Le lien au territoire, un facteur déterminant des réinstallations climatiques des communautés autochtones de l’Arctique nord-américain

• Published in: Espace populations sociétés
• Main Author: Mesnard, Adèle de
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: French
• Published: Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille 2021
• Subjects: changement climatique; réinstallation planifiée; communautés autochtones; lien au territoire; autodétermination; Alaska; climate change; climate relocation; Native communities; connection to land; self-determination; hist; scipo; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4000/eps.10562; http://journals.openedition.org/eps/10562

Given the ineffectiveness of alternative climate change mitigation measures, three Alaska Native communities, Kivalina, Shishmaref and Newtok, voted over twenty years ago to relocate to a specific site that they designated as the most likely to allow them to continue to develop as a community, while preserving their identity and culture. Yet, the choice of this relocation site appears to be the most important point of contention between the Native communities, the State of Alaska and federal actors. While the communities are not opposed to relocating, they refuse to see their displacement as a simple movement from point A to point B, based on the consideration that they can be moved to wherever it is possible to send them. What is at stake for the Native communities is to overcome the pitfalls of a unilateral choice by public authorities that would restrict the special relationship they have with their lands and their environment. Since place is an intangible element of community cohesion, it is important that the community has control over the process of selecting the relocation site rather than relying solely on a top-down bureaucratic process. A refocusing on indigenous perspectives, which goes beyond the pragmatic technicism adopted by the public authorities, then appears necessary to create the conditions for a genuine dialogue. Devant l’inefficacité des mesures alternatives d’atténuation des changements climatiques qui leur permettraient de rester sur leur territoire actuel, trois communautés autochtones d’Alaska, Kivalina, Shishmaref et Newtok, ont voté, il y a plus de vingt ans, leur réinstallation sur un site spécifique qu’elles ont désigné comme étant le plus à même de leur permettre de continuer à se développer en tant que communauté, tout en préservant leur identité et leur culture. Or, le choix d’un nouveau territoire cristallise les tensions entre les communautés, l’État d’Alaska et les acteurs fédéraux. Si les communautés ne s’opposent à leur réinstallation, bien qu’elle se fasse sous la ...