Degrowth in a settler state: climate-just economic transitions and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada

Abstract

Degrowth offers pathways to stay within ecological limits while increasing human and planetary wellbeing. As non-indigenous scholars living in the settler state of Canada we see a gap in the degrowth literature regarding degrowth transitions within settler societies, as much of it comes out of a European context. In this paper, we analyze three political commitments that Canada has signed - the Calls to Action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), the Paris Climate Agreement and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,- to explore how a degrowth transition may help us move forward together on the path of Reconciliation with (and decolonization of) First Nations, Metis and Inuit Peoples (Indigenous Peoples). We do this by searching for interconnections between Canada's current obligations towards Reconciliation and three pillars of degrowth thought: ecological limits and Reconciliation with the land; autonomy and Indigenous sovereignty; and alternative views of ‘the good life’. We offer an exploration of these interconnections to open up ways to ground degrowth transitions in reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples. Our aim is to encourage and challenge the ecological economics and degrowth communities to engage with pluralistic and decolonial imaginaries in settler societies specifically.