4. Natural Ecology Meets Media Ecology: Indigenous Climate Change Activists’ Views on Nature and Media

This chapter presents an analysis of interviews with activists working to highlight Indigenous perspectives on climate change and the threat climate change poses to many Indigenous communities. The authors begin by distinguishing between Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) and Western scientific approaches to climate change. It then presents and discusses media ecology theories. Three aspects of media ecologies are particularly noted: how mainstream and alternative media work separately and relate to each other; how national and local media work separately and relate to each other; and how non-Indigenous and Indigenous media work separately and relate to each other. This theoretical discussion provides a framework for the analysis of interviews conducted with Indigenous activists. The chapter includes extensive quotes from the open-ended interviews. Interviewees describe the limitations of a national news ecology dominated by mainstream media, which rarely makes room for indigenous perspectives or knowledge of climate change. They also comment on the ways in which their own media practices, situated within diverse news ecologies, attempt to create dialogue and generate awareness of these issues. The activists call for further integration of TEK perspectives into the existing news media ecosystem. The authors conclude that these changes are needed to establish a more democratic and effective means of addressing climate change.