COP26: Meaningful climate action rests on healing our relationship with nature, say indigenous leaders

While world leaders spent their time at COP26 discussing what are widely considered to be disappointing and dangerously inadequate climate outcomes, the recurring message of indigenous leaders was on reminding us of our intrinsic role as guardians of the Earth.

Despite legal recognition in the Paris accords of the important role that indigenous people’s traditional knowledge and way of life could and should play in tackling the current climate crisis, their presence and voices in Glasgow at the United Nations talks was mainly limited to the fringe. But their key message of the importance of healing our relationship with nature, understanding that it is spiritually alive and placing such concepts at the heart of climate discussions, was clear.

Minga Indigena, a coalition of indigenous groups from the Americas, marked their arrival as delegates at the conference with a sacred ceremony. To open proceedings, they asked for permission to do so from the ancestors of this land, before calling on their own ancestors and spirits to help in their forthcoming work of promoting climate and environmental justice.

A sacred fire was lit at the Hidden Garden in Pollokshields on the Southside of Glasgow for the duration of the conference, and on Friday 5 November, young, indigenous delegates from around the world joined the ‘Fridays for Future’ march. They shared the message that, while their people had been Earth guardians for generations, they were now being seriously affected by environmental damage and climate change. As a result, they called for action from governments and anyone supporting the indigenous cause.

The need to change our mind set

As part of this shift, Helena Gualinga, who is a young environmental and human rights activist from the Kichwa Sarayaku community in Ecuador, pointed to the need for a change in mind set from one that exploited nature and people towards one of creating a relationship with them instead. To this end, she recommended giving nature its own legal rights.

Gualinga explained why such a move was important. “We don’t only see that the trees are living but also the rivers, the mountains, the waterfall,” she said. “And by living, we don’t just mean the scientific meaning of something being alive – it is something that has its own spirit, that has its own being.”

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Maori cultural ambassador, healer and teacher Aunty Ivy, who was active on the COP fringe, also said she would like to see us sharing the voice of Mother Earth in ceremony, connecting with the ancestors and using the old ways again.

The idea was to gather together “50% talking and 50% connecting in ceremony. It’s important to connect with Source, connect in with everything that wants to connect in with us. And healing needs to take place as part of the process”, she explained.

“On our way to becoming a true people”

 Someone else who believes that connecting with the old ways is important is international speaker, writer and founder of the Embercombe social enterprise, Mac Macartney. He led a ‘Children’s Fire’ ceremony during the conference to honour a request by his Native American mentors that he help “mend what was broken” and, like them, “rekindle the Children’s Fire” each time leaders gather in council.

Macartney explained the concept: “Every chief that sits in this council will have to make a pledge to the Children’s Fire that no law, no decision, no action, nothing of any kind will be permitted to go out from this circle of chiefs that will harm the children now or ever, both human and non-human”.

During the ceremony, Macartney also cited an indigenous elder who said: “Request of your people that they find their own ceremonies and their own songs and dances and understand themselves to be keepers of their land. We have given you an experience of our indigenous traditions…in the end, you need to look to your own place to find your own ceremonies.”

This recurring message of healing our relationship with nature, making the rights of the land central to discussions around climate justice and weaving sacred ceremony into actions are key concepts behind the work we do at Sacred Earth Activism.

Sacred Earth Activism in action

To this end, I participated in a number of sacred ceremonies in Glasgow to ask our ancestors and the spirits of the land, rivers and trees for support and help in the climate talks to come.

We held the final of the global ‘Acorn to Oaks’ ceremonies in Glasgow, blessing an acorn, which was delivered to the Blue Zone (the UK Pavilion and Action Zone) during the talks. The hope was that this living prayer would grow and flourish during the negotiations.

I also joined the Scottish Interfaith Vigil on 31 October (Samhain) with members of other faiths to represent those following an Earth-centred spiritual path. Here Linda Haggerstone of the Scottish Pagan Federation called on our ancestors and the spirits of the land to help world leaders to listen and to encourage them to “act with wisdom, conscience and compassion for the sake of the Earth and the generations to come”.

To hear more from members of the international environmental justice movement and those at the forefront of sacred activism, register here for our conference entitled ‘Co-Creating the Emerging World’. It takes place this weekend (Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 November), so look forward to seeing you there.