Thank you for attending our conference!

Indigenous Climate Action (ICA) was pleased to invite Indigenous scholars, Elders, youth, leadership, land defenders, community members and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) allies to join a virtual gathering which took place from June 10-12, 2021, in partnership with the Canadian Society of Ecological Economics (CANSEE).  Over the coming weeks, we will be developing materials and resources based on the discussions from this conference to help us all advance our collective understanding of Indigenous Economics!

Recordings from Indigenous Economics: Reclaiming the Sacred can be viewed through our Youtube channel. Take a look at our schedule below to see what sessions occurred on each day!

Indigenous and Ecological Economics are rooted in the similar values - relationships and interconnections with ecosystems. As society grapples with a growing climate crisis and faltering economies Indigenous peoples across the globe are proposing a return to the sacred, a return to relationships with each other and the lands. At this gathering we will dive into discussions, workshops, panels and presentations led by Indigenous leaders, practitioners and scholars to redefine ecological economics from an Indigenous perspective. By empowering our communities to reclaim our economic systems built on millenia of knowledge and practice we can help craft the needs and direction of what new Indigenous-led climate policies and economic paradigms call look like. The gathering will involve:

• Indigenous and participant-led discussions in Working Groups,

• Indigenous views on “ecological economics”,

• Indigenous keynote speakers and experts, and

• safe spaces for Indigenous peoples to discuss, strategize and reclaim our relationships with each other and our lands and territories. 

More information on speakers, workshops, topics, and registration instructions will be posted to the ICA ‘news + blog’ page and circulated on social media leading up to the conference in June.

Please contact research@indigenousclimateaction.com if you have registered but have not yet received a confirmation email.

Why an Indigenous gathering on “Ecological Economics”?

Ecological Economics is the study of relationships and interactions between economies and the ecosystems that support them. It brings together research in economics, ecology and other social and natural sciences that aim to understand how environmental sustainability and economic abundance can emerge together. Ecological economics is a relatively new discipline, and increasingly, researchers in this field are turning towards Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge.

In 2019, Indigenous Climate Action’s Executive Director, Eriel Deranger, was invited by CANSEE to offer reflections as a keynote at their “Engaging Economies of Change'' Conference. The conference was filled with hopeful discussion, workshops and presentations on ecological economics but lacked strong participation and leadership from Indigenous peoples. Deranger found this troubling as many of the presenters were taking from Indigenous knowledge systems and repackaging what Indigenous Peoples have been doing for thousands of years as a new discipline. Deranger challenged CANSEE to take a new approach and re-centre Indigenous voice, leadership and peoples in ecological economic and the discourse leading the way. CANSEE rose to the challenge to partner with ICA. The result is this event - engaging Indigenous scholars and leaders, more broadly, in an Indigenous-led space to discuss the concept of ecological economics from the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples. 

Call for Submissions - CLOSED

This event will be co-created by participants. Space will be held for structured discussion on focused themes, as well as keynote speakers and sharing of Indigenous-led research. The gathering will be grounded in ceremony and space will be held for Elder support.  

ICA invites submissions for presenting your research, hosting a panel or presentation, sharing case studies, story-telling, art-based slideshows or short film, or performance-based presentations. Our partners at CANSEE are committed to support publication of the transcripts and papers from the Assembly in a special issue of an academic journal. Our call for submissions has now closed. Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter a submission.

Indigenous Economics: Reclaiming the Sacred seeks to explore the following areas of a Just Transition:

A Just Transition

• “A Just Transition encourages our Indigenous Nations, community and Indigenous grassroots, traditional and spiritual leadership, women societies and youth to assume their role in supporting a transition and transformation includes, but not be limited to:

  • Indigenous-based green economy

  • Native energy justice and democracy

  • Clean energy and energy efficiency

  • Green, affordable, and energy efficient homes

  • Community-based health care and healing centers

  • Sustainable community-based planning

  • Ecosystem restoration

  • Meaningful work and localized community-building jobs” (Indigenous Environmental Network)

Healing Justice 

• “ Healing justice is a framework that recognizes the impact of trauma and violence on individuals and communities and names collective processes that can help heal and transform these forces. In a system and society that actively targets Black, Brown and Indigenous bodies with violence, oppression and terror, it is critical to build movements that fight for and achieve justice for all people. This justice includes healing, well-being, and not only surviving, but thriving. Resiliency and healing are strategic - we need everyone in our movements to have access to healing from trauma and violence as it strengthens all of us and all of our movements.” (Melina Laboucan-Massimo)

The Red Deal 

• “The Red Deal is not a counter program to the [Green New Deal]. It’s a call for action beyond the scope of the U.S. colonial state. It’s a program for Indigenous liberation, life, and land—an affirmation that colonialism and capitalism must be overturned for this planet to be habitable for human and non-human relatives to live dignified lives.” (The Red Nation)

The Ransom Economy

• "Indigenous lands and territories are being held ransom. All the resource “development” is happening in Indigenous communities while “systematically pushing away Indigenous economies - land, language, culture, who we are, is what wealth is for us.” (Skyler Williams) 

• There is a movement to try and paint Indigenous peoples as “holding Canada hostage” - we must seek to “understand the ways in which the whole economy is structured around the theft of our lands, ransacking natural resources our lands hold, and to contain the threat of Indigenous autonomy.” (Anne Spice)

Nation-based and Place-based economies 

• Place-based economies are based upon the self-determined development choices of Indigenous communities according to their values and priorities

• How are Indigenous peoples envisioning, asserting, and reclaiming place-based economies grounded in the community’s culture?

Thank you to our sponsors!

Please contact research@indigenousclimateaction.com if you have any questions or concerns, or if you have registered but have not yet received a confirmation email.