Climate Change and the Importance of Indigenous Knowledge

Webinar Climate Change and Indigenous Knowledge Thursay 12 October 2023, UTC 6pm

A webinar in collaboration with the IF20 Environmental Working Group

Indigenous/native communities have for centuries created and applied approaches to climate change and developed their own climate sciences, which are often overlooked or treated as inferior to modern mainstream science. This lack of attention given to the critical contribution of indigenous climate knowledge and spiritualities continues to promote a one-sided narrative.
This webinar aims to open a new perspective by examining climate change in the Pacific as an example of how interfaith dialogue with indigenous spiritualities might promote environmental justice. It will also highlight how indigenous/native knowledge and spiritualities can assist in critically informing national and global climate strategies and climate policies, more specifically looking into the radical approaches indigenous communities can offer to the COP28 meeting.

SPEAKERS

Elvira Rumkabu

Elvira Rumkabu is a lecturer of international relations at Cenderawasih University based in Jayapura, Papua. She completed her Master's Degree at the Australian National University. Her areas of expertise are conflict resolution, peace studies, and Papuan politics. Elvira is a member of the Academics Forum for Papua Peace (FAPD), a forum established by Indonesian lecturers to initiate conflict resolution and peacebuilding in Papua. She is actively involved in the Peaceful Papua Lobbying Team, initiated by the Democratic Alliance for Papua (ALDP). Elvira has written about issues relating to the conflict in Papua in a number of publications. She has also spoken about conflict resolution in Papua, racism and marginalisation, and women, peace and security in national and international forums

George Carter

Dr. George Carter is Professor at Australia National University. His research interests focus on understanding small states and peoples’ influence in decision-making processes in international politics. His projects explore Pacific states and Small Island Developing States' agency in multilateral climate change negotiations, regionalism, climate security, climate knowledge and education, foreign policymaking and geopolitical security interests, Oceania diplomacy and Pacific diaspora politics.

Nicole Redvers

Dr. Nicole Redvers, ND, MPH, is a member of the Deninu K’ue First Nation (Northwest Territories, Canada) and has worked with Indigenous patients, scholars, and communities around the globe her entire career. She is an Associate Professor, Western Research Chair, and Director of Indigenous Planetary Health at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University. She has been actively involved at regional, national, and international levels promoting the inclusion of Indigenous perspectives in both human and planetary health research and practice. Dr. Redvers is the author of the trade paperback book titled, ‘The Science of the Sacred: Bridging Global Indigenous Medicine Systems and Modern Scientific Principles’.

Tafue Molu Lusama, speaker at webinar on Climate Change and indigenous Knowledge

Tafue Lusama

Tafue M Lusama is Climate Change Project Officer for the climate change unit of the Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, where he also heads the Institute for Climate Indigenous Knowledge (ICIK) within PTC. His passion is on climate justice, and this, he believes, can only be achieved through a total transformation in our mindset, and the inclusion of indigenous climate knowledge in the climate narrative and policies. He completed his doctoral studies in 2021 in which he redefined the theology of God from a Tuvaluan indigenous perspective in relation to climate change and the suffering that the vulnerable communities in the region are facing. He is the former General Secretary of the Ekalesia Kelisiano Tuvalu (Tuvalu Christian Church) and Program secretary for Peace and Justice within his national church, which includes dealing with the issue of climate change. He was instrumental in establishing the Tuvalu Climate Action Network (TuCAN), and advocating for the voiceless on climate justice regionally, and globally.

MODERATOR

Arthur Dahl, speaker at Webinar on Climate Change and the Importance of Indigenous Knowledge

Arthur Lyon Dahl

Arthur Lyon Dahl is President of the International Environment Forum and a retired senior official of the United Nations Environment Programme, where he coordinated the UN System-wide Earthwatch and was Deputy Director of the Oceans and Coastal Areas Programme. He studied biology at Stanford University and has a PhD in marine biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He resided in the Pacific Islands for 11 years as Regional Ecological Advisor and organised the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP). He helped to launch the concept of Small Island Developing States, including the final drafting of that section of Agenda 21 for the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. He has expertise in climate science and has researched and published on indigenous knowledge and value systems in the Pacific Islands.