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Old ways for new days: Australian Indigenous peoples and climate change
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Old ways for new days: Australian Indigenous peoples and climate change

Melissa Nursey-Bray, R. Palmer, T. F. Smith and P. Rist
Local environment, Vol.24(5), pp.473-486
04/05/2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2019.1590325
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Published (Version of record) Open CC BY-NC-ND V4.0
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Old ways for new daysView
Published (Version of record) Open CC BY-NC-ND V4.0

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Abstract

Adaptation agency Australia climate change Indigenous
This paper explores how Australia's Indigenous peoples understand and respond to climate change impacts on their traditional land and seas. Our results show that: (i) Indigenous peoples are observing modifications to their country due to climate change, and are doing so in both ancient and colonial time scales; (ii) the ways that climate change terminology is discursively understood and used is fundamental to achieving deep engagement and effective adaptive governance; (iii) Indigenous peoples in Australia exhibit a high level of agency via diverse approaches to climate adaptation; and (iv) humour is perceived as an important cultural component of engagement about climate change and adaptation. However, wider governance regimes consistently attempt to "upscale" Indigenous initiatives into their own culturally governed frameworks - or ignore them totally as they "don't fit" within neoliberal policy regimes. We argue that an opportunity exists to acknowledge the ways in which Indigenous peoples are agents of their own change, and to support the strategic localism of Indigenous adaptation approaches through tailored and place-based adaptation for traditional country.

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