By Jee-Ho Paik
On September 22nd, IISAAK OLAM Foundation’s Eli Enns will be in New York City for the 2019 United Nations Climate Action Summit. The purpose of the Summit is to create urgency for climate action in order to meet the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement. Eli will be speaking along with Greta Thunberg, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Tzeporah Berman. In addition, one of our Climate Action Youth Ambassadors Canada (CAYAC) members, Ta’Kaiya Blaney, will be singing and speaking at the Summit.
Eli hopes to deliver the perspective of Indigenous Elders in Canada who emphasize the idea that the Earth is our Mother. “We ought to learn how to respect her rather than fight against her while she rehabilitates and corrects the imbalance happening in the world,” he says. The issues we think are destroying the Earth are merely symptoms of the root of the problem which is the world view of disconnectedness. Only when phenomena such as climate change, the global economy, and patriarchy are recognized as interconnected can we learn how to respect the Earth’s way of restoring balance into this world. Harmonizing human and ecological systems is the keystone to climate action, and this will be one of the key messages that Eli brings to the Summit.
Ta’Kaiya Blaney (in centre with cedar woven hat) and Eli Enns (behind wearing sunglasses) at the Longhouse Dialogues in Vancouver BC, June 2019 for the #WomenHonourCanoe ceremony.
Photo © IISAAK OLAM Foundation
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