The final plenary of the HEAL2023 conference drew on the experiences and wisdom of First Nations Peoples around the world to explore the theme of First Nations rights-based approach to climate justice.
Danielle Manton, a Barunggam women, grown up on Dharug Country, and a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Teaching and Learning at the University of Technology Sydney, attended the conference on behalf of the Croakey Conference News Service.
Danielle Manton writes:
The strength, resilience, leadership, and expertise of the speakers in the final session of the HEAL 2023 conference was overwhelming and inspiring.
The plenary was followed by a panel, chaired by Veronica Matthews, proudly Quandamooka from Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), and an Associate Professor at the University Centre for Rural Health at The University of Sydney as well as a co-leader of the Indigenous knowledges theme of the HEAL network.
Matthews proudly recognised she was leading the conference out “with a real bang”.
Exploring human rights-based approaches to climate justice in Australia and internationally, each plenary speaker highlighted the huge influence of power and greed, particularly by mining companies as well as governments who shift the rules according to the agenda at hand.
The results are detrimental to our environment, our culture, and our ability to advocate and protect our Country – and everything it means to us physically, culturally and spiritually.
The speakers were:
- Ngāti Kahungunu man, Rhys Jones, Associate Professor at Te Kupenga Hauora Māori, Auckland University
- Quechua women from Peru, Natali Segovia, Executive Director Water Protector Legal Collective and, International Human Rights Lawyer
- Joan Carling (Kankanaey), International Human Rights Lawyer and Executive Director of Indigenous Peoples Rights International
- Francis Nona (Torres Strait), Research Fellow, Carumba Institute, Queensland University of Technology
Making the invisible visible
The climate crisis is overwhelming, so what can we do to influence change? The wise words of Natali Segovia set the tone for the session: “make the invisible visible”. This sentiment recurred throughout the presentations, through the sharing of the experiences of our Indigenous brothers and sisters globally.
Segovia reminded us we must be “documenting the frontline, making the invisible visible to the world, sharing knowledge on a regular basis”.
We need to advocate by continuing to share the stories of the terrible injustices that happen all over the world – that is how we can shine a light into the corners that some people might prefer to remain dark.
Segovia shared that Colombia has one of the world’s highest rates of internal forced displacement, much of which is directly linked to the mining industry. Colombia hosts the Cerrejon Coal Mine, the second largest open-air coal mining operation in the world, sitting alongside the River Bruno, which is significant to the Wayuu people.
Segovia told the conference:
The Wayuu people talk of the river that was stolen, which has become a drought zone in northern Colombia. The industry diverted the water towards the coal mining operations and left the children of the Wayuu territory with so little they die at a higher rate than cattle.
Segovia described “environmental sacrifice zones” such as in Arizona, where a road to be constructed called Loop 202 would result in the Hohokam peoples losing their sacred and spiritual connection to their protector, by severing their undisturbed connection to their sacred sites. This was done without respectful and authentic consultation. Communities were considered collateral damage in the quest to ease traffic congestion.
She went on to highlight the pandemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit relatives in the face of the extraction industry. It was identified in a recent oil company budget that the company was aware of and complicit in human traffic and violence, by including it within the cost of operations.
Assaults, harassment and other forms of violence were expected, with no attempt to mitigate the risk beyond creating a public safety fund that was directed to the state of Minnesota to have a permit approved. The fund was established to cover the cost of law enforcement and the prosecution of offenders.
This example makes visible that governments are aware of the pandemic of violence, but also complicit, establishing policies to protect their own interests – but where is the policy to protect the women and girls from harm, to protect their rights to live on, and be connected to, their land?
Loss of Country, physical and psychological trauma and the loss of family are not things that can be flippantly placed in a policy, with a monetary value – we need to make the invisible visible!
Joan Carling reminded the conference that “Indigenous peoples have the least carbon footprint yet are at the frontline of the consequences of climate change. “Green Colonialism” is an important issue to make visible. There is an assumption that the values and aspirations of conservationist and renewable energy organisations align with those of Indigenous peoples, the stewards, and protectors of their lands; however, this is often not the case.
Indigenous peoples are routinely displaced in the name of conservation, forcibly removed from their lands, the lands they have reciprocally cared for over hundreds of generations – in the name of conservation.
In recent years, renewable energy companies have cleared Indigenous lands to make way for renewable energy sources and minerals. Carling shared two examples of Windfarm parks in Norway and Kenya, where attempts were made to desecrate traditional lands to make way for renewable energy.
Both Segovia and Carling highlighted the data regarding criminalisation of Indigenous land defenders, Indigenous stewards of nature “caring for “85 percent of the world’s biodiversity”.
Segovia told the conference that human rights defenders were “routinely killed all over the world”. She cited a 2022 report which documented the killing of 401 Human rights defenders in 26 Countries.
Breaking the data down further, Carling added that defenders of the environment, land, and Indigenous peoples’ rights, accounted for 11 percent of human rights defenders’ deaths.
It’s a call to action: make the invisible, visible!
Sharing knowledge, learning and tools, to demand change
Making the invisible visible is not only about advocacy and demanding better, it’s also about shared knowledge – learning from each other’s experiences. This includes experience with the use of human rights frameworks and international law to influence change.
Associate Professor Rhys Jones gave the example of an amendment to the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975, Wai 2607, which was submitted by a Māori group, holding the Crown to account for breaching the Treaty by failing to implement policies to address climate change commensurate to need.
This includes lack of authentic consultation with Māori peoples, and failing to ensure Māori peoples are not unduly harmed due to the impact of climate change. The principles of this claim can be replicated within an international framework.
Jones has developed an Indigenous climate justice policy analysis tool based on five dimensions of justice, with three levels demonstrating that, although the current colonial systems are limited and strained, progress is possible under the governance arrangements we already have.
I encourage “policymakers, advocates, activists and communities to use the tool to think about how policymaking and climate policy action measure up to the dimensions of climate justice from an indigenous-rights, climate-justice lens,” he said.
Climate justice is only achievable through system transformation, and decolonial action to transform the way we govern and address climate change in general.
“If we really want to achieve climate justice, we need constitutional transformation,” and to “extend our thinking beyond equity within the health sector, to convey a vision of climate justice that depends on decolonisation and restoration of relationships,” Jones told the conference.
Veronica Matthews told the conference we are “facing multiple barriers to effective engagement when it comes to climate and protections of our lands and waters, despite legislation that is meant to support Indigenous rights such as Native Title in Australia. These levers can be easily extinguished to make way for government priorities and other priorities such as mining”.
On another aspect of making the invisible visible, Segovia spoke of the need to share knowledge, learnings and tools, to more effectively use the law and other structures to influence change and hold companies and organisations to account. She gave the example of the concept of Free Prior and Informed consent (FPIC), which is a primary aspect of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
FPIC an expansive concept that goes beyond consultation and aspires to consent that is meaningful and free, given without intimidation or coercion in a process informed by the community from whom the consent is being sought, without timelines being imposed on the community.
“It is sufficiently in advance, prior to authorisation of activities, informed because of engagement prior to seeking consent and ongoingly, and consent is a collective decision made by rights holders through a customary decision-making process,” she said.
FPIC is a useful framework in advocating for climate change and the rights of Indigenous peoples however Carling pointed out “only a few companies have policies on FPIC. Violations are part of the business-as-usual approach, despite commitments to respect and uphold human rights”.
Segovia’s advice is to “influence transformative change by using the law and other structural avenues to build power for the people, sharing our knowledge and tools to universally hold companies and industry bodies to account to ensure these commitments are enforced and maintained to a standard acceptable to Indigenous peoples collectively”.
Nona highlighted what Australia is NOT doing – including failure to implement actions and principles from frameworks such as UNDRIP. He noted that “if they were implementing these principles, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be at the decision-making tables”.
The fact that the Australian government is not implementing and enforcing these human rights principles explains why we are not at the table. Instead we are in the court systems.
Nona pointed out the global initiatives taking place from which Australia could share and learn.
- Finland has established the SámiClimate Council. An independent expert body appointed under the Reformed Climate Act to promote the rights of the Sámi peoples, the council is tasked with the objective of bringing Sami knowledge and perspectives into climate policy.
- The Utqiagvik Declaration Act 2018(Arctic) was declared by the Inuit peoples of Alaska, Canada and Greenland as well as the Chukchi peoples of Northern Russia. According to Nona, the declaration is responsible for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, which “facilitates the development of Inuit protocols on the equitable and ethical utilisation of Indigenous knowledge, and the engagement of Inuit communities to provide guidance to the international fora such as the Artic Council”.
Segovia reminded the conference that “International law is young and in constant shift, and we have the opportunity to mould it”.
The importance and power of our collective voice
Climate Justice is a global crisis, impacting every aspect of life for indigenous peoples. Segovia spoke about the law being used as a tool for repression and being weaponised against our peoples, the importance of using international human rights frameworks as Indigenous peoples, and the intersection between justice and having access to basic human rights.
By making the invisible visible, we can see the problems, but we can also see the triumphs and the power in our collective voices, and determination to not stop fighting for our lands, our communities and our peoples.
Carling said, for us,
it’s a matter of dignity, it is a matter of justice. Our collective voices are important and powerful.
She gave the example of the “strong unity amongst Aboriginal peoples to speak with one voice and demand change – with the support of the population,” evidenced in the response the destruction of Juukan Gorge sacred site in Western Australia whereby mining company Rio Tinto was held to account.
The power of collective voice and action was also demonstrated in the two examples of green colonialism Carling shared in her address.
- The Sami people in Norway were triumphant in protecting their sacred reindeer herding area from a windfarm Park. They did not oppose the windfarm but were clear it should be constructed in a location that did not impact their cultural practices and protocols, or their livelihood. Despite this, the construction was planned and approved by the government to take place on a Sami reindeer herding area. When the Sami people took the fight to the Supreme Court, the court foundthe windfarm was a violation of their cultural rights.
- At Lake Turkana in Kenya, where a windfarm was constructed, the traditional owners lodged a provision to respect their rights to community lands, which had been violated. The Supreme Court agreedand demanded that the company to properly compensate the Indigenous peoples displaced through the windfarm’s construction.
Segovia cited the Indigenous resistance at Standing Rock in North Dakota where the members of the Dakota and Lakota nations fought together to protect water from the Dakota Access pipeline, which was already operating without adequate permission. Over 800 Indigenous water protectors and non-Indigenous allies were criminalised by the state of North Dakota through this process; however, the pipeline has been shut down for review.
The examples provided by the speakers demonstrate the importance and power of our collective voices and the importance of determined advocacy. These protests were successful because they demanded change and did not give up. As Carling said, “Just keep on fighting, that is the spirit”.
Another recent case cited by Segovia is using litigation law to demand justice. At Red Hill on O’ahu, the US Navy had been storing tanks of jet fuel, just 100 feet above the sole water source serving 900 000 people, since the 1940’s. In 2021 the tanks leaked, contaminating the drinking water. As a result of ongoing community activism and litigation demanding accountability, it is only now, 3 years later being cleaned.
Segovia said, “the law is part of the tapestry we are responsible for weaving together, for weaving it collectively. It is the same with policy and what we want to see in the world. One thread can undo the whole tapestry”.
As human rights defenders we must understand that we have a voice in every sphere and every aspect of society and that we have an obligation to contribute and influence change.
Segovia also reminded us that our voice is instrumental to our survival as indigenous peoples physically, psychologically, spiritually, and culturally, as the protectors and stewards of our lands, waterways and skies.
“If we are not at the table, we are on the menu… We need to be in the spaces that were not built for us,” she said.
Listen to First Nations peoples to benefit all peoples
This narrative should resonate for everyone: climate justice is a global problem that should be everyone’s business. The climate crisis impacts every aspect of life for Indigenous peoples, but getting the response right will benefit all peoples. All the speakers recognised this:
Front-line resistance struggles are part of the everyday struggle for existence by Indigenous peoples. Climate change is palpable in everyday events that community must engage with, to protect our ancestral lands and the wellbeing of all future generations – not only our own.” Natali Segovia
Tackling climate change and the actions we need to put in place to address climate change can be really good for health, but also can be really good for health equity and Indigenous health and wellbeing. If we do it right.” Rhys Jones
Indigenous knowledge is a resource and opportunity, there is much to be gained with partnerships. Who is sitting at the table and whose table is it? The government needs to sit with the community, we know what our people and Country need.” Francis Nona
You stand with us, and we will make the world a better place.” Joan Carling
*This article was published in Croakey Health Media
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