Rethinking and Relearning Disaster Adaptations from and within Indigenous Land-Based Perspectives

This book offers a critical exploration into Indigenous knowledge systems, particularly focusing on Indigenous land-based knowledge and practice in reshaping disaster adaptations.

Drawing from Indigenous communities in Bangladesh, this book challenges transformational approaches to disaster resilience by centering on land-based perspectives intrinsic to Indigenous cultures. The book showcases how Indigenous and land-based minority communities in Bangladesh have historically coped with and adapted to environmental challenges. It navigates beyond the Eurocentric paradigm, acknowledging the richness of traditional Indigenous land-based knowledge and practice embedded in the relationship between Indigenous peoples, land-based minority communities, and their natural environments. The book focuses on the interconnectedness of Indigenous land-based knowledge, culture, and sustainable practices, providing a blueprint for rethinking contemporary disaster adaptation strategies. By relearning from Indigenous land-based perspectives, readers gain invaluable insights into holistic, community-based approaches prioritizing harmony with nature over technological fixes. Through Indigenist, decolonial, relational, and feminist theoretical research frameworks, the book advocates for a paradigm shift in disaster management, emphasizing the importance of respecting and integrating Indigenous land-based solutions.

Rethinking and Relearning Disaster Adaptations from and within Indigenous Land-Based Perspectives emerges as a crucial resource for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking to foster resilience through a more inclusive and culturally sensitive lens.

Ranjan Datta is Canada Research Chair in Community Disaster Research at Indigenous Studies, Department of Humanities, Mount Royal University, Calgary. Alberta, Canada. Dr. Datta's current research interests include advocating for Indigenous land-rights, Indigenous community disaster research, community resiliency on climate change, community-based participatory action research, decolonization, and Indigenous reconciliation. Dr. Datta published 97 peer-reviewed publications, four books, and six edited books on responsibilities on decolonization, cross-cultural perspectives on reconciliation, Indigenous water, Indigenous climate change, anti-racist perspectives on climate change, and environmental sustainability issues. Dr. Datta has developed a strong understanding of decolonial and Indigenist research frameworks in his 17 years conducting research with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Canada, USA, Africa, Europe, and South Asia. He is strongly committed to and passionate about Indigenous environmental sustainability, reconciliation, environmental management, Indigenous land rights, anti-racist theory and practice, decolonization, social and environmental justice, community gardens, and cross-cultural research methodology and methods.

Margot Hurlbert is a Professor and Canada Research Chair, Tier 1, Climate Change, Energy, and Sustainability Policy of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. She explores the gap between what is needed to address climate change and current policy and behavior. Margot’s scholarship concerns climate change adaptation and mitigation, energy, Indigenous peoples, water, droughts, floods, water governance, and sustainability. Margot has authored IPCC AR6 and Special Reports and was a member of Future Earth’s Earth Commission Working Group on Transformations (2019-2022). She is an expert panel member on “Adaptation” for the Canadian Climate Institute and an Expert with the Canadian Climate Law Initiative.

Arifatul Kibria is a feminist scholar who actively supports and promotes the rights and interests of marginalized and disadvantaged communities. She aims to amplify the voices of Indigenous and minority communities through an educational framework that incorporates decolonial and Indigenist perspectives. She holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at American International University-Bangladesh. She has a diverse range of academic interests, which encompass sociological theories, gender studies, governance, social change and mobility, migration, and climate change. In 2002 and 2001, respectively, she obtained her Master of Social Sciences (MSS) and Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSS) degrees in sociology from the University of Dhaka. In 2011, she earned her PhD in social structure, stratification, and inequality from the Department of Sociology at Renmin University of China.

Rajmoni Singha is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology, at North South University, Bangladesh. Dr. Singha earned his PhD in anthropological research focusing on Manipuri weavers and their challenges in Bangladesh at Charles Darwin University in Australia and Master’s degree in Master of Development Practice (MDP) from James Cook University, Australia. Singha’s broad research areas are anthropological research, contemporary development challenges, qualitative research methods in social sciences, health and environment, climate change and health, Indigenous knowledge and environmental management, and ethnicity and identity studies.

Barsha Kairy is a Master's Student at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. She holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Education from the University of Dhaka and has worked with various organizations. She has a passion for Social Science and has pursued a second Master's in Development Studies. She currently works in the development sector, focusing on research on Indigenous communities, gender, disaster resilience, climate change, gender, and public policy. Her goal is to dedicate herself to academia for better service.

Somashree Chattapadhya is a Master's Student at the Natural Resource Institute (NRI) at the University of Manitoba, Canada. Her research focuses on community empowerment through addressing climate change, water and sanitation, agriculture, etc. She is passionate about working with Indigenous and minority communities as she believes in changing the community through her work. She works for Water.org as a Program Manager, providing household-level solutions for accessing water and sanitation, especially in climate-vulnerable areas. She is interested in exploring the gender aspect of climate change, water resource management, Indigenous land-based studies, etc. She completed her master’s degree in environmental economics as a second topper from the University of Dhaka in 2015.