Indigenous Land, Labour, and an Anticolonial Just Transition

Calls for a just transition have emerged as one of several responses to the Anthropocene. Canada’s just transition policy, the Sustainable Jobs Plan, explicitly calls for the inclusion of Indigenous peoples, but the plan assumes a particular framing of the ecological crisis and appropriate solutions. This framing inhibits the ability of Indigenous to fully participate in defining a sustainable future for their communities and humanity more broadly.

The Tlicho, an Indigenous people in Northern Canada, face a range of compounding challenges, including the impacts of climate change, the environmental and social legacy of mining, and the ongoing effects of colonialism. They are victims of the colonial and industrial processes that have shaped the ecological conditions of the Anthropocene. Despite this, like many other Indigenous groups, they have had limited opportunities to meaningfully participate in defining the Anthropocene or in determining appropriate responses to it.

This paper explores how the Tlicho assert their autonomy during a “just transition,” focusing on community identity and meaning-making as sources of strength. It outlines the lessons learned from the Tlicho context, which can inform anticolonial responses to the Anthropocene. The paper emerges from a commitment to move beyond stereotypes about Indigenous peoples and their relationship to the land, seeking to foster avenues for contextually situated Indigenous definitions of environmental justice.