Format: Paper presentations with discussion
Convenors:
Dr Ranjan Datta, Dept of Humanities, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada; rdatta@mtroyal.ca
Colleen J. Charles, Woodland Cree First Nation, Lac La Ronge Indian Band, northern Saskatchewan, Canada; charles.colleen@northlandscollege.sk.ca
Dr Jebunnessa Chapola, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; jchapola@mtroyal.ca
This session explores the critical need to rethink climate justice through the lens of Indigenous land-based perspectives, centring insights from Indigenous communities. Rooted in deep interconnections between land, water, and cultural heritage, land-based approaches to climate justice create transformative frameworks for addressing environmental inequities and global climate crises. Indigenous communities, disproportionately affected by climate change, face threats to traditional knowledge systems, subsistence practices, and environmental heritage. Yet, traditional land-based practices, such as seasonal hunting, water stewardship, and intergenerational knowledge-sharing, embody resilience and sustainable environmental relationships.
The session highlights case studies showcasing Indigenous-led climate action and adaptive strategies from both north and south regions, emphasising the importance of self-determination, decolonisation, and reciprocal partnerships. Researchers will explore how these perspectives challenge mainstream climate justice frameworks, advocating for policy and research that prioritise Indigenous sovereignty and knowledge systems. This session aims to create a dialogue on decolonial, anti-racist land-based pathways to global climate resilience.
Papers:
Decolonising Climate Crisis and Environmental Heritage from Indigenous Perspectives in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh
Ranjan Datta, Dept of Humanities, Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada
Jebunnessa Chapola, Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Newjai Khyeng, Laitu Khyeng Indigenous community, Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh
This decolonial research paper explores the intersection of climate crisis, environmental heritage, and ongoing colonisation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. This paper addresses the urgent need to decolonise climate crisis narratives by foregrounding the voices and experiences of Indigenous communities in CHT, who have historically been marginalised in environmental discourse. The project emphasises the importance of Indigenous ecological knowledge, land stewardship practices, and cultural heritage in crafting resilient responses to climate challenges. Following the decolonial theoretical framework, this study uses the Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR) approach, engaging local Indigenous communities in co-developing research agendas and methodologies in Indigenous meanings of environmental heritage. Through decolonial story sharing, Indigenous Elder-led land, and participatory mapping, the research captures Indigenous perspectives on environmental changes, their impacts on cultural heritage, and adaptive strategies rooted in traditional knowledge. The findings highlight the critical role of Indigenous governance systems in managing natural resources sustainably and the need to integrate these systems into broader climate policies. By advocating for a decolonised framework, this research aims to reclaim Indigenous land rights as climate action that respects and leverages Indigenous environmental heritage. It underscores the necessity of policy reforms that recognise and support Indigenous rights, knowledge, and leadership in environmental conservation and climate resilience in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
A Mitigated Disaster: Heritage Futures Under the Crisis of the Colony, Conversations from Iman and Butchulla Country
Tom Dooley, University of Queensland, Australia
In navigating changes in climate, in Country, in environments and in heritage, communities work according to remembered pasts and envisioned futures. Mainstream global approaches to Indigenous engagement in climate change adaptation—seeking expressions of traditional knowledge and traditional values, as bounded within traditional territories—strongly emphasise discourses of the past. Conversely, in southeast/central Queensland, Australia, communities are repurposing opportunities provided by climate crisis, disaster resilience and caring for Country programs to further land and sea management in pursuit of aspirations for the future. My research details interview and participant observation with members of the Iman and Butchulla communities working towards such aspirations for their heritage, environments, and Country, exploring opportunities and barriers faced in making their visions reality. As archaeologists increasingly find themselves brought into discourses of the environment, practitioners and researchers alike must engage with community conceptualisations of how study and management of the past can contribute to Indigenous futures. Doing so raises long-contested questions of sovereignty, land, and community leadership, and prompts us to reflect on to what extent the climate crisis can be separated from the original crisis of colonisation.
Decolonising Disaster Adaptation Research through Land-based Relationality as Responsibility at Wood Land Cree First Nation Communities, Saskatchewan
Colleen Charles, Woodland Cree First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ranjan Datta, Mount Royal University, Canada
This study proposes a decolonising approach to disaster adaptation and heritage research within Wood Land Cree First Nation Communities in Saskatchewan, Canada, centred on land-based relationality as a responsibility. Drawing on Indigenist and relational theoretical frameworks, the study seeks to redefine disaster adaptation and environmental heritage through Indigenous knowledge systems and community-centred approaches. By prioritising the interconnectedness between land, community, and culture, the study aims to challenge dominant Western paradigms and colonial legacies that have historically marginalised Indigenous voices in disaster management processes. Through a collaborative engagement with Wood Land Cree First Nation Communities, the research seeks to co-create adaptive strategies rooted in traditional knowledge, resilience, and reciprocal relationships with the land. Emphasising the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination, we advocate self-governance to take ownership of their disaster adaptation initiatives while honouring their cultural heritage and ancestral connections to the land. This research contributes to the broader discourse on decolonising disaster research and promotes the significance of land-based relationality as a guiding principle for building resilient and sustainable futures within Indigenous communities.
The Silenced Mounds: Endangered Indigenous Landscapes and Extractive Violence in Uruguay
Victoria Bonilla-Báez, University of Sydney, Sydney Indigenous Research Network (Usyd); Sydney Environment Institute (Usyd); Association of Iberian and Latin American Studies of Australasia; Australian Anthropological Society
The Cerritos de Indios—ancestral burial, ceremonial and ecological-system mounds across Uruguay—stand as one of the few remaining traces of thousands year old practices of Indigenous life in a country long invested in our erasure. As an Indigenous woman and anthropologist, I argue that these mounds are more than archaeological features: they are living archives of our people, embodying memory, belonging, and resistance. Today, these sites face rapid destruction. Private corporations—often foreign—clear these lands for eucalyptus monoculture and water extraction, damaging delicate ecosystems and contributing to environmental crises such as the fires and drought of 2022 and 2023. Despite their declared heritage status, Cerritos are routinely bulldozed or isolated behind fences, rendering them inaccessible to descendants and invisible to the broader public.
This paper explores how the systematic dispossession and commodification of these sacred sites deepen both cultural and ecological loss. It highlights the urgent need to protect the Cerritos not only as archaeological remains but as vital sites of (re)connection, (re)emergence, and (re)membering for Uruguay’s Indigenous peoples. Through this case, I advocate for a land-based ethics of heritage care—one that centres Indigenous sovereignty, restores disrupted cultural memory, and challenges the ongoing extractivism that threatens both our territories and futures.