Colonisation Hidden Roots of Exploitation: Athabasca Oil Sands

Category: Conservation 2; Ecological Economics; Environmental Science
Date: Thursday 7 November 2024

Decoloniality is an important framework that addresses and breaks barriers in infrastructure and mindsets built from colonialism, essential to account for historical and present-day damages (Sultana, 2022 chpt3). Current societal, environmental, and economic practices have been influenced by colonialism. (Sultana, 2022) argues that colonialism is deeply rooted in inequality since climate change is becoming more impactful, formerly colonised and brutalised racialised communities are at the forefront of the environmental burden and harm since they have the least resources and no voice on the matters that affect them directly (Sultana, 2022 chpt1). (Manzo, et.al, 2019) reviews how the mindset of the media encourages the belief that economic value is more important than financial resources which is more in line with Western politics. These narratives erase the cultural and environmental importance of these lands to Indigenous communities for profit. (Manzo, et.al, 2019 chpt2) shows how this has led to colonial land tenure systems that have enforced individual property ownership of the 'unclaimed' land and encouraged land cultivation to boost productivity as they see it as an unproductive landscape, not at work (Home, 2013) (Domínguez and Luoma, 2020). This has then negatively impacted the conservation of land practices once used in local communities' lives and traditions (Adams and Mulligan 2003).

Decoloniality, as a justice concept, allows the examination of economic exploitation that took place in Athabasca oil sand extraction, continuing colonial dynamics were present impacting the likes of Métis who are an Indigenous community with self-governing structures but destabilized after colonialism (Vizina, 2010 chpt2.2). These communities are disproportionally affected by environmental degradation. The government corporations prioritize the immense economic value of oil extraction, as it's estimated to bring 1 trillion dollars to their economy at the cost of preserving Alberta’s boreal forests (Yu, 2024). But this then ignores how vital the ecological services and biodiversity that this forest provides, like carbon sequestration: capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide. But Western systems also ignore the significance of the land to Indigenous tribes’ ancestral and cultural traditions and deem these lands to be empty and unproductive (Manzo, et.al 2019 chpt2). Although it may not be void of human residents it bears no economic means despite the boreal forest’s ecological importance.

Decoloniality teaches that the structures that marginalize the Indigenous voices become more apparent, as they can’t have a say on what happens to the lands they live on, with colonial land tenure systems leaving land rights to individual ownership in this case the government. The pollution from oil sand mining contaminates the groundwater, posing harm to aquatic life as well as increasing atmospheric carbon. With this, the extraction of essential resources continues to disrupt Indigenous communities' ways of living, with the restriction on access to healthy and sacred grounds along with the harming of biodiversity has damaged biodiversity risking their hunting and gathering food sources (Baker, 2020).

Understanding decoloniality allows critical evaluation and challenges for the framework, bringing awareness to needed policies that will respect Indigenous land rights and prioritise sustainable practices over short-term economic gain, such as restoring any land affected by the oil sands development, monitoring ecosystem health, and managing the land's resources sustainably. Initial understanding of the case study (Athabasca), western teaching made it look like an economic versus ecological value concern, with an in-depth look at decoloniality as a key concept, the social injustices and voices that go unnoticed without awareness become clearer. Great change is needed to dismantle the deep-rooted mindset of the colonial past. By recognizing Indigenous land stewardship, promoting a mutual agreement between resource management will honour both cultural and ecological values.

Reference
Sultana, F. (2022). Chapter 3 Decolonizing climate. The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality. Political Geography, [online] 99, pp.102638–102638. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102638.

Sultana, F. (2022). Chapter 1 Introduction. The unbearable heaviness of climate coloniality. Political Geography, [online] 99, pp.102638–102638. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2022.102638.

Manzo, K., Padfield, R. and Varkkey, H. (2019). Chapter 2 Colonial framings of peat. Envisioning tropical environments: Representations of peatlands in Malaysian media. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, [online] 3(3), pp.857–884. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/2514848619880895.
W. Adams and M. Mulligan (2003). Page 9 paragraph 2. Decolonizing Nature. Strategies for Conservation in a Post-colonial Era. Google Scholar. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781849770927/decolonizing-nature-martin-mulligan-william-bill-adams.

Domínguez, L. and Luoma, C. (2020). Decolonising Conservation Policy: How Colonial Land and Conservation Ideologies Persist and Perpetuate Indigenous Injustices at the Expense of the Environment. Land, [online] 9(3), pp.65–65. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/land9030065.

Home, R. (2013). ‘Culturally Unsuited to Property Rights?’: Colonial Land Laws and African Societies. Journal of Law and Society, [online] 40(3), pp.413. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2013.00632.x.

Vizina, Y. (2010). Chapter 2.2 Decolonisation. Métis Traditional Environmental Knowledge and Science Education. [online] Available at: https://harvest.usask.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/e4e93b60-37a4-4169-b25a-be533ca514b2/content#page=28.48 [Accessed 6 Nov. 2024].

Yu, C. (2024). Alberta Oil Sand Pollution Impacts on Local Indigenous Communities and Cooperation with Indigenous Peoples [Online]. [Accessed 29 October 2024]. Available from: https://lfs-mlws-2020.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2024/09/yucorrine_125061_34320602_report-3.pdf.