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Project title

Understanding Climate-Change in the Context of Indigenous-Communities: A Case Study of the Missing-Community of Assam

Primary Funding Agency

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Co-Funding Organisation(s)

n/a

Lead Organisation

Irish Research Council (NUIG)

Lead Applicant

Anouska Tamuli

Project Abstract

Living with the Brahmaputra River for centuries, the Missing people of Assam have shaped their lifeways around the challenges and opportunities of the wetland ecosystem, developing early flood-warning systems, resource management practices, bespoke architecture and social networks. Knowledge of such practices has been transmitted across generations through folk songs, folk tales, proverbs, etc. Originally animists, like many Indigenous peoples, they view Nature as intelligent and communicative; their interactions with it emerging from a place of reverence. Culturally-embedded Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) has served this community and the environment well. Now, however, climate change and government-led flood mitigation measures on the Majuli river island (the case study), based on technological approaches to resource management, are disrupting their ecological and socio-economic equilibrium, endangering their very existence and what they can teach us about living with Nature.9 This study, therefore, looks at the correlation between an ecocentric worldview, embodied by Indigenous peoples, and climate resilience. It will critique the default of favouring technical solutions over TEK; what has been termed ‘epistemic injustice’ (typically when vernacular knowledge is dismissed as worthlessly ‘unscientific’); and analyze the lessons TEK can teach us about mediating our relationship with Nature sustainably. In doing so, it will contribute to the canon of eco-critical literature and projects, such as those supported by UNESCO. This is an inquiry into the contribution Indigenous practices and worldviews can make to climate action against the backdrop of the responsibility of the international community to ensure the survival of Indigenous peoples and their cultures. Contributing to ongoing work on how Indigenous approaches to sustainable living can be harnessed ethically, it will critically evaluate national policies and international conventions affecting the Mising, and how modern approaches to heritage can be applied to raise awareness of the benefits of softer approaches to climate change

Grant Approved

€124,000.00

Research Hub

Addressing Climate Change Evidence Needs

Research Theme

n/a

Start Date

01/09/2024

Initial Projected Completion Date

31/08/2028