Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Climate Change

Abstract

Parker et al. describe indigenous peoples as being resilient in meeting past challenges to their world views and lifeways. Utilising ‘traditional strengths’ (Parker et al. Climate Change and Pacific Rim Indigenous Nations. Washington, DC: Northwest Indian Applied Research Institute (NIARI), The Evergreen State College, Olympia, 2016, 12) makes them well placed to meet the new challenge from climate change head-on. The IPCC called for including indigenous knowledge (IK) to underpin adaptation. This chapter discusses IK, traditional ecological knowledge, and the A/NZ indigenous framework, Mātauraka Māori. The origin stories of how the land and sea became interlinked with people and the way people have worked with the environment for mutually beneficial outcomes will be analysed. The way IK frameworks work through a system of relationships will be expanded here to further support the notion that mitigation and adaptation cannot be thought of as separate events.