Mining and Climate Change Vulnerability: A Case Study of the Tłı̨chǫ

• Author / Creator

  Schmaus, Lucas

• Indigenous self-determination in the Canadian North has and continues to be limited by the extractive and disempowering political economy of the mining industry. This thesis reports a community-based participatory research study which evaluates the perceptions of a sample of residents a group of northern Indigenous communities to the combined impacts of extractive resource development and climate change through individual semi-structured interviews with mine workers, Elders, and local government officials. The Tłı̨chǫ, Dene peoples residing in the Northwest Territories have built capacities, but self-determination continues to be challenged by historical and ongoing colonialism, including the unequal recognition of Indigenous rights, the social and environmental impacts of industrial development and most recently, the impacts of climate change. Taking a political economy focussed approach to vulnerability, this research finds that for the Tłı̨chǫ, self-determination continues to be limited by the impacts of industrial development, which structurally limits the political and financial capacities of Tłı̨chǫ people and thereby increases the pressures of assimilation and cultural erasure. Critically, industrial development remains fundamentally colonial as it demands ongoing access to Indigenous lands and resources. Ongoing colonialism and socioeconomic marginalization in turn exacerbates vulnerability to climate change. Yet, despite the paternalistic relationship between the state of Canada and the Tłı̨chǫ, they have revitalized their culture and made strides towards self-determination. Despite lacking many of the traditional capacities associated with climate resilience, the Tłı̨chǫ have unique strengths that may facilitate adaptivity.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Climate Change
  • Resource Extraction
  • Indigenous
  • Adaptation
  • Self Determination
  • Resilience
  • Socioecological Systems
  • Vulnerability

• Graduation date

  Fall 2023

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-0wdc-pz27

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.