Keyword Culture

In the Heiltsuk (Haíɫzaqv) Nation, community-led infrastructure projects such as clam gardens and the Big House enhance community resilience. This film explores how values, traditions, and the principle of “Looking Back to Look Forward” guide the creation of climate-resilient, culturally relevant infrastructure. It shares the intergenerational wisdom of the Haíɫzaqv Nation on climate change and community infrastructure.

Northwest Angle #33 is a remote community in the southwest corner of Ontario that is only accessible by ice road in winter and boat in the summer. Confronted with climate change, the community is looking at how a less cold winter, shortening season, and erratic weather will affect their ice road. With a feasibility study on the table, the possibility of an alternate road is contingent on many factors lining up. Their dream is bringing their children back to their home to continue their culture and traditions.

The North Shore Tribal Council, together with Sagamok Anishinawbek, Batchawana First Nation, and OFNTSC, is preparing infrastructure for climate impacts using the First Nations Infrastructure Resilience Toolkit (FN-IRT). This approach combines technical expertise with community knowledge to support adaptation planning for infrastructure and cultural resilience.

First Nations from coast to coast to coast have lived through major periods of disruption, through ice ages and the emergence into warm periods, colonialism and its lasting impacts, and now climate change. “And now we're rebuilding.” Hereditary Chief Frank Brown of the Haíɫzaqv Nation, Bella Bella, British Columbia explains that “in a time of climate change and biodiversity loss, it's imperative that when we rebuild that we rebuild in a way that the infrastructure meets the needs of our communities, that have been in place for 14,000 years and have an incredible story to tell.”

Shawn Bailey and Lancelot Coar are trying to change the way architecture students think about the connection between climate change, Indigenous Knowledges, and design. Associate Professors in the Department of Architecture at the University of Manitoba, Bailey and Coar guide students on their journey to becoming practicing architects. Every year Coar and Bailey teach a design course for 4th year architecture students and, increasingly, they are trying to break the mold of what and how students are learning.

Infrastructure is often thought of as physical objects built from concrete, steel, and timber, like roads, buildings, water treatment plants or energy networks. These are the physical systems, buildings, structures, and facilities that help people carry out daily activities. They are designed and developed by humans to make lives easier, more efficient, and generally to improve quality of life. [1]

“We want to take a look at how we can build better information for First Nations.” Climate change planning needs to be done by community, for community. That’s what Elmer Lickers believes is the key to success. Elmer Lickers is Mohawk, a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation. He is also a senior advisor at the Ontario First Nations Technical Service Corporation (OFNTSC). Lickers and his team work with communities on a program called the First Nations Infrastructure Resilience Toolkit (FN-IRT), a First Nations specific approach to climate change risk assessment for infrastructure and asset management. (Learn more about the Basics of Climate Risk Assessment

Told through the voices of 24 people from Nunatsiavut, Labrador, Lament for the Land weaves together the voices and wisdom of Labrador Inuit with stunning visual scenery to tell a powerful story of change, loss, and hope in the context of rapid climate change in the North. A collaboration between researcher Dr. Ashlee Cunsolo and the five communities of Nunatsiavut, this film brings attention to some of the most pressing climatic and environmental issues of our time, and the resulting mental, emotional, and cultural impacts on one of Canada’s oldest and most enduring cultures.

In March 2020, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) held its first National Climate Gathering on the traditional territory of the Ta’an Kwächän and the Kwanlin Dün in Whitehorse, YK. Over 300 First Nations experts, leaders, youth, women, knowledge keepers, and professionals gathered to discuss the urgent crisis of climate change. In 2019, the AFN passed a resolution declaring a First Nations Climate Emergency, and this Gathering was designed to bring together First Nations’ perspectives on climate impacts, risks, and opportunities.

“Tariuq Takujannik - The Ocean From My Eye” explores youth perspectives of climate change through the lens of pinhole photography and participatory video. Students from Attagoyuk High School in Pangnirtung, Nunavut participated in a weeklong workshop about oceans, climate change, and photography. Building cameras from recycled materials, students took to the shoreline to create photographs, guided by the question: why are imaq (sea water) and siku (sea ice) important to youth? By engaging youth in creative, hands-on processes, we can share knowledge and find solutions for complex issues like climate change.