Introducing Indigenous Peoples and Climate Change

Abstract

This introduction sets the context for why climate change is a major issue for Indigenous peoples today. The key terms commonly used in the climate change and adaptation policy arena are identified and the fact there is a difference between Western and Indigenous constructions of them is highlighted. We argue this clash between ontological and epistemological understandings of climate change has had the effect of under-estimating or making less visible Indigenous agency and responses to climate change. We then introduce the central argument for this book, which is that climate adaptation for Indigenous peoples is not a new concept, nor is it only grounded in climate change contexts. Instead, climate adaptation for Indigenous peoples embodies all the old ways of seeing and doing but deployed in contemporary ways.