KAIROS Climate Action Week to foster decolonization
KAIROS Canada launches its first Climate Action Week, June 5-11, focusing on centering Indigenous ways of knowing
(Toronto – Treaty 13 with the Mississaugas of the Credit) – KAIROS will kick off the first of three 2023 KAIROS Climate Action Weeks, June 5 (World Environment Day) to 11 to galvanize awareness and action on the climate crisis. This week’s theme, Decolonizing Climate Action: Centering Indigenous Ways of Knowing, will permeate through the Week’s resources and online event, Climate Action Dialogues: Indigenous and Global South Perspectives on Just Transition.
KAIROS Climate Action Week, June 5-11, coincides with Canadian Environment Week. Subsequent Climate Action Weeks are September 18-24 and November 13-19, and will be unified by the Decolonizing Climate Action theme. Climate Action Weeks replace KAIROS’ Climate Action Month, which ran every September from 2019-2022 during the Season of Creation, to focus attention on this existential threat throughout the year.
Climate Action Week aims to deepen and advance reconciliation by encouraging discussion and reflection on the interconnection between climate justice and Indigenous self-determination.
During the June Climate Action Week, KAIROS will amplify and prioritize Indigenous and other voices that are too often pushed to the margins of climate discussions. The Week will aim to motivate and inspire a daily practice of climate action, and to nurture personal skills and other gifts in support of climate justice and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples and the land.
Each Climate Action Week will feature an event. On Wednesday, June 7 from noon to 1:30 p.m. EST, KAIROS hosts Climate Action Dialogues: Indigenous and Global South Perspectives on Just Transition. Speakers from Indigenous communities in Canada and the Global South will share values inherent to their communities. During the event, participants will explore how to amplify these values in local climate actions and advocacy with the federal government. Registration is now open.
The theme, Decolonizing Climate Action, continues what KAIROS’ 2022 Climate Action Month began. Each Climate Action Week will explore a topic of decolonization as it relates to climate justice, examine the ongoing effects of colonialism on international and Canadian climate policy, and discuss how we can act to change and reverse these effects.
“Decolonization is more than wider inclusion,” says Beth Lorimer, KAIROS’ Ecological Justice Coordinator. “Decolonizing climate policy aims to change the deeper, systemic factors that cause ecological injustices. Conversations around decolonization require ongoing work and engagement, which KAIROS’ Climate Action Weeks will elevate and amplify.”
About KAIROS: Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives:
KAIROS is a social justice organization that includes ten Canadian churches and religious organizations. We are Indigenous, settlers and newcomers in Canada working with people of faith or conscience all over the world for ecological justice and human rights. We deliberate on issues of common concern, advocate for social change and join with people of faith and goodwill in action for social transformation. Learn more: KAIROS Canada website.
Media Contact:
Cheryl McNamara, Media Coordinator, KAIROS Canada
416-875-0097 (mobile), cmcnamara@kairoscanada.org
