From Songs, Stories and Language to Political Leadership: Indigenous Youth Hybrid Environmental Knowledge in Northern Rural Governance

Indigenous rural youth often express frustration over their lack of voice, and absence of involvement and power in decision-making processes involving natural resources and more broadly, environmental governance. Moreover, while Indigenous youth in northern communities are expected to engage as future leaders in new forms of action in response to growing environmental concerns, a key problem is that little is known about how youth in rural and isolated communities perceive their natural environment or view their role in sustaining the natural environment for future generations. Currently, little focused research explores the knowledges, that exist and are developing within youth cultures, required to face new social and environmental challenges including resource over-exploitation, climate change, conservation measures, and potential for tourism. I draw upon recent field research in cross cultural youth leadership camps, interviews, and focus groups with Dene youth in the Northwest Territories of Canada where Land Claims are established and Indigenous Self Government is currently underway. I examine the hybrid and blended forms of knowledge that consist of the ways of learning and teachings by elders, family, ‘land’ and broader community sources, and the scientific knowledge gained from the formal institutional education system. In this presentation, I extend post-colonial thinking about hybridity and hybrid forms of knowledge to conceptualize how Indigenous youth within the formal education system understand and utilize their unique knowledge that is simultaneously derived from traditional knowledge and school-based knowledge, in the context of Indigenous co-management of natural resources. For remote rural communities to survive in the face of growing challenges, new technologies and social media are valuable tools used by youth but are not key drivers in environmental knowledge. This research shows how Dene practices and knowledge systems are conceptualized and interwoven in Indigenous youth environmental knowledge, empowering future decision making and strengthening environmental governance.