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Calling on the Collective Skills of Aboriginal Peoples

Moderator: Neil MacEachern

Presenters: Dany Johnny Chilton and Samuel Castonguay

The dangers of climate change are rapidly increasing on the Atikamekw’s lands, as the community transitions from a nomadic way of life to a predominantly sedentary lifestyle.

The Atikamekw Nation Council has decided to develop a traditional approach to resolve both of these current problems. The project involves establishing a holistic approach in describing how the community functions  to collectively teach its members to rapidly adapt to the changes which affect it. We want to develop a collective ability to read and interpret the signs of the sociosphere, similar to the approach put in place for Notcimik. The aim is to enable community members to detect the dangers and opportunities they encounter. The first intended result is to create a collective ability to identify and understand issues of the highest priority related to the community’s functioning and development, as well as to identify workable, potential solutions.

Fire with Fire: Braiding Indigenous and Scientific Knowledges of Fire Management using Participatory Video Method to Enhance Climate Change Resilience

Presenters: Laura Lynes (moderator), Alvin First Rider, Kyra Northwest and Marley Kozak

Fire with Fire — an initiative supported by Natural Resources Canada’s Building Regional Adaptation Capacity and Expertise (BRACE) Program — is engaging multiple partners in a novel approach to adaptation by developing the capacity of Indigenous communities to share, exchange and validate their knowledge and perspectives on wildfire through participatory video — a proven tool to document and share Indigenous knowledge that can inform local, regional and international adaptation efforts and policy.

This session will feature a short video from a participating Indigenous community, an overview of lessons learned to date, and information on how Fire with Fire is developing capacity, processes, methodologies and tools to enable the best available Indigenous and scientific knowledge for climate change adaptation decisions at local, regional and provincial scales. Disasters, such as wildfires, can also be a hook for a larger conversation about climate change adaptation, which is being demonstrated through the initiative.