GSSC Seminar Series
28 January 2025
Indigenous Peoples' Knowledge Systems as a Resilience Mechanism against Climate Change: An Interdisciplinary Perspective from the South
Adam Kyomuhendo (University of Cologne)
12:00-13:00
The lecture proposes to examine the pivotal role of Indigenous Peoples’ knowledge systems as a resilience mechanism against climate change, approached through an interdisciplinary framework that draws on political science, law, political economy, cultural studies, and Indigenous environmental humanities. Indigenous epistemologies and ontological systems have for thousands of years provided communities with adaptive strategies for living sustainably within their environments, and these systems offer very important insights for addressing the climate crisis. By analyzing how Indigenous environmental practices intersect with dominant political structures, legal frameworks, and economic systems, the lecture will seek to demonstrate the infinite power/utility of Indigenous Cosmovisions in resisting climate change’s disproportionate effects on vulnerable communities in the Global South generally. It will explore the myriad of ways in which Indigenous Peoples’ ontological systems, everyday lives, governance models, relationships, futures, and cultural values challenge conventional narratives of resource management and the whole concept of development. Furthermore, the lecture will investigate how Indigenous environmental humanities—through storytelling, oral traditions, and spiritual practices—offer highly complex alternative understandings of human-environment relations, offering transformative solutions to contemporary climate challenges. This interdisciplinary approach underscores the urgent need for a rights-based framework that respects Indigenous Peoples’ ingenuity and integrates their knowledge into global climate policies and legal instruments. Ultimately, the lecture advocates for the co-production of knowledge between Indigenous communities and policy institutions, aiming for a more just, equitable, and sustainable future in the face of escalating environmental crises.
Adam Kyomuhendo is a lawyer and advocate of the Supreme Court of Uganda. He has litigated in all Ugandan Courts and at the East African Court of Justice (EACJ). His areas of litigation expertise are climate justice, the rights of indigenous people, children’s rights and heritage law. Among others, he is currently litigating at EACJ to protect a Tentatively-listed UNESCO world heritage site (Kibiro hotsprings / traditional salt manufactures) as well as Bugoma natural forest –the only habitat in the world to the critically-endangered Ugandan Mangabey monkey species. Kyomuhendo is a member of the Uganda Law Society, East Africa Law Society, International Society of Public Law (ICON.S) – as well as IUCN World Commission on Environmental Law where he is specially assigned to the Forests and Climate Change expert thematic committees. He is currently an Alexander von Humboldt International Climate Protection Fellow based at the University of Cologne’s Environmental Law Centre where he is researching on climate justice.