Reframing our relationship with the land: Indigenous leadership towards climate justice
This panel discussion, moderated by Kay-Ann Williams of George Brown College, brought together two leading First Nations scholar-activists: Eriel Tchekwie Deranger and Melina Laboucan-Massimo. Their conversation offered critical insights into how Indigenous leadership is reshaping global and local responses to the climate crisis—albeit still far from reaching its full potential, and how Indigenous knowledge systems challenge dominant paradigms of environmental governance.
Rethinking human-nature relationships
Eriel Tchekwie Deranger, a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, emphasized the importance of distinguishing between “local communities” and Indigenous Peoples in international climate policy. “Indigenous Peoples hold unique rights that have been affirmed by the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” Deranger noted. She highlighted that these rights are supported by constitutional, legal, and treaty frameworks, and that Indigenous knowledge—rooted in millennia of reciprocal relationships with land and water—offers holistic approaches to sustainability.
Deranger pointed out that, while Indigenous perspectives are increasingly referenced in international agreements such as the Paris Agreement, their inclusion remains largely “tokenistic” and lacks substantive mechanisms for implementation. “We have moved away from a discourse that was largely around colonial state power and economic stability to a more holistic approach,” she said, “but how that’s going to be done in a just framework has yet to actually come to fruition.”
Relationality and responsibility
Melina Laboucan-Massimo, founder of Sacred Earth Solar and co-founder of Indigenous Climate Action, expanded on the need to restore reciprocal relationships with the land. “Learning how to be in relationship with the Earth is fundamental for our survival here on planet Earth,” she explained. Laboucan-Massimo described how Indigenous knowledge systems are based on principles of relationality and reciprocity—values that have sustained communities on Turtle Island, the Indigenous name for North America, for thousands of years.
Laboucan-Massimo reflected on the deep historical connection Indigenous Peoples have to the land. “We literally have stories from before the last Ice Age. This continuity underscores the urgent need to shift away from extractive, colonial paradigms that have led to environmental degradation,” emphasizing that emphasizing that everyone living on these lands has a responsibility to engage in respectful and reciprocal relationships with the environment. “Climate change exists because of colonialism.”
Indigenous leadership in global and local arenas
Both Deranger and Laboucan-Massimo have extensive experience engaging with international climate forums, including the United Nations and the annual Conference of the Parties (COP). Deranger, who has participated in COP negotiations since Copenhagen in 2009, described the challenges of advocating for Indigenous rights within these spaces. “We have to participate not to advance Indigenous rights, but to protect them from being further eroded and degraded, and to hold both states and corporations accountable,” she asserted, highlighting the disproportionate influence of oil and gas lobbyists at COP meetings, noting that Indigenous voices are often outnumbered but remain crucial in holding powerful actors to account.
Laboucan-Massimo, who has attended United Nations meetings since 2004, echoed the importance of Indigenous representation in global climate governance. However, she cautioned against relying solely on international systems for meaningful change. “It is important to have the representation there to ensure that our people’s voices are heard and our rights are respected, but it is also very important to not depend on those systems to save us.” Laboucan-Massimo’s research and advocacy focus on implementing just energy transitions in Indigenous communities, emphasizing solutions that are rooted in community needs and led by Indigenous Peoples themselves.
Pathways forward
The panelists agreed that while international recognition of Indigenous knowledge is growing, real change begins, grows, and flourishes on the ground, in communities. As Deranger put it, “As Indigenous peoples, we are already doing tried, tested, and proven solutions that have real impacts—not just on energy systems, but our food systems, our economies, and the entire wellbeing of our communities.” Laboucan-Massimo’s work with Sacred Earth Solar, especially on the Just Transition Guide, exemplifies this community-led approach to climate solutions.
Their dialogue underscored that Indigenous leadership is essential not only for climate justice, but for imagining new forms of togetherness—personally, culturally, and politically. As the climate crisis deepens, Indigenous voices offer pathways toward a more just and sustainable future for all.