Indigenous Climate Epistemologies of the Nahuatl and Newar

Keywords: Traditional ecological knowledge, Mexico, Nepal, Indigeneity, survivance, climate epistemology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 24

Abstract

Mainstream climate solutions leave Indigenous communities vulnerable to exploitation, rather than supporting culturally appropriate survivance. Critical research on climate adaptation questions the validity of mainstream approaches but leaves open the question of how to strengthen the self-determination/governance capabilities of Indigenous communities in the global context.

A dynamic literature exists linked to self-determination of Indigenous societies in settler colonial contexts such as the United States and Australia. This research includes a focus on shared governance through treaty rights signed between Native Nations and settler governments; decolonizing or Indigenizing climate justice work; as well as the importance of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) or Indigenous notions of time in shaping the multi-faceted responses to climate change (Grossman and Parker 2012; Marino and Lazrus 2016; Whyte 2017, 2018).

While TEK has been acknowledged as a solution in mainstream policies, few researchers have documented gaps between official rhetoric and practice, or examined the extent to which Indigenous communities worldwide have the power to exercise their autonomy to use their traditional knowledge in response to climate change. We present a comparative analysis of the Indigenous knowledge and practices of the Nahuatl people of Mexico and the Newar of Nepal. Departing from a tendency to characterize Indigenous populations as perpetual victims of climate change in the extant literature, we look to these communities as storehouses of knowledge and expertise to learn from. We examine Indigenous cosmologies - particularly their relationships to nature, the economy, and space - to inform contemporary resilience in the face of climate change.