Editing IPCC:AR6/WGII/Chapter-11 (section)

=== 11.4.1 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia ===

<div id="h2-16-siblings" class="h2-siblings"></div>

The highly diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia have survived and adapted to climate changes such as sea level rise (SLR) and extreme rainfall variability during the late Pleistocene era, through intimate place-based Indigenous knowledge in practice and while losing traditional land and sea country ownership ( [[#Liedloff--2013|Liedloff et al., 2013]] ) (Cross-Chapter Box INDIG in Chapter 18) including during the Late Pleistocene era ( [[#Golding--2009|Golding and Campbell, 2009]] ; [[#Nunn--2016|Nunn and Reid, 2016]] ). They belong to the world’s oldest living cultures, continually resident in their own ancestral lands, or ‘country’, for over 65,000 years ( [[#Kingsley--2013|Kingsley et al., 2013]] ; [[#Marmion--2014|Marmion et al., 2014]] ; [[#Nagle--2017|Nagle et al., 2017]] ; [[#Tobler--2017|Tobler et al., 2017]] ; [[#Nursey-Bray--2018|Nursey-Bray and Palmer, 2018]] ). The majority of the Australian Indigenous Peoples live in urban areas in southern and eastern Australia, but are the predominant population in remote areas.

Climate-related impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, countries (traditional estates) and cultures have been observed across Australia and are pervasive, complex and compounding ( ''high confidence'' ) ( [[#Green--2009|Green et al., 2009]] ) (11.5.1), for example, the loss of biocultural diversity, nutritional changes through the availability of traditional foods and forced diet change, water security and loss of land and cultural resources through erosion and SLR (Table 11.10) ( [[#TSRA--2018|TSRA, 2018]] ). Moreover, these impacts are being experienced now particularly in low-lying geographical areas—especially in the Torres Strait Islands ( [[#Mosby--2012|Mosby, 2012]] ; Kelly, 2014; Murphy, 2019; [[#Hall--2021|Hall et al., 2021]] ). Estimates of the loss from fire impacts on ecosystem services that contribute to the well-being of remotely located Indigenous Australians were found to be higher than the financial impacts from the same fires on pastoral and conservation lands ( [[#Sangha--2020|Sangha et al., 2020]] ) and could increase with both financial and non-financial impacts (Box 11.1).

'''Table 11.10 |''' Climate-related impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, country and cultures.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Impacts

! Implications

|-
| Loss of biocultural diversity (land, water and sky) ( ''medium confidence'' )

| Healthy country is critical to Indigenous Australians’ livelihoods, caring for country responsibilities, health and well-being. Damage to land can magnify the loss of spiritual connection to land from dispossession from traditional country and leads to disruption of cultural structures. Climate change impacts can exacerbate and/or accelerate existing threats of habitat degradation and biodiversity loss and create challenges for traditional stewardship of landscapes ( [[#Mackey--2015|Mackey and Claudie, 2015]] )

|-
| Climate-driven loss of native title and other customary lands ( ''medium confidence'' )

| Traditional coastal lands lost through erosion and rising sea level, with associated mental health implications from loss of cultural and traditional artefacts and landscapes, including the destruction and exhumation of ancestral graves and burial grounds. This is also occurring and predicted to intensify in the low-lying islands of the Torres Strait ( [[#TSRA--2018|TSRA, 2018]] ; [[#Hall--2021|Hall et al., 2021]] ) and was also noted during the extreme bushfires in Eastern Australia in late 2019 and early 2020.

|-
| Changing availability of traditional foods and forced diet change ( ''medium confidence'' )

| Human health impacts can be exacerbated by climate change through the changing availability of traditional foods and medicines, while outages and the high costs of electricity can limit the storage of fresh food and medication ( [[#Kingsley--2013|Kingsley et al., 2013]] ; [[#Spurway--2016|Spurway and Soldatic, 2016]] ; [[#Hall--2020|Hall and Crosby, 2020]] )

|-
| Changing climatic conditions for subsistence food harvesting ( ''medium confidence'' )

| Climate-change-induced SLR and saltwater intrusion can limit the capacity for traditional Indigenous floodplain pastoralism and affect food security, access to and affordability of healthy, nutritional food ( [[#Ligtermoet--2016|Ligtermoet, 2016]] ; [[#Spurway--2016|Spurway and Soldatic, 2016]] )

|-
| Extreme weather events triggering disasters ( ''high confidence'' )

| Increasing frequency or intensity of extreme weather events (floods, droughts, cyclones, heatwaves) can cause disaster responses in remote communities, including infrastructure damage of essential water and energy systems and health facilities ( [[#TSRA--2018|TSRA, 2018]] ; [[#Hall--2020|Hall and Crosby, 2020]] )

|-
| Heatwave impacts on human health ( ''high confidence'' )

| Heatwaves can occur in many regions of Australia. Tropical regions can experience prolonged seasons of high temperatures and humidity levels, resulting in extreme heat stress risks. For example, the Torres Strait Islands are already categorised under the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Heat Index as a danger zone for extreme human health risk during summer ( [[#TSRA--2018|TSRA, 2018]] )

|-
| Health impacts from changing conditions for vector-borne diseases ( ''high confidence'' )

| Climate change can alter exposure and increase risk for remote Indigenous Peoples to infection from waterborne and insect-borne diseases, especially if medical services are limited or damaged by extreme weather events. For example, in the Torres Strait Islands the changing climate is affecting the range and extension of the ''Aedes albopictus'' and ''Aedes aegypti'' mosquitoes that can carry and transmit dengue and other viruses ( [[#Horwood--2018|Horwood et al., 2018]] ; [[#TSRA--2018|TSRA, 2018]] )

|-
| Unadaptable infrastructure for changing environmental conditions ( ''high confidence'' )

| Poorly designed, inferior quality and unmaintained housing can create health challenges for tenants in extreme heat ( [[#Race--2016|Race et al., 2016]] ). Essential community-scale water and energy service infrastructure, unpaved roads, sea walls and stormwater drains can fail in extreme weather events ( [[#McNamara--2017|McNamara et al., 2017]] )

|-
| Drinking water security ( ''medium confidence'' )

| Predicted continued increases in arid conditions in Australia are expected to reduce the recharge rate of finite groundwater supplies ( [[#Barron--2011|Barron et al., 2011]] ). For remote communities reliant on groundwater for drinking supplies, this water insecurity creates vulnerabilities from over-extraction and lack of access ( [[#Jackson--2019|Jackson et al., 2019]] ; [[#Hall--2020|Hall and Crosby, 2020]] ). This groundwater can also have microbial contamination from sewage and chemicals supporting bacterial growth, such as high iron levels supporting the growth of ''Burkholderia pseudomallei'' that causes melioidosis in humans and animals ( [[#Kaestli--2019|Kaestli et al., 2019]] ). In the Torres Strait, increasing reliance on desalination for drinking water raises costs for fuel and its associated transport ( [[#Beal--2018|Beal et al., 2018]] )

|}

Due to ongoing impacts of colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have, on average, lower income, poorer nutrition, lower school outcomes and employment opportunities, higher incarceration and higher levels of removal of children than non-Indigenous Australians, represented in high comorbidities of chronic diseases and mental health impacts ( [[#Marmot--2011|Marmot, 2011]] ; [[#Green--2014|Green and Minchin, 2014]] ; [[#AIHW--2015|AIHW, 2015]] ). This relative poverty can reduce climate-adaptive capacities while exacerbating climate change vulnerabilities ( [[#Nursey-Bray--2018|Nursey-Bray and Palmer, 2018]] ). In remote country, this can combine with lack of security for food and water, non-resilient housing and extreme weather events, contributing to migration off traditional country and into towns and cities—with flow-on social impacts such as homelessness, dislocation from community and family and disconnection from country and spirituality ( [[#Mosby--2012|Mosby, 2012]] ; [[#Brand--2016|Brand et al., 2016]] ).

Recognition of the role of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in identifying solutions to the impacts of climate change is slowly emerging ( [[#UN--2018|]] [[#UN--2018|UN, 2018]] ), having been largely excluded from meaningful representation from the conception of climate change dialogue through to debate and decision-making ( [[#Nursey-Bray--2019|Nursey-Bray et al., 2019]] ). Honouring the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and social justice values would support self-determination and the associated opportunity for Indigenous Australians to develop adaptation responses to climate change ( [[#Langton--2012|Langton et al., 2012]] ; [[#Nursey-Bray--2018|Nursey-Bray and Palmer, 2018]] ; [[#Nursey-Bray--2019|Nursey-Bray et al., 2019]] ), including the adaptive capacity opportunities available through Indigenous knowledge ( [[#Liedloff--2013|Liedloff et al., 2013]] ; [[#Petheram--2015|Petheram et al., 2015]] ; [[#Stewart--2019|Stewart et al., 2019]] ) (Cross-Chapter Box INDIG in Chapter 18). The Uluru Statement from the Heart proposes a pathway and roadmap forward for enhanced representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in decision-making in Australia (Ululru Statement, 2017). Table 11.11 provides examples of traditional Indigenous practices of adaptation to a changing climate. However, due to Indigenous methods of knowledge sharing and knowledge holding, such knowledge relies disproportionately on elders and seniors, who form a very small portion of the total Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples of Australia, and is limited in the formal literature (ABS, 2016).

'''Table 11.11 |''' Examples of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ practices of adaptation to a changing climate

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! ‘Caring for Country’: Traditional Practices for Holistic Land and Cultural Protection and Adaptation in a Changing Climate

! Source

|-
| Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) management plans enable culturally and ecologically compatible development that contribute to local Indigenous economies

| ( [[#Mackey--2015|Mackey and Claudie, 2015]] ).

|-
| IPAs can avoid the potential for ‘nature–culture dualism’ that locks out Indigenous access in some protected area legislation because they are based on relational values informed by local Indigenous knowledge

| ( [[#Lee--2016|Lee, 2016]] )

|-
| Fire management using cultural practices can achieve greenhouse gas emission targets while maintaining Indigenous cultural heritage.

| ( [[#Robinson--2016|Robinson et al., 2016]] )

|-
| Indigenous Ranger programmes provide a means for Indigenous-guided land management, including for fire management and carbon abatement, fauna studies, medicinal plant products, weed management and recovery of threatened species

| ( [[#Mackey--2015|Mackey and Claudie, 2015]] )

|-
| Faunal field surveys can engage local, bounded and fine-scale intuitive species location by Indigenous knowledge holders and their knowledge used for conservation planning

| ( [[#Wohling--2009|Wohling, 2009]] ; [[#Ziembicki--2013|Ziembicki et al., 2013]] )

|-
| Cultural flows in waterways are a demonstration of cultural knowledge, values and practice in action as they are informed by Indigenous knowledge, bound by water-dependent values, and define when and where water is to be delivered, particularly in a changing climate

| ( [[#Bark--2015|Bark et al., 2015]] ; [[#Taylor--2017|Taylor et al., 2017]] )

|}

<div id="11.4.2" class="h2-container"></div>

<span id="tangata-whenuanew-zealand-māori"></span>