decolonial Climate Solutions asks us to think more critically about what this transition actually looks like, particularly for Indigenous Peoples. The authors argue that moving toward renewable energy is not enough on its own. A just energy transition must also address the colonial relationships and systems of extraction that have contributed to the climate crisis.

One of the article’s main critiques is that Canada’s approach to the energy transition continues to prioritize economic growth and technological development. Federal climate policies often present the transition as an opportunity for clean growth, innovation, and global competitiveness. While reducing greenhouse gas emissions is necessary, this approach can leave the broader structures surrounding energy production largely unchanged. In particular, it can overlook Indigenous rights, governance, and relationships with Land. The authors caution that without addressing these issues, even a transition toward “clean” energy can reproduce colonial practices of extraction and dispossession.

The article instead centers Indigenous climate leadership and emphasizes that First Nations, Inuit, and MĂ©tis are not simply stakeholders to be consulted during the energy transition. They are rights holders and knowledge holders who have their own governance systems, responsibilities, and understandings of climate action. This distinction is important because consultation still tends to position governments and industry as the primary decision-makers. Centering Indigenous leadership requires a more fundamental shift in who has authority to shape climate and energy futures.

Drawing on conversations from Indigenous-led climate gatherings, the authors show that Indigenous approaches to climate action are often grounded in relationships between Land, Water, community, culture, and future generations. Participants discuss ceremony, storytelling, Indigenous knowledge, and intergenerational responsibilities as important parts of responding to climate change. Climate action, from this perspective, is therefore not simply a technical problem that can be solved by replacing fossil fuels with renewable technologies. It also involves restoring relationships with Land and strengthening Indigenous governance, cultural resurgence, and self-determination.

An important point throughout the article is that colonialism and climate change cannot be separated from one another. The climate crisis developed within systems that treated Land as a commodity and encouraged ongoing extraction from Indigenous territories. This history matters when thinking about renewable energy. Simply changing what resources are being extracted does not necessarily change the relationships behind that extraction. For example, increased demand for critical minerals may still create environmental and social harms if projects move forward without respecting Indigenous sovereignty and decision-making. The authors describe the risk of reproducing “climate colonialism,” where supposedly green solutions continue colonial patterns under the language of sustainability.

The article also demonstrates what Indigenous knowledge can contribute to imagining alternatives. Rather than understanding Land primarily as a resource to be managed or used, Indigenous climate leaders emphasize reciprocity, relationality, and responsibilities toward human and more-than-human relations. These perspectives challenge climate policies that depend heavily on markets and technological innovation while leaving larger systems of extraction intact. Centering Indigenous knowledge therefore changes the question from simply how Canada can reduce emissions to what kinds of relationships, responsibilities, and systems should shape a sustainable future.

Ultimately, the article argues that decarbonization and decolonization need to be understood together. A transition may reduce carbon emissions while still reproducing injustice if Indigenous Peoples remain excluded from meaningful decision-making about their territories. A genuinely just energy transition requires Indigenous rights, knowledge, governance, and self-determination to be central rather than added afterward through consultation. The article therefore offers a broader understanding of climate action: one concerned not only with producing cleaner energy, but with transforming the colonial relationships that have shaped how Land and energy are governed in Canada.

This is a summary of the article, which can be found at:

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Smudging in Sharm: Uplifting Lessons from Indigenous Peoples at COP 27

Authors: Dr. Angele Alook, Dr. Graeme Reed, Dr. Sean Hillier, Hunter Bidder, and Ana De Almeida Cardoso

Summary by Muskaan Khurana

International climate gatherings such as the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) have become major spaces for discussing how governments and organizations should respond to climate change. Indigenous Peoples are increasingly present within these conversations and bring their own knowledge, experiences, and responsibilities to Land, Water, and future generations. However, greater representation does not necessarily mean that Indigenous Peoples have greater influence over climate decisions. In Smudging in Sharm El-Sheikh: Uplifting Lessons from Sharm El-Sheikh, the authors reflect on their experiences at COP27 to consider what meaningful Indigenous participation in international climate spaces actually requires.

The chapter begins with the experience that inspired its title. After a long day at COP27, a group of Indigenous Elders, youth, and other participants gathered outside to smudge together. There was no designated space available for the ceremony, so the group used a small metal mint tin to hold their medicines. This relatively simple moment became significant within an environment where Indigenous participants were constantly navigating unfamiliar and often colonial spaces. Smudging gave participants an opportunity to reconnect with ceremony, community, and one another while far from their home territories. The experience also demonstrates that Indigenous participation at COP cannot be understood only through formal panels and negotiations. Ceremony and relationships are also part of how Indigenous Peoples create and sustain spaces for themselves.

Alook and Reed use their experiences at COP27 to discuss the difference between Indigenous representation and meaningful participation. Although the conference included a large number of Indigenous participants and more opportunities for Indigenous-led events, Indigenous Peoples continued to have limited influence over final decisions. International climate negotiations remain largely structured around the authority of nation-states and continue to give significant power to corporate and economic interests. As a result, Indigenous Peoples can be highly visible within these spaces while still being excluded from important decision-making processes. The chapter therefore questions whether increasing representation is enough when the underlying structures of climate governance remain unchanged.

The authors also describe the emotional labour involved in participating in these spaces. Indigenous participants may find themselves repeatedly explaining or defending Indigenous knowledge while simultaneously navigating racism, exclusion, and the demands of international negotiations. Alook and Reed particularly emphasize relationships among Indigenous participants as an important source of support. Elders, youth, Knowledge Keepers, researchers, and community leaders from different Nations create connections, share teachings, and care for one another throughout the conference. These relationships show that Indigenous climate leadership is not only expressed through formal advocacy. It is also practiced through reciprocity, collective care, ceremony, and solidarity.

The chapter also asks readers to think more critically about the idea of a “just transition.” Climate policy often describes a just transition in terms of reducing emissions, developing renewable energy, and creating new economic opportunities. Alook and Reed argue that these goals remain limited if the colonial systems underlying climate change are not addressed. Indigenous approaches to climate justice emphasize relationships and responsibilities to Land, Water, more-than-human relations, and future generations. A just transition therefore requires confronting colonialism, extractivism, and dispossession rather than simply introducing new technologies into existing systems.

Drawing from discussions at COP27, the chapter concludes with four Calls-to-Action: supporting Indigenous self-determination, creating meaningful opportunities for Indigenous participation and solidarity, respecting Indigenous knowledge systems, and revitalizing Indigenous economies grounded in relationships rather than extraction. These Calls-to-Action shift attention from simply including Indigenous Peoples in existing climate processes toward changing the structures that determine whose knowledge and authority matter.

Ultimately, this chapter shows both the possibilities and limitations of Indigenous participation in international climate spaces. Indigenous Peoples are already contributing important knowledge and leadership to climate action, but meaningful climate justice requires more than representation. The experience of smudging in a mint tin captures this tension particularly well. Even within a space that was not designed around Indigenous ways of being, participants created their own space for ceremony, connection, and collective care. The chapter uses this experience to show that decolonial climate action requires Indigenous Peoples to have the authority and space to participate on their own terms.

This is a summary of the chapter "Smudging in Sharm El-Sheikh: Uplifting Lessons from Indigenous Peoples at COP 27 for the Climate and Energy Transition," published in Justice in Canada's Energy Transitions.

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Video Interview Shorts: Youth, False Solutions, Indigenous Climate Solutions, and Just Transition

These video shorts were directed by Hector Jenkins with support from Dr. Alook. The videos are based on interviews conducted with Indigenous climate leaders at the 2024 United Nations Convention Framework on Climate Change Bonn Intersessional Conference.

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Ribbon Skirt of Our Stories

This poster titled, "The Ribbon Skirt of Our Stories: A Visual of How Indigenous Peoples Participated at COP27" was created by Dr. Angele Alook, Lydia Johnson, Adrienne Young, Ana Carolina de Almeida Cardoso, and Dr. Graeme Reed to visualize key themes from interviews with Indigenous climate leaders at COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022.

This poster was presented at the Indigenous People's Caucus at COP 28 in Dubai by the Project Team (November 2023)

A version of this poster was presented at Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference in Regina, SK by Lydia Johnson (May 2024)

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Looking Toward
Indigenous Climate Futures

At the close of this climate toolkit, we'd like to leave you with some of the hopes for Indigenous climate futures that our community members shared with us.

Below, we have created a word cloud consisting of the words that came up most often when discussing the future with project interviewees.

Below are some of the quotes that resonated with our team when considering our collective climate futures. Community members were asked their hopes for Indigenous climate futures:

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Working in a Good Way: Lessons About the Ethic of Care from Indigenous Climate Work

Authors: Angele Alook, Adrienne Young, Phil Henderson, and Muskaan Khurana

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Indigenous Climate Leadership: Gatherings Report

Authors: Kelly McLay, Adrienne Young, Angele Alook

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Indigenous Youth Reflections from COP

Author: Lydia Johnson

When it was decided that our research team wanted to include a reflection of an Indigenous youth’s experience attending the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) I wanted to approach this reflection as though I was writing in my journal or recounting the experience to a close friend or family member. The following reflection is a recounting of my experience as an Indigenous youth attending both COP28, held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates â€“ in 2023 and then COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan â€“ in 2024. In both instances I travelled to COP with research team members Dr. Angele Alook and Ana de Almeida Cardoso, while our post-doctoral fellow Dr. Graeme Reed was present through his work with the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change (IIPFCC). I have broken these experiences up because each experience was largely unique. 

 

COP28 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates â€“ November 30 â€“ December 13, 2023 

Before diving into my experience in Dubai at COP28 it is important to set the scene, which greatly impacted my experience attending COP28. The year was 2023, and COP28 was scheduled to take place from November 30 – December 13. Globally we were in the early stages of witnessing Israel declare war on Hamas and discussions around the uncertainty of the situation and the location of Dubai were already beginning to circulate amongst travellers. Rumors started that COP may be cancelled or moved to a new location as a result. 

It’s important to note that to attend COP you need to receive what is known as a “badge”.&bsp;There are different types of badges that offer you different privileges within the COP space, these include: 

• Party/Country Delegation Badges: For official government representatives. 

• NGO Observer Badges: For representatives from accredited non-governmental organizations, often color-coded to distinguish from official party delegates. 

• Media/Press Badges: For accredited journalists. 

• UN Staff/Security Badges: High-level access for event staff and UN personnel. 

• Exhibitor/Booth Badges: For representatives managing booths in the exhibition area.  
  
  

The process of finding or securing a badge is extremely daunting and participants often don’t know if they are receiving a badge until very last minute. Luckily, for COP28, our team received party badges through our contacts at the Canadian federal government. Though this offered us access to more spaces and meetings than the general observer badges it also meant a formal lead up to travelling to Dubai â€“ including safety briefings about tech surveillance, criminalization of LGBTQIA2S+, and warnings about drugs, alcohol and dress code. This began my experience of attending COP from a place of stress and anxiety to the point that I considered cancelling attending. 

After nearly 14 hours on a non-stop flight from Toronto, our long journey to Dubai was over. The desert air was hot and dry, and I had officially arrived at a place like no other I’d been to before.  

Our hotel was a safe haven while I was in Dubai, as it had been booked almost exclusively by Indigenous participants from across Turtle Island. It was comforting to see others dressed in ribbon skirts or beaded lanyards in the hallways or the elevator. The next day it was finally time to travel to the venue, a ~45 minute journey by tour bus. This year, COP28 set records for the most in-person participants ever, with a recorded ~84,000 people attending over a two-week period. Basically, a whole city was built in the middle of the desert to accommodate the mass amounts of participants and once we made it through the intense security gates it felt like I had been dropped in a Hunger Games arena.  

COP is a magnificent place, all around you at any given time you can hear languages you’ve never heard, see Indigenous Peoples from the Amazon walking through the venue in their traditional regalia, and maybe even spot an important political figure! A common phrase you hear is â€śCOP is a marathon not a sprint” and this was something I truly could not understand until attending. Very quickly we were in the thick of things, temperatures soaring in the high 20’s or low 30’s, polluted Dubai air, long walks across the massive COP city for different events and lots of learning, listening and meeting new people. The venue being such a trek from the hotel meant that once you were there, you were there, this more days than not meant up to 10 hours or more at the venue.  

For me, an essential component to being at COP was feeling like I had a “purpose”. Our team was conducting interviews with Indigenous climate leaders for our research, and it pushed me to make connections and meet folks. We also hosted a reporting back event at the Indigenous Peoples Pavillion on our findings from COP27.  

The biggest personal struggle I faced while at COP was imposter syndrome, not only regarding my “climate expertise” but in my indigeneity. It felt like every Indigenous person I was around or hearing from had grown up with their traditional teachings, in community, and had faced direct impacts from climate change (like flood or fire). Being a reconnecting Indigenous person who grew up away from my community made me feel like my experience and knowledge was not worthy among their stories. Despite these feelings my top highlight from COP28 was meeting so many amazing Indigenous youth from across Turtle Island and beyond. Seeing youth engaged, angry, passionate, brave and who hadn’t yet given up on the earth was so empowering. COP can feel so disillusioning; people fighting over where to place commas on policies, false hope from governments, green washing, tens of thousands of people flying to a country that is the embodiment of capitalism and greed. But despite all of it, the Indigenous youth left me feeling like we would all be ok.  

Another struggle was feeling so removed from the land, water and Dubai as a whole. To this day when friends ask me, â€śwhat was Dubai like?” I still feel like I can’t give a proper answer. The COP venue, despite having lots of outdoor spaces, was made up of turf and cement and was its own bubble away from the city. A highlight of my time at COP was the “day off” which happens at the mid-way point of the conference. I spent the day at the beach and then on a desert dune tour. I got to touch the water and run my hands through the desert sand; it was so grounding and special, and I finally felt like â€śI am here”.  

At the end of my time at COP28 I felt exhausted, but hopeful. I told myself if I got the opportunity to attend COP again, I would be prepared and ready for the challenges COP throws at you. Lucky for me, the following year I had another chance to attend COP. This time in Baku, Azerbaijan.   

COP29 – Baku, Azerbaijan â€“ November 11 – November 22, 2024 

The best way to describe the feeling of attending COP for the second time is like your first day of high school or university as a sophomore. I had a confidence about me that I remember others having the year prior. I was asking folks, â€śis this your first time”, and repeating the quotes I’d been told â€śCOP’s a marathon not a sprint!”.  In Baku, the COP venue was much closer to the city centre, and the COP organizers had set-up shuttles to all different areas of the city that ran all day. This made travel to and from the venue much easier as well as hoping on a shuttle to the city centre more common.  

Learning from my mistakes the year prior, we had a goal of not staying 10 hours a day at the venue. We were much more successful at this (though not perfect) this time around. I also had a goal to try to experience the place I was more than I had before, I walked around the old town, ate traditional Azerbaijani food and allowed myself to feel present in Baku, not just isolated in the COP bubble.  

It was wonderful to come back to COP for a second year and see so many familiar faces after a year of being apart. We hosted and participated in more events this time around and I felt much more confident in myself and sharing my experience and knowledge. At times I found myself missing the Dubai venue, Azerbaijan’s venue was a completely closed off space, with few to no windows to the outside world. You’d enter in the morning and lose track of the time of day because there were no natural indicators. Despite this qualm with the venue itself I had a much better experience in Azerbaijan. I feel extremely privileged to have experienced these countries and shared space and stories with so many inspiring Indigenous climate leaders and activists. I feel even luckier to have my team from the Indigenous Climate Leadership and Self-Determined Futures Project.  

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