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‘Indigenous’ and ‘local’ shouldn’t be conflated: Q&A with Indigenous leader Sara Olsvig

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DUBAI — It was Sara Olsvig’s love of ice that brought her to the desert of Dubai for the 2023 U.N. climate summit, COP28. As an Inuit child growing up in a village in Disko Bay, Greenland, Olsvig would often dogsled and fish on the frozen sea and lakes, so she can tell how much has now changed: The sea ice is often wet and mushy, the air is humid or foggy, and the snow is sticky, making hunting and fishing harder. Although Indigenous peoples’ ways of life are typically the most sustainable, they’re also often the most threatened by climate change — as well as by activities meant to mitigate its impact, such as the mining of minerals for the renewable energy transition. That’s what drives Olsvig, as chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and a leading voice in the Indigenous Peoples’ Caucus at COP28, to push for greater Indigenous participation and recognition of Indigenous rights at climate talks. “Our inclusion in climate policymaking is so important because we have that inherently interconnected worldview on how human beings are a fully integrated part of nature,” she said. “For me [this] has been very clear. I think that just comes from my upbringing and from the culture I’m from.” In the spring, her family would fish through holes in the ice for cod (Gadus morhua), halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) and wolffish (Anarhichas lupus). After the ice broke up, they fished from their boat for Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) and gathered…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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