Building Relationships for Meaningful Co-Created Indigenous Climate Education

Abstract

This project involved a multicultural team collaboratively co-creating a climate change module by and for Indigenous people. Embracing the framework of cultural humility, we recognized the bidirectional learning inherent in the project and its role in mitigating power dynamics within the team. This endeavor underscored the significance of transparency, effective communication, respect, reciprocity, trust building, and sensitivity to cultural contexts. Our findings emphasized the need for locally grounded programs that echo local traditional wisdom. We discovered that fostering an environment conducive to active listening and patience is pivotal in establishing a secure space. Our research affirms the equal validity and importance of both Western and Traditional knowledge (TK) systems. Our findings revealed that using a premade university-designed climate change curriculum wasn't effective for Indigenous participants in this study. Instead, we co-created a bottom-up menu-style approach that could be tailored to the instructor's preference and program capabilities.