Technology pension
Climate change has long been impacting Indigenous communities disproportionately compared to the rest of society. Still, they are still excluded from mainstream climate discourse not incidentally but based on symptoms of a longer pattern in marginalization rooted in colonial eras (Pulido, 2018). However, Indigenous communities cannot be simplified and portrayed as mere case studies or passive victims of climate change.
Across the world, Indigenous communities continue to resist, adapt, and survive despite being on the frontlines of damage. Now, as the impacts are becoming more severe, the previously analog communities are collaborating with science and technology, creating an even more powerful tool for climate adaptation. Hence, we must actively seek ways to integrate the Indigenous traditional ecological knowledge with modern science and technology. Doing so, we can build a more resilient society in the face of climate escalation and give rightful recognition to the contributions and leadership of Indigenous communities.
The Historical Neglect of Indigenous Communities
Numerous examples show that Indigenous communities have undergone a consistent pattern of neglect from governments and relevant authorities. These patterns cannot be understood without linking back to global structures of power, dating to colonial histories. As Pulido (2018) argues, the geography of climate vulnerability reflects colonial ideologies embedded in the trajectory of human development.
She illustrates this by highlighting the imbalance in climate consequences saying “those who will merely be inconvenienced, and those who will die” (Ross, 2011; Pulido, 2018). Despite facing the worst effects of rising temperatures and ecological degradation, Indigenous communities are not the ones who caused the crisis. Their historically positioned vulnerability is not incidental as the land they inhabit is repeatedly treated as disposable, while their lives are ignored in global climate negotiations (Pulido, 2018).
Even on local scales, programs that are supposedly accessible to all often fail these communities due to limited infrastructure, high transportation costs, and insufficient number of personnel (Smith and Rhiney, 2016). These are not isolated cases of underdevelopment but structural symptoms of deliberate historical neglect.
Ways of Adaptation: Case Study of the Haenyeos and the Inuit
Yet, Indigenous communities have not remained static. They are adapting in ways that challenge the false dichotomy between tradition and progress, incorporating science and technology to meet modern challenges. For instance, take the Haenyeo, the female free divers of Jeju Island, South Korea. For generations, Haenyeos have harvested marine life while holding their breath using ecological knowledge learned through experience. However, climate change has upended their environment.
Rising ocean temperatures, acidification, and the consequential declining marine species have polluted the ocean and depleted marine biodiversity, threatening their livelihoods. It was the Haenyeo’s persistence in using traditional methods that led them to meet threats in the face of rapid changes. In response, they have begun integrating traditional ecological knowledge with modern tools for their jobs. The Royal Geographical Society communicates such recent shift to digitize Haenyeo knowledge systems, creating a system that enables broader ecological monitoring and marine biodiversity research (“Haenyeo Voices: Harmonising Traditional Knowledge with Ecological Monitoring on Jeju Island Reefs.”).
Some Haenyeos even participate in citizen science projects, contributing firsthand observations on marine life and temperature changes while adopting digital tools to track ocean conditions (Henderson, 2023). These actions demonstrate the successful way the Haenyeos have merged tradition and technology to adapt to the changing climate. Thus, far from abandoning the heritage, they are evolving it with the help of science and technology.
A parallel case can be seen among the Inuit hunting communities across Arctic Canada and Greenland. These communities have been facing melting ice and unpredictable weather, making traditional hunting routes unsafe and unreliable. Rather than surrendering to these climate disasters, the Inuit communities have developed tools that blend long-standing environmental knowledge with emerging technologies such as the SIKU (after the Inuktitut word for “sea ice”) platform—a mobile application designed by the indigenous themselves that enables hunters to track ice conditions, document migration patterns, and share real-time data using GPS and satellite imagery (Hoag, 2024).
These technologies do not replace tradition but transform the orally transmitted knowledge into collective, accessible data. The Inuit are hence using their intergenerational, land-based knowledge to improve safety and adaptability in the increasingly unpredictable situations. Their use of technology is challenging the notion that tradition is a barrier to innovation and demonstrating a successful case of foundation for adaptive transformation.
Together, these examples highlight the importance of valuing historical, experiential knowledge in climate adaptation. They show how we can transform this information using science and technology in order to make the most out of such historical knowledge accumulated over the years. Rather than framing Indigenous knowledge systems as obsolete, these cases exemplify how these communities adapt to address modern crises. The Haenyeo and Inuit communities are model examples of climate adaptation that respect continuity through preservation while remaining open to innovation. This is redefining resilience as not just the ability to endure challenges, but the flexibility to transform.
Implications for the Future
Yet, these methods still hold limitations and challenges. Many Indigenous communities face systemic barriers that hinder making these adaptive moves such as lack of funding and exclusion from national research agendas (Smith and Rhiney, 2016). These barriers often limit the scale and sustainability of their solutions, restricting them to isolated case studies rather than being implemented and spread as broader policies. To truly integrate these Indigenous communities’ innovative systems into climate solutions and make an outcome benefitting all, governments and institutions must first invest in researching such systems and then finding affected communities where they can be implemented.
Some successful efforts already exist. In Australia, The West Arnhem Land Fire Abatement (WALFA) model is one way the government has brought indigenous traditions of early dry-season burning into national efforts to mitigate carbon emissions. These programs, supported by the government and relevant technologies, have effectively reduced greenhouse gas emissions by over 1.2 million tonnes annually while creating employment opportunities for local communities (Nikolakis et al, 2022).
The WALFA program has successfully spread to over 70 savanna-burning projects across northern Australia, integrating into the national policy under the Carbon Farming initiative (Ansell et al, 2019). This initiative exemplifies what meaningful integration looks like where Indigenous communities lead and supply their knowledge to design, implement and share the benefits of their historical knowledge while collaborating with scientific industries monitoring and validating such practices. Through such efforts for collaboration, these communities can create stories of adaptation where they are acknowledged and supported.
What is needed now is the fundamental reframing of Indigenous communities as partners, not recipients, in climate governance. This means going beyond symbolic inclusion or selective funding but truly recognizing Indigenous knowledge systems recognized as equally legitimate with institutional science . For too long, environmental policy has been dictated by top-down mandates from such firms that impose one-size-fits-all solutions that do not align with local realities, hence reinforcing marginalization of indigenous communities.
Instead, climate governance must be grounded in reciprocal relationships, listening to different community needs while investing in the development of Indigenous knowledge and equitably sharing benefits. Hence, by acknowledging its significance through widespread application in collaboration with modern technology allows for development to progress in a way that gives the Indigenous community the recognition they deserve. As the climate crisis intensifies, the strategies that emerge from Indigenous resistance proves itself as meaningful especially because of how focused the consequences are on these communities. The single fact that they overcame such severe challenges makes their methods worth studying. They remind us that resilience is not a new invention, but something that has been practiced and passed down across generations. The challenge now lies not in discovering new solutions, but in willingness to listen.
By: Haedam Lee
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