Working Together as One

Working Together As One is a three-year youth- and community-led climate project, working with four Indigenous communities in Western Canada to identify strengths and risks in addressing the climate crisis. Seven Indigenous youth have joined the VIDEA team to develop climate action plans in their own communities based on Indigenous knowledge and feminist principles.

The team is currently focused on community engagement, resource development, and knowledge- and capacity-building to understand climate risks in each of their four communities, and globally. They are developing resources and communications that take a strength-based approach to understanding climate issues, community engagement, and possible community-driven solutions and funding models.

“Indigenous, Black and other marginalized communities are systemically disadvantaged with the lack of resources, unjust policies, racism, and colonial systems. Making it harder for communities to recover socially, economically, and politically from climate change-related disasters.

BIPOC folxs have been at the frontlines fighting climate change for decades. Yet they are often erased from the climate change narrative and policy creation. To have a sustainable future there needs to be inclusivity in policymaking.”

The team hopes to collaborate and build healthy relationships between Nations that will lead to community success and enhancement. They’re also looking forward to capacity building and learning to communicate about the climate crisis with strength and hope.

“This project is an important step in reestablishing a connection to the land and to other Indigenous youths in our communities. Working Together As One is important because as youth, we have the energy and fresh eyes to take on this world that’s been left with us, but we’re strengthened by the care and ancient wisdom of our ancestors. Indigenous people have been fighting the climate crisis for a long time, and this project opens up a safe space to talk about the climate crisis and what our communities are doing to fight it.”

During International Development Week 2022, Working Together As One launched their podcast, The Land Talks Back:

With great respect for Elders, The Land, and Our cousins, this podcast is ready to speak up! The land is our family, the sky a blanket from the ancestors, the sun and moon are our kin. Why does the Land never get a say in what happens to them? Listening to the old ones and bringing in the youth perspectives we show up, microphones in hand, ready to capture the whispers in the wind, the cries of thunder, and the rage of the ocean. Join this group of Indigenous Youth while they open their ears and listen to the heartbeat of the earth. Maybe you’ll even laugh a little. Maybe a few tears. But you’ll always learn something!

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VIDEA would like to acknowledge the ancestral, traditional and unceded Indigenous territories of the WS’ANEC’ (Saanich), Tsartlip and Tsawout (central Saanich), Lekwungen (Songhees), Wyomilth (Esquimalt) and T’Sou-ke (Sooke) Coast Salish Peoples, on whose territory we work, live and play.