Every June, we celebrate the National Indigenous History Month, and reflect upon the First Nations, Inuit and Metis people’s history and heritage. In this issue of the LA&PS research digest, we spotlight a collaborative climate research project led by Indigenous and non-Indigenous faculty members at York.

Indigenous Climate Leadership and Self-Determined Futures is a research project supported by the Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters (CIRC) grant. This timely research applies indigenous research approaches, knowledge-sharing, and takes a strengths-based approach to advancing Indigenous climate leadership and governance through a decolonial and gendered lens. The Co-PIs of the project are Dr. Angele Alook (School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, LA&PS) and Dr. Deborah McGregor (Osgoode Faculty of Law, Faculty of Environmental and urban Change, Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages). Other LA&PS faculty include Dr. Alan Corbiere (Department of History),  Dr. Brock Pitawanakwat (Department of Humanities), and Dr. Carolyn Podruchny (Department of History). Building on research strengths across LA&PS, this interdisciplinary project brings together expertise, networks, and experience from a variety of fields to further Indigenous climate leadership and self-determined climate futures.

A major focus of the research is to mobilize knowledge using arts-based approaches, digital media, storytelling, photography, and innovative print media (e.g., graphic novels), language and land-based activity handbooks. These efforts will focus on decolonizing and developing a distinct Indigenous understanding and practice of the One Health approach.

"Understanding the ways Indigenous peoples built relationships with their environments and climates in the past will help chart a future where Indigenous knowledge is central to addressing the climate emergency."

– Carolyn Podruchny

This project is administered through the Center for Indigenous knowledges and languages (CIKL) at York with additional support from the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change and Osgoode Faculty of Law. To read more about the research and the different faculty members involved visit the CIKL research webpage.