This week on Sea Change Radio, we dig into the archives to hear from someone who works to amplify first people’s voices in the fight for climate justice. We speak with the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Eriel Deranger. We discuss the intersection of the indigenous people’s and the Black Lives Matter movements, take a look at her organization’s climate report, and get an update on the Keystone XL pipeline. Then, we take a breath to learn a bit about ourselves from Bill Plotkin, an author, psychologist and spiritual ecologist. We dive into Plotkin’s teachings, outlined in his book, “The Journey of Soul Initiation,” about moving from adolescence into adulthood (both metaphorically and figuratively), and how we can all evolve as individuals to become better stewards of the planet.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Eriel Deranger (ED) | 00:22 - Biden, who was elected in one of his first executive orders, was to cancel the Keystone XL because he acknowledged its implications to the climate crisis, but also to the fact that these projects were abrogating and violating the rights of indigenous communities.

Narrator | 00:40 - This week on Sea Change Radio, we dig into the archives to hear from someone who works to amplify first people's voices in the fight for climate justice, we speak with the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Eriel Deranger. We discuss the intersection of the indigenous peoples and the Black Lives Matter movements, take a look at her organization's climate report and get an update on the Keystone XL Pipeline. Then we take a breath to learn a bit about ourselves from Bill Plotkin, an author, psychologist, and spiritual ecologist. We dive into Plotkin teachings outlined in his book, “The Journey of Soul Initiation,” about moving from adolescence into adulthood (both metaphorically and figuratively), and how we can all evolve as individuals to become better stewards of the planet.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:45 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Eriel Deranger. She is the Executive Director of Indigenous Climate Action. Eriel, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Eriel Deranger (ED) | 01:56 - Thank you for having me.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:57 - Why don't you first tell us the mission of your organization?

ED | 02:02 - Well, we're Canada's premier and only indigenous led climate justice organization, and our organization was really founded out of a need for indigenous communities to have a central organization that focused on indigenous led climate justice. And our main mandate is to create resources and tools and training for indigenous communities to be leaders in driving indigenous led climate solutions and addressing Canada's climate crisis.

AW | 02:33 - And you have a new indigenous climate policy white paper out that maybe you can summarize and then talk about what you're hoping it turns into?

ED | 02:44 - Yeah, so, you know, some of the, the biggest challenges are is why do we need indigenous led climate solutions? It's a big question. You know, Canada constantly states that the relationship with indigenous communities is one of their highest priorities in the country, yet we're still developing policy and particularly climate policy without the participation of indigenous peoples. And some of the questions sort of from the larger ENGO and government world is, well, what's wrong with the policy? Like, what's wrong with the actual policy that we're creating? And so this critique looks at a how the processes for the development of the Pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change and a healthy environment and healthy economy. The two primary climate policies and plans of the Canadian government excluded, well really investigates whether these plans aim at the root causes of climate change, while also respecting and meaningfully including indigenous peoples and our rights knowledges and approac...