'Delicate balance' needed between Indigenous and western approaches to climate change, researcher says

As a province-wide heat wave continues and health officials warn about the health effects of dangerously high temperatures, Western University researcher Nicole Redvers draws strength from elders who have taught her about hope for the planet. 

"We need to recognize that there's a great need for more focus on Indigenous voices within the conversation about planetary health and how we move forward in a good way," Redvers, an associate professor in epidemiology and biostatistics and director of Indigenous Planetary Health at Western University.  

"There are already many changes and impacts we're seeing and hearing from elders."

We are completely and fundamentally interconnected to the land around us- Nicole Redvers

Redvers's research and teaching is part of a move by Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry to include climate change in health education, and to get students to address the causes of health problems rather than just treating them. She approaches her research using the "Two-Eyed Seeing Approach," coined by Mi'kmaq Elder Albert Marshall. It entails looking at issues from the dual perspectives of Indigenous and western knowledge. 

As Canadians celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day on Thursday, Redvers spoke to CBC News about how Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by climate change — making up five per cent of the world's population but safeguarding 80 per cent of the earth's biodiversity, according to the United Nations. 

'Delicate balance'

Longer and more volatile wildfire seasons, changes in the quality of the forest, including drought and dryness, traditional foods such as berries and plants for medicines growing at different times of the year, and changes to hunting options, have all been seen by elders and community members, Redvers said. 

"It's a delicate balance in the world when you're an Indigenous person schooled within Western ways of knowing and trying to balance that with the Indigenous knowledge and teachings," she said. "We have to acknowledge that there are many different kinds of knowledge bundles or knowledge expertise, and we need to bring in the strengths from both perspectives." 

Locally, Indigenous communities have partnered to work together to stop invasive species from spreading and choking biodiversity, and teenagers are learning about the river in an effort to map and protect the waterway. 

Redvers grew up in the Northwest Territories, part of the Deninu Kųę First Nation

She has seen the hunting and harvesting seasons shift and become unpredictable because of climate change, and she wants young people to remember they have a responsibility to understand and impact the planet. She also wants medical students to know understand that planetary health is tied to human health. 

"A lot of people are quite surprised to hear that health care, if it were its own country, would be the fifth-largest carbon emitter on the planet. It emits double the amount of carbon as the aviation industry," Redvers said.

"Not only that but students need to understand the effects of climate change on human health. It's going to be future physicians and health professionals that will bear the burden of that responsibility as we start to see new and progressive issues that weren't there before affecting the health and well-being of of not only Canadians, but those around the world." 

Health systems and medical professionals have to climate change and adapt their practice to it, she said.  And be prepared for that as as medical professionals, including having our health systems prepared for the effects of climate change is going to be integral to ensure our adaptation for future changes.

"We are completely and fundamentally interconnected to the land around us," she said. "If the water and land are not healthy, we are not healthy."