Designing Resistance: Evidentiary Tools for Indigenous Struggles Against Green Colonialism

The pursuit of ‘green’ futures by governments and industries creates grave risks for Indigenous communities – and the more-than-human lifeworlds they steward. This ‘green colonialism’ overrides indigenous sovereignty in its towards energy transitions. Overcoming this absence requires tools that enable Indigenous groups and allies to challenge the assumptions upon which such green energy futures are predicated. This project addresses the critical need for a ‘just transition’ which acknowledges and works to undo the environmental and social conditions shaped by histories and ongoing legacies of settler-colonialism. This environmental injustice persists under contemporary postcolonial regimes; today’s ‘green’ energy transitions risk perpetuating extractive practices whilst making claims to environmental stewardship. This proposal challenges the limited scope of two such initiatives – a major ‘green hydrogen’ project in Namibia, and mining in Canada – by foregrounding Indigenous knowledge and jurisdiction and developing hands-on tools for communities resisting environmental threats. Through co-design, our aim is to support 'just' climate futures for all. Two antipodal geographies have been identified as primary case studies: Nama land in Namibia, and the Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario, Canada. In both contexts, multi-national corporations and state actors advance ‘green’ energy developments on Indigenous land but without Indigenous consent and without acknowledging the ecological lifeworlds they threaten and plan to exploit. Through these case studies, we will make visible often-erased histories of Indigenous land management practices and propose innovative methodologies for resisting ‘green colonialism’. The Namibia case focuses on legacies of German colonialism, specifically environmental and cultural impacts on Indigenous lands. By documenting the transformation of these landscapes over time, we will evidence Indigenous presence and stewardship, which is now threatened by ‘green hydrogen’ development. We will build upon existing research by Forensic Architecture regarding the Nama and Ovaherero genocide of 1904-8, including sites of cultural and historical significance threatened by a port expansion linked to a ‘green hydrogen rush’. We seek to influence national discourse around heritage preservation, raising awareness of the region’s cultural and environmental importance. In Canada, our project will trace the ancestral connections between Neskantaga communities and their homelands in the boreal peatlands of Treaty No.9. Combining advanced technological methods and traditional knowledge practices including land-based teaching, this case study will assert Indigenous jurisdiction in relation to lands and waters slated for metal mining projects and their associated extractive infrastructures. Data visualization tools will assess potential impacts of the proposed developments and integrate with legal analyses of cumulative impacts to Treaty rights, ensuring that community decision-making is based in the community’s own Anishinaabe legal order and any consent is freely given and transparently informed. The project will aid Indigenous communities in responding to imminent environmental risks, advancing their perspectives and asserting sovereignty claims over lands that have historically nurtured and sustained them, contributing to debates around colonial reparations, and emphasizing that ‘just’ transitions must include Indigenous perspectives and jurisdiction at their core. We will document endangered ecologies and future threats through videos, reports, and public programming, centering Indigenous practices, more-than-human relations, and poly-perspectival modes of ecological sensing, generating new insights into debates unfolding in the environmental humanities around energy geographies. The tools we will develop will support Indigenous-led activism, helping communities assert their rights, and contribute to more just energy futures.