Review of participation of Indigenous peoples in plastics pollution governance

Abstract

While calls for Indigenous participation in plastics pollution governance are increasingly common, exactly what participation means remains unclear. This review investigates how English-language peer-reviewed and gray literature describe Indigenous participation and its barriers and analyzes the dominant terms, models, enactments, and theories of Indigenous participation in plastics pollution work. We find that different actors – Indigenous people and organizations, non-Indigenous authors, mixed collaborations, and settler governments and NGOs – are talking about participation in acutely different ways. Non-Indigenous actors tend to focus on the inclusion of Indigenous people, either as data, knowledge, or a presence in existing frameworks. Mixed Indigenous and non-Indigenous author groups focus on partnership and collaboration, though with significant diversity in terms of what modes of decision-making, rights, and leadership these collaborations entail. Indigenous authors and organization advocate for participation premised on Indigenous rights, sovereignty, creation, and leadership. We end by characterizing Indigenous Environmental Justice (IEJ) in the literature. IEJ provides a notably unique way of understanding and intervening in plastics pollution. The text is designed so researchers and organizers can be more specific, deliberate, and just in the way Indigenous peoples participate in plastic pollution research, initiatives, and governance.

Shaping futures: A dialogue on chemical engineering education

“…What would it look like, for instance, to incorporate relational approaches to undergraduate curriculum, where ‘problem‐solving’ may shift into ‘listening to and understanding’ community needs and working with them to discover possible interventions? As Liboiron and Cotter pointed out, [ 66 ] how can researchers ‘participate’ with Indigenous groups on various methodologies and frameworks or even co‐authorship and collaborators? The RESEAU Centre for Mobilizing Innovation [ 67 ] is an example of this kind of engagement with Indigenous groups, where water engineering helped to address the issues of clean drinking water on Indigenous reserves.…”