Rematriation and climate justice: Intersections of indigenous health and place

Abstract

Indigenous peoples shoulder a disproportionate burden of risk posed by climate change and associated environmental shifts. Simultaneously, Indigenous communities are recognized as arbiters of planetary health and climate resilience due to their interdependence with local ecosystems, traditional lifeways and Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge(s) (ITEKs) that inform adaptation and mitigation programming. Accordingly, Indigenous Peoples protect and steward 80% of the global biodiversity, while only inhabiting 22% of the earth's surface, and comprising only 5% of the earth's global population [1]. Yet, climate resilience often disregards opportunities for Indigenous communities to explore reparative frameworks that seek to heal the social and ecological determinants responsible for climate-related vulnerabilities associated with histories of colonial subjugation. This manuscript offers critical insights and Indigenous perspectives on climate justice, while redressing the intersection of place-based determinants of Indigenous health, sovereignty and self-determination, with ancestral land-based practices of birthing justice and rematriation of Indigenous territories. As Indigenous communities grapple with land dispossession and confinement - rematriation, ancestral remembrance and reciprocity offer novel insights on the critical relationship to territorial homelands and the sanctity of place to Indigenous health. In closing, the authors explore opportunities for decolonizing relationships to place from climate justice perspectives, while discussing a case of rematriation and healing at Bdóte, the place of genesis for Dakota Peoples, also known as Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN.