Indigenous Perspectives Program
Sharing Indigenous responses to climate change
Call for submissions: Indigenous Perspectives case studies 2025
The annual Indigenous Perspectives series is a partnership program with the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources that aims to amplify the voices and expertise of Indigenous researchers, Knowledge Holders, and writers in the climate policy space. Every year we publish a series of new case studies and feature the authors in a live virtual roundtable, attended by a diverse audience from across Canada that includes government, industry, non-profits, academics, and community members.
Interested in being part of this year’s cohort? Apply now.
Details
Application deadline: Tuesday, November 12, 2024 by 4:30 pm PST
Research stipend: C$15,000
Lead applicants must be First Nations, Métis or Inuit and a letter of introduction must be submitted in the application package.
Submission email: Email your submission form with the subject title: Indigenous Perspectives Case Study 2024 to: indigenousresearch@climateinstitute.ca
Application webinar
To learn more about the program and how to apply, join us for a free webinar on November 7, 2024, 10 – 11 am PST.
Adjudication: This is a competitive program. The case study applications are adjudicated by an interdisciplinary committee made up of Indigenous and non-Indigenous staff from the Canadian Climate Institute and Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources. We will contact all applicants within a month of the application closing date with the committee’s decision.
Case study deliverables: Case studies should be between 2,500-4,000 words in Times New Roman (6-8 pages), plus references, and drafted in Google docs. They can be written in French or English and the Institute will publish the case studies in both languages.
We also encourage applicants to draw on traditional knowledge, two-eyed seeing, Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit, and intersectional climate change issues (for example, gender diversity and inclusion, racism and colonization, food sovereignty, food security, biodiversity).
Questions case studies should answer:
- What is the issue/problem/challenge?
- How does this issue connect to climate change or climate change policy?
- What insights emerged from this experience or this issue?
- Are there relevant lessons for other communities/jurisdictions/contexts?
- Are there policy implications for one or more orders of government?
Case study subject areas:
We are open to a wide range of topics but are particularly interested in case studies that explore:
- Clean growth (How can communities succeed through the global energy transition, and what government policies are necessary to do so?)
- Mitigation (How can communities reduce their emissions, and what government policies are necessary to do so?)
- Adaptation (How can communities adapt to a changing climate, and what government policies are necessary to do so?)
- Integration—case studies that touch on more than one of the above areas
Program Overview
The program started in the fall of 2021 as part of the Climate Institute’s efforts to advance and support the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. Using a case study and mentorship model, it seeks to profile Indigenous-led research in climate policy successes, barriers, and lessons learned through responding to climate impacts, efforts to limit further warming, and participation in the global energy transition.
Case studies showcase research related to one of four different subject areas: adaptation, clean growth, mitigation, or an integration of all three. Within these four areas, Indigenous researchers explore different topics such as Indigenous governance models that can inform climate policy, decolonized assessments of climate policy frameworks, renewable energy generation in remote Indigenous communities, and intersectional climate change policy (e.g. racism and climate change, food sovereignty, food security, biodiversity and climate research).
The program’s mentorship model aims to support and highlight Indigenous leadership in climate research, policy design, and implementation in a good way. Mentors support case study authors throughout their writing journey. We root the program in the idea of two-eyed seeing, a concept created by Albert Marshall, a respected Mi’kmaq Elder. In Marshall’s words “Two-Eyed Seeing refers to learning to see from one eye with the strengths of Indigenous ways of knowing and from the other eye with the strengths of Western ways of knowing and to using both of these eyes together” (Bartlett, Marshall, & Marshall, 2012, p. 335).
2024 case studies
Indigenous Seed Keeping and Seed Climate Adaptation
Challenges, priorities, and multi-sector change in resourcing and advancing Indigenous agricultural and climate sovereignty
Indigenous Climate Action
How can Indigenous Climate Action and other environmental organizations participate in and uphold appropriate engagement and representation of Inuit knowledge and worldview in climate policy?
Ceremony is for Us, for Mother Earth
Ceremony and the sacred work of decolonizing climate policy in so-called British Columbia
2023 case studies
This year’s case studies showcase the work of Indigenous researchers, Knowledge Holders, water protectors, and community members. The authors highlight how Indigenous self-determination and knowledge are integral to designing effective climate policies.
The power of Acimowin (Storytelling) for climate change policy
Explore the power of story and the medicine wheel as a learning pedagogy and how Indigenous ways of knowing and being should inform adaptation and policy decisions.
Hope flows from action: Rebuilding with resilient foundations in B.C.’s Fraser Canyon Region
Policy approaches can help build—and rebuild—communities so they are resilient to the weather of today and tomorrow.
Community is the solution
The 2021 extreme heat emergency experience in urban, rural, and remote British Columbia First Nations.
2022 case studies
The Bagida’waad Alliance: Finding our way in the fog and charting a new course
Adapting to the impacts of climate change on the Great Lakes
A Two-Roads Approach to Co-Reclamation: Centring Indigenous voices and leadership in Canada’s energy transition
To adequately prepare for the energy transition, the oil and gas sector must reckon with the historic and ongoing impacts on the land and on Indigenous rights holders.
ʔuyaasiłaƛ n̓aas, or Something happened to the weather
Applying the wisdom of Indigenous place names in a changing climate—lessons from the Ahousaht First Nation’s Land Use Vision process
Gitxsan Rez-ilience: Understanding climate resilience as Naadahahlhakwhlinhl (interconnectedness)
This case study provides a foundation for a wider, more inclusive understanding of what it means to be resilient in an Indigenous context.
2021 case studies
Protecting Biocultural Heritage and Land Rights
How the W8banaki Nation is Adapting to Climate Change in Southern Quebec
Decolonizing Canada’s Climate Policy
The first step is to decolonize systems that exclude Indigenous rights holders, land protectors, and knowledge experts from the conversation.
The ‘Two-Eyed Seeing’ of Cross-Cultural Research Camps
Sahtú community-led approaches to climate change monitoring are building the knowledge and capacity needed for adaptation
Climate Change impacts on bees in Mi’kma’ki
Lessons from the Mi’kmaq Pollinator Project
Case Study: Ayookxw Responding to Climate Change
The Gitanyow are using both Indigenous knowledge and laws (Ayookxw) and western science to build a comprehensive understanding of the ecological health of our territory, and translating that knowledge into policies that respond to the impacts of climate change.
Case Study: Seed Sowing
Indigenous Relationship-Building as Processes of Environmental Action
Case Study: Unnatural Disasters
Colonialism, climate displacement, and Indigenous sovereignty in Siksika Nation’s disaster recovery efforts
In partnership with
Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources is Canada’s first Indigenous-directed environmental non-profit charitable organization. CIER was founded in 1995 by 10 First Nation Chiefs from across Canada. CIER supports Indigenous people and communities to be leaders of positive environmental change, using the best of Western and Indigenous knowledge to create a world that is in balance and supports the well-being of all living things. Since 1995, CIER has worked on 450 projects with over 300 Indigenous nations across Canada.