Climate action means 'reconnection,' say participants in Yukon First Nations fellowship

A group of young Indigenous people from the Yukon has created an interactive website they hope will encourage a radical rethink of the climate crisis and how to tackle it.

"It's not a website that you're just going to go through and quickly skim through," said Carissa Waugh, one of the creators. "There's recordings on there, there's stories on there, there's a lot of visuals on there."

The website was created by 13 young representatives from First Nations across Yukon and Northern B.C. who participated in the First Nations Climate Action Fellowship.

In February 2020, Yukon First Nations signed a climate change emergency declaration and called for an action plan to be led by youth, and for it to come from an Indigenous world view.

That led to the creation of the fellowship and now, after two years of work that involved healing, introspection, exploration of identity and culture — and how all of that intersects with climate action — the plan, in the form of the interactive website, is complete.

"We want everybody to be a part of it and with this website, you can be a part of what we've been doing," said Waugh.

Waugh and her peers are calling their work a "Reconnection Vision," and rather than a typical policy document, they say it's a guiding philosophy and toolkit that identifies disconnection as the root of the climate crisis, as well as the mental health crisis affecting many communities.

They say the work of "reconnecting" is climate action, that it's about healing and being in harmony with oneself, the community and the land.

Building on the historic 1973 Yukon land claims document Together Today for Our Children Tomorrow, the group is calling itself "the children of tomorrow" and says the Reconnection Vision can be a guiding philosophy for Yukon First Nations for the next 50 years.

"We really see this pathway where we can return to balance, return to harmony, return to circular thinking, to community," said Jocelyn Joe-Strack, Indigenous Knowledge Research Chair at Yukon University.

She supported the group and watched the participants bond over the last two years. Joe-Strack says their work has taken a different approach and pushed back against dominant culture.

"In typical climate plans, you know, you see things around greenhouse gases and reducing emissions, but we really recognize the climate crisis and the mental health crisis ... the root cause of it being our state of disconnection," she said.

According to the Reconnection Vision, "the imbalance of the land reflects the imbalance within ourselves."

Joe-Strack says the time spent together creating the vision was sacred, and doing the work of reconnection is not always pretty.

"There's a real intensity to it. It's challenging to heal in today's world and there are aspects of our society, our institutions that actively disconnect us and prevent us from being whole, from reconnection, from being in good relationship with each other," she said.

For organizations, governments and institutions wanting follow this vision, she says, there is work to do.

"Think about your role in perpetuating the barriers to reconnection and thinking about the state and the norm of disconnection in the work culture and in your community's culture, and what we can do to make space and just explore."

For fellow Nika Silverfox-Young, the process of coming together to create the plan has been an emotional journey and one that has allowed her to grow.

"I'm reconnecting to my language, to my home community, my lands," she said.

"It's just been unconditional love and support, I just want as many youth to feel what we feel."

Both Silverfox-Young and Waugh say the connection and strength they've gained from being involved in the fellowship has been life-changing.

They hope as more people come to understand the vision, that support and connection will spread and lead to healthier individuals, communities, and land.

"Our youth are ready, they're ready for the change and we are ready to help them along that journey," says Waugh.

Silverfox-Young adds she thinks the vision will change a lot of perspectives and "hopefully garnish us a little army of reconnection soldiers."

"We are all going to be ancestors one day, leading our people through change, in a good way."