Indigenous feminist pathways to sustainability : decolonizing global climate change policy and adaptation

Abstract

As the global climate emergency becomes increasingly dire, the world is looking for diverse and efficacious possibilities of resilience and adaptation. While being disproportionately impacted by the disastrous consequences of climate change, Indigenous feminist communities are active agents of change, leading the way in confronting the climate crisis by maintaining and rehabilitating ecosystems through holistic approaches to environmental management that are grounded in values of traditional ecological knowledge. This thesis engages with the lived experiences of Indigenous women across the globe through a decolonial feminist theoretical lens of analysis, examining cultural ecological interventions that emphasize ecocentric practices of climate rehabilitation and cultivate reciprocal systems of care in relation to nature. Utilizing a cross-cultural and decolonizing research methodology, this thesis traces the intersection of gender and indigeneity within global institutional sources such as UN Climate Change agreements and investigates the capacity of human rights frameworks and state-led environmental initiatives to protect and uphold the rights of Indigenous women. In order to build sustainable and gender-just futures, this thesis argues that true climate justice will require transnational collaboration to dismantle the current uneven power distribution of capitalist and neoliberal extractive industries and ensure the inclusive participation and representation of Indigenous Feminist cosmovision in climate decision-making spaces.