Gathering Reflections
Author: Michael Charlton, postdoctoral fellow at Cranfield University
Having recently joined the Sharing Our Knowledge: Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge Systems to Build Governance for Climate Resiliency project, I was excited to participate in a trip to the Sápmi region of Norway for the International Indigenous Salmon Peoples Gathering and Research Symposium. I am an Indigenous Australian from the Yindjibarndi Nation in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, where it is hot, and the earth is a deep red, so I was intrigued to see a part of the world that I knew would look and feel very different to where I come from. I was also eager to meet and hear from Indigenous Peoples from the Arctic to learn about their cultures and ways of life, and how they are responding to current environmental challenges in their regions.
The International Indigenous Salmon Peoples Gathering and Research Symposium consisted of a full week of events directed towards understanding and discussing the status and future needs of Indigenous Salmon Peoples. Set along the banks of the Deatnu/Tana River (“big river” in the Sámi language) in the far north-east of Norway, participants were treated to an ‘Indigenous-style’ symposium with a combination of floor seating and chairs, where Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars and knowledge holders gathered to discuss important key topics for their regions, as well as the importance of Indigenous-led research in understanding and responding to climate changes.
Coming from an Indigenous Australian background, and a career spent working with Indigenous communities around Australia, I was struck by two key themes at the Gathering, that connect us as Indigenous Peoples: first, our connection and responsibility to our lands and waters that have been passed down across thousands of generations, and; second, the challenges we face in having our distinct rights as Indigenous Peoples recognised and respected by governments and industries, so that we are able to freely maintain our cultural responsibilities as traditional custodians, as we always have.
Within these shared experiences of settler-colonial structures were powerful and deeply localised stories about strength and resilience, pain and trauma, knowledge and wisdom, as communities continue to assert their rights as sovereign Peoples belonging to their lands and waters. A young Koyukon and Iñupiaq scholar and researcher from the Yukon-Kuskokwim region in Alaska spoke with power and determination about her responsibility to keep fighting for her Peoples’ right to be heard:
“We’re facing an historic salmon decline… Our people have been speaking out on this for the last 25 years… and now I’m here doing the exact same work that our people were doing over two decades ago… Our people are very hungry right now… I have a responsibility to work on this, not only are we hurting, but the salmon are hurting too.”
An Unangax̂ scholar and researcher from Unangam Tanangin (the Aleutian Islands of Alaska), linked the pressure of food insecurity her community face today to colonial dispossession and present structural conditions:
“We were not and are not agriculturalists, but rather we rely on the usual and accustomed returns and migrations of plants and berries, animals, mammals, birds and fish to support our way of life. But the United States seeks to replace our original food systems with agricultural-based food ways that displace our original subsistence practices while simultaneously seeking to regulate and criminalize our original Indigenous subsistence practices.”
As an Indigenous Australian, from a community that has fought long and hard to uphold our rights as Yindjibarndi to our lands and waters, it was inspiring to hear about the work being led by Indigenous Peoples across the Arctic regions to protect their cultural wellbeing. It was also a reminder of how vital Indigenous-led research is to advancing Indigenous rights and fundamental to conversations around contemporary sustainable environmental management. As the Sharing Our Knowledge project gets into full swing and embraces Indigenous and Western knowledge through the concept of ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’, I am excited to see how far we can push current understandings of climate change, and how we can raise the voices of Indigenous knowledge holders in the development of local, regional, and international responses.
