Land Remembers: How Did We Lose Our Balance?

When Janna Wale goes back to her community of Gitanmaax First Nation, she notices the rhythms of the land are out of harmony.

Huckleberries are ripening at different times, and salmon returns are becoming less. In turn, that throws off other plants and animals, making hunting and harvesting more difficult.

Wale — who is also Cree-Métis and works as a policy advisor for the Canadian Climate Institute — says this loss of balance is symptomatic of a wider problem.

“That really is what climate change is, it's a loss of balance,” she says in an interview.

“And that's what the Western management system has been so far — it's just that disconnect from balance.”

Recently, the Assembly of First Nations released its National Climate Strategy, with the aim to respond to the issue of climate change from an Indigenous worldview. 

“First Nations’ knowledge keepers have been raising their voices for decades to share the changes that they are observing: changes in species migration and listings, weather, and irreversible impacts to the land and water, among many others,” says the report.

“Instead of an overreliance on technology and markets, First Nations emphasized how climate solutions must be rooted in a recognition that we must restore balance to our reciprocal relationships Reciprocal RelationshipsIn the face of climate change, Indigenous communities advocate for solutions that go beyond technological and market-based approaches and underscore the profound interconnectedness between humans, the land, water, and more-than-humans, emphasizing a harmonious and balanced coexistence with the environment. with the land, water, and more-than-humans.”

Wale, who holds a Master of Science degree in Sustainability, says Indigenous people are — and have always been — scientists and that knowledge needs to be upheld. 

“There have been a lot of conversations about ‘how do we integrate Indigenous knowledge?’” she says. 

“It's not just an addition to Western science. It's not something to support Western ideology or ontology. It really is science.”

As an example of this, Wale recently wrote about the Gitxsan concept of Naadahahlhakwhlinhl (interconnectedness) and how the 13 Moons of the Gitxsan seasonal round have been shifted as a result of climate change. She ties this into the Gitxsan philosophy wheel and how those values guide people’s interactions with the land.

The 13 moons in the Gitxsan seasonal round are divided into four seasons, she explains, with each moon cycle being named to reflect something happening in nature during that time.

For example, Lasa Maa’y (June) is the Gathering and Preparing Berries Moon, while Lasa ‘Wiigwineekxw (December) is the Severe Snowstorms and Sharp Cold Moon.

She features this moon calendar along with the Gitxsan Wheel of Philosophy, which represents the values of Gitxsan people, with harmony, balance and interconnectedness at the centre. 

“The Indian Act and residential schools restricted, as they did with many Nations, the authority of the Gitxsan people over their community, their governance, and their system of land and resource management,” she writes in the case study for the Canadian Climate Institute. 

“Despite this, the feast systems have persisted, and hereditary governance remains largely intact.”

Wale says this resilience is a key piece when it comes to looking at sustainability and climate change adaptation. She says it’s important to remember that people have agency and can start to act to make things better.

“Our ancestors have gone through so much that, you know, this is just one more thing,” she says.

“It's just about how we approach this in a good way and using those time-tested methods in order to kind of continue to practice that resilience that has already been demonstrated by our ancestors.”

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