climate and environmental justice

How to bring Black and Indigenous voices into the climate discussion

How to bring Black and Indigenous voices into the climate discussion

Q: Black and Indigenous people are often the ones most affected by climate change, and yet they're not necessarily at the table in negotiations for solutions. How do we change that? A: We live in the most multicultural country in the world, we have the entire world within our borders. So that gives us access to a plethora of knowledge. But the issue that we tend to have is, when we invite people to the table to have discussions, it's in a very Western framework. We have a one-hour meeting where we're going to discuss X, Y, Z. But a lot of cultures don't work that way. There are a lot of Indigenous cultures that need to meet and spend weeks building relationships and having meals together without talking about business, and then slowly bring up business here and there.