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Description
The What is a Climate Imaginary? research feature provides teachers with background information and climate research on how the Gitga’at Nation in British Columbia understands and responds to climate change. This resource highlights the importance of reciprocal relationships with the land, traditional knowledge systems, and cultural resilience. It presents the Gitga’at Nation’s climate imaginary—Turning to the Territory—which emphasizes the deep connection between people, non-human species, and place, and how these relationships shape their approach to climate adaptation.
The resource discusses research conducted by Dr. Natalie Ban and Kim-Ly Thompson, who worked in partnership with the Gitga’at Nation to explore how Indigenous and settler climate imaginaries can coexist. It encourages students and educators to reflect on different ways of knowing, including Indigenous worldviews and practices like Netukulimk, to guide environmental action.
Students will:
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build a model biosphere to explore the relationships between living and non-living components of ecosystems
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analyze how Indigenous knowledge systems inform climate resilience and environmental stewardship
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work in groups to design a biosphere based on a local ecosystem, incorporating principles of sustainability and balance
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reflect on the role of reciprocity in environmental practices and how it applies to their own communities
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explore the concept of climate imaginaries and how different worldviews shape responses to climate change
The resource provides a hands-on activity to enhance learning about ecosystems and Indigenous perspectives, background on the researchers involved in the study, discussion questions, and opportunities for future reflection and inquiry.
General Assessment
Recommendation of how and where to use it
This resource is part of a collection of lessons which bring local climate change research into the classroom. The research features enable teachers to integrate climate change into their classrooms through fun, engaging and accessible research topics.
Discover Our Climate research features are relevant to Atlantic Canada and include curriculum-based learning activities designed for grades seven to twelve. Each feature encourages students to be curious and create solutions for the on-going climate challenges we face.
Relevant Curriculum Units
The following tool will allow you to explore the relevant curriculum matches for this resource. To start, select a province listed below.
- Step 1Select a province
- Alberta
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Interactions and Ecosystems
- Grade 10
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 10-4 (Knowledge and Employability Science): Investigating Matter and Energy in Environmental Systems
- Science 14:Investigating Matter and Energy in the Environment
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Indigenous Studies
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Aboriginal Studies 30: Aboriginal World Issues
- British Columbia
- Manitoba
- New Brunswick
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 7 Earth Surface Processes: Learning and Living Sustainably
- Science 7 Earth Surface Processes: Scientific Literacy
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Indigenous Studies
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Indigenous Studies 120: Worldview
- Newfoundland & Labrador
- Northwest Territories
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 7: Earth and its climate have changed over geological time
- Grade 9
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 9: The biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere are interconnected, as matter cycles and energy flows through them.
- Nova Scotia
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- Grade 8
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 8: Climate Change
- Grade 10
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 10: Sustainability of Ecosystems
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Indigenous Studies
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Netukulimk 12: Interconnectiveness in Mi'kma'ki
- Netukulimk 12: Living Netukulimk
- Nunavut
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Interactions and Ecosystems
- Grade 8
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Interactions in Our Environment
- Grade 10
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science 10-4 (Knowledge and Employability Science): Investigating Matter and Energy in Environmental Systems
- Science 14: Investigating Matter and Energy in the Environment
- Ontario
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Life Systems: Interactions in the Environment
- STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 8
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- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- STEM Skills and Connections
- Grade 9
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- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- :Biology: Sustainable Ecosystems
- Grade 10
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- Science
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Science (Academic):Earth and Space Science: Climate Change
- Grade 12
- Step 3Select a subject
- Indigenous Studies
- Step 4Relevant matches
- Contemporary Indigenous Issues and Perspectives in a Global Context, (Univ./College prep.): Indigenous Peoples and Perspectives
- Prince Edward Island
- Quebec
- Step 2Select a grade level
- Grade 7
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- The Earth and Space
- The Living World
- Grade 8
- Step 3Select a subject
- Science & Technology
- Step 4Relevant matches
- The Earth and Space
- The Living World
- Saskatchewan
- Yukon Territory
Themes Addressed
Air, Atmosphere & Climate (1)
- Climate Change
Ecosystems (1)
- Appreciating the Natural World
Indigenous Knowledge (3)
- Etuaptmumk/Two-Eyed Seeing
- Rituals, Spirituality and Worldviews
- TEK -- Traditional Ecological Knowledge