Winter Holiday Traditions Around the World
Hello and welcome to the final blog post of 2024! This month, we will explore some of the diverse winter holiday traditions that are practiced around the world, including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and Yule. People across many cultures have unique ways of bringing light and celebration into the darkest time of year. Let’s dive into the history and current practices for these traditions.
Hanukkah
Hanukkah, or Chanukah, is an eight-day holiday celebrated by Jewish people. It falls on different days each year— this year, Hanukkah will last from December 25 to January 2. The purpose of Hanukkah is to commemorate the reclaiming of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which is a sacred location for the Jewish faith. This occurred in the second century BCE, when Jerusalem was ruled by Greek people, until Judah the Maccabee defeated the Greeks and reclaimed the temple.
A key part of celebrating Hanukkah is to light a candle on a Menorah (a candelabrum with nine branches) on each of the eight days. This is done to remember a miracle which occurred during the rededication of the Holy Temple: when Judah the Maccabee went to relight the Menorah in the temple, he found only enough olive oil to light the Menorah for one day, but the small supply of oil miraculously lasted for eight days. Hanukkah is a time to remember this miracle and its exemplification of God’s faithfulness.
Hanukkah celebrations also include special foods. One classic Hanukkah food is the latke, a potato pancake fried in oil and garnished with sour cream or applesauce. The latkes are fried in oil as another commemoration of the miracle of the oil. While enjoying the festive food, families play Dreidel, a game which includes spinning a four-sided top. Each of the four sides are inscribed with the Hebrew letters that create an acronym for “A Great Miracle Happened There.” Winners of the game receive coins, nuts, or other prizes, with the winner determined by where the Dreidel lands after being spun.
The miracle of Hanukkah reminds Jewish people that “a little light goes a long way,” and that God will remain faithful, even during the darkest times of the year. It is a time to let your light shine and act as a Menorah in your community. You can read more about Hanukkah here.
Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated by African American people and other parts of the African diaspora. It occurs each year between December 26 and January 1. Kwanzaa was first created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, an African American leader who was active during the American Civil Rights Movement. The holiday draws upon ancient African traditions: the name Kwanzaa comes from the Swahili word for the celebration of first fruits, which many African cultures commemorate in both ancient and modern times. The goal of Kwanzaa is to celebrate the history and culture of African people and to promote strong community connection.
There are seven principles that guide Kwanzaa celebrations, which were drawn from the cultural values of many people groups across Africa. They are: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity), and Imani (Faith). For each of the seven days of Kwanzaa, celebrants focus on one of these principles, participating in activities and readings that involve that principle. Adinkra colouring books are one such activity. These colouring pages include Adinkra symbols, which originated in Ghana with the Akan people, and are used to pass down traditional wisdom. The activity allows children and adults to learn about the symbols and their meanings.
On the sixth day of Kwanzaa, families will host a large feast called Karamu. There are no specific dishes that must be included in Karamu, but some ideas for popular dishes include fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, and red velvet cake.
You can learn more about Kwanzaa from The National Museum of African American History and Culture, where you can also purchase a Karamu cookbook, find a recommended reading list, and watch videos about the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
Yule
Yule is a pre-Christian, pagan celebration of the winter solstice, which occurs on December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere. Yule is one of the oldest winter holiday traditions, as it originated thousands of years ago with the Norse people in Scandinavia. Because it is so old, its exact roots are difficult to determine, but historians agree that Yule centered around light and fire, as the winter solstice contains the least sunlight out of any day of the year. In the dark and cold climate of northern Europe, such celebrations would have been important for community morale. Ancient Yule celebrations also included feasts and dedications to Norse gods— although the exact role of the gods is unclear to historians.
Many Yule traditions were lost as pagan people in Norway were required to practice Christianity. In the 9th century, the Norwegian king merged Yule with Christmas, and issued fines to anyone who did not celebrate. Christian traditions continued to merge and blend with Yule throughout the following centuries. Many practices we associate with Christmas came originally from Yule, including Christmas trees, Yule logs, and decorating with mistletoe, holly, and ivy.
Today, people who practice paganism are reviving Yule traditions. Celebrators of Yule focus on connecting with nature and appreciating the return of longer days with more sunlight. Rebirth and revival are important themes, as well as turning away from consumerism and the commercial aspect of Christmas celebrations.
Some ways to celebrate Yule include:
- Decorating your home with greenery and candles
- Burning a Yule log on the night of the winter solstice
- Reciting prayers to welcome back the sun
- Hosting celebratory meals with family and friends, which can include plum pudding, mulled apple cider, and a special cake shaped like a Yule log
You can learn more about Yule here.
And with that, we’ve reached the end of 2024’s blog posts! As you finish up this term, I hope your holiday celebrations are restful and meaningful, however they may look for you. I will be back in January to start the new year with a new blog post. Until then, enjoy your break!
Web resources referenced
Celebrating Yule: The Returning of The Light. (2020, December 15). Sea Witch Botanicals. https://seawitchbotanicals.com/blogs/swb/celebrating-yule-the-chill-version-of-christmas
Eldridge, A. (2024, March 22). Yule. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yule-festival
Kwanzaa. (n.d.). National Museum of African American History and Culture. Retrieved December 9, 2024, from https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/kwanzaa
What Is Hanukkah? – Info you need about Chanukah. (n.d.). Chabad.org. Retrieved December 9, 2024, from https://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/What-Is-Hanukkah.htm
Scholarly resources
Allen, R. (2013). Legitimized blackness? Kwanzaa, citizenship, and newark. The Western Journal of Black Studies, 37(4), 272. [Available at UBC Library]
Maples, G. (2024). Pagans on campus: A cursory exploration. New Directions for Higher Education, 2024(206), 65-74. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20498 [Available at UBC Library]
Toles‐Patkin, T. (2021). Hallmarking hanukkah: Flawed attempts at diversity in cable television christmas movies. Journal of Popular Culture, 54(5), 917-940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.13062 [Available at UBC Library]
New Resource Spotlight: Guide to IKBLC for Neurodivergent Patrons
Hello and welcome back to another blog post! This month’s post is going to highlight a new resource available to students at UBC: The Guide to IKBLC for Neurodivergent Patrons. I worked on developing this guide last summer, along with Emma Cornelius, a former librarian at IKBLC. I’m excited to share our work with you today and to explore the ways this resource may be a useful tool for you.
What is the Guide to IKBLC for Neurodivergent Patrons?
The guide is a web page containing information on library services, sensory environments, accessibility supports, and etiquette and behaviour expectations at IKBLC. It contains drop-down menus that provide descriptions of spaces and services available. It also contains a section with instructions for accessing library services. These instructions were designed to be as clear and direct as possible, designed for students who are new to using libraries and who benefit from specific instructions.
Where can I find the guide?
The guide is hosted on the Chapman Learning Commons website. You can find it at this link, or navigate to “Our Space & Equipment” on the home page, and then to “Guide to IKBLC for Neurodivergent Patrons.”
Who is the guide for?
The guide is open to everyone and will hopefully prove beneficial to a wide range of people, even if you do not identify as neurodivergent. At the same time, the guide’s design keeps neurodivergent students in mind, and aims to meet specific needs that may not be met by other resources.
As an autistic person, I designed the guide with the neurodivergent community in mind. I continually returned to the guiding question of, “What would have helped me as a new student?” I have found in my own experience that entering new spaces can be uncomfortable, and lacking information about what the space will be like only amplifies my anxiety. I hope this guide will provide the information needed for students like me to feel more confident entering the library.
What can the guide help me with?
The guide can help with multiple needs that are common in the neurodivergent community. We have created sections that you can click through to open the information relevant to you and your needs. Here is an overview of the guide’s contents:
Our section, “Sensory Experiences in IKBLC,” addresses the need to locate spaces with specific noise or light levels, as well as other sensory conditions. You can find quiet spaces, scent-free spaces, spaces where movement and stimming is welcomed, and spaces with natural or controllable light levels. The sensory experiences section can also address the need to be explicitly told about social and behavior expectations. These are often automatically known to neurotypical people, but must be manually learned by neurodivergent people. You can use this section to locate areas where it is okay to talk, eat, or move, without the ambiguity of having to figure out if it’s okay.
Our section “Helpful Services at UBC Library” addresses the need for help with university skills that neurodivergent people commonly struggle with, including time management, focus, working in groups, and appointment anxiety. Find links to support services on campus, as well as embedded toolkits and tutorials.
Our section “Using Library Services: What to Expect” aims to help with the need for specific instructions for how to complete processes or procedures in the library, especially those involving interactions with other people. Again, what is “obvious” to neurotypical people often must be learned manually by neurodivergent people, and understanding unfamiliar processes has been a source of frustration for me in the past– which is why I’m so happy to address the issue now. We have provided step-by-step directions for how to complete some of the most common procedures you may encounter in the library.
A final note:
Libraries are some of the most forgiving places to have questions or be unsure of expectations! As information professionals, we love answering questions, welcoming uncertainty, and working with students who don’t have existing experience with libraries. We do not judge students for not knowing how something works. And, a good number of us are neurodivergent too 😉
I hope this guide helps you feel more confident walking into the library and making use of all the resources we have to offer. If you would like to leave feedback or suggestions for the guide, please fill out our Chapman Learning Commons Feedback Survey, which is linked here and is also accessible at the bottom of the guide.
Thank you, as always, for reading this blog post. I wish you luck on all of your final projects and exams as this term comes to a close. I will see you again next month for the last post of 2024!
Halloween and Harvest Traditions Around the World
Hello and welcome to another blog post! I’m Celia, your EDI Student Librarian, and each month I post about a new topic pertaining to diversity, equity and inclusion. This month’s focus is on Halloween and Harvest celebrations around the world. Did you know that North American Halloween traditions are only one of many holidays that take place at the end of October? If you grew up in Canada or the United States, you likely went trick-or-treating and carved pumpkins, while other cultures have their own traditions that celebrate the harvest season, remember the dead, and bring fun family and community events to the season. Today I’m going to highlight four traditions coming from Ireland, Mexico, the Philippines, and Haiti.
Ireland: Samhain
Samhain is an ancient Celtic festival that serves as the origin of modern Halloween celebrations. The festival was celebrated at the midpoint between the fall and winter equinoxes, signaling the end of the harvest period. Ancient practices included prayer, feasting, and relighting family hearths with a flame taken from a community bonfire. Samhain is also where the practice of dressing up in Halloween costumes originates. Celtic people believed that the boundary between the realms of the living and the dead became crossable during Samhain. In order to prevent ancestors, fairies, or other beings from visiting and kidnapping them, they dressed as monsters or animals to disguise themselves. The practice of carving pumpkins began in the middle ages as the holiday progressed and evolved.
Today, Samhain continues to be celebrated by those following the Wicca religion. Wiccan celebrations of Samhain incorporate many of the ancient practices, as well as including new Wiccan traditions, such as honouring nature and ancestors. Another group celebrating Samhain today are Celtic Reconstructionists, a group of Pagans who seek to revive traditional Celtic traditions in modern Paganism. You can learn more about Samhain here.
Mexico: Día de los Muertos
Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a two-day holiday celebrated primarily in Mexico. Unlike Halloween practices that view the dead and the spiritual as taboo, scary, or dangerous, Día de los Muertos celebrates life and death with a positive outlook.
On Día de los Muertos, the souls of deceased relatives and loved ones return to the realm of the living for twenty-four hours. The holiday is a reunification with departed family members that aims to honour and remember them. Families create ofrendas, or offerings, which include flowers, photos of departed loved ones, and the favourite foods of loved ones. Ofrendas allow living family members to remember departed loved ones, as well as encouraging their souls to visit and join in celebration.
Souls return at different points throughout Día de los Muertos. On November 1st at 12am, the spirits of children return. On November 2 and 12am, the spirits of adults return. Then, at noon on November 2, a grand finale and public celebration occurs with parades, community gatherings, and visits to the graves of loved ones.
Día de los Muertos is a unique holiday that offers an alternative view on life and death. It invites us to consider the different ways that people and cultures can understand what it means to die. If you would like to celebrate Día de los Muertos in Vancouver this year, a number of events will be happening throughout the city, which you can explore here.
The Philippines: Pangangaluluwa
Pangangaluluwa is a Filipino tradition sometimes referred to as “souling.” On the night of October 31, adults and children dress up in ghost costumes and travel throughout their villages, visiting each home and pretending to be ancestral souls lost in purgatory. The travelers perform songs about saints and lost souls. They also collect alms from each household, which include money and rice-based snacks known as Kakanin. Those who experienced Pangangaluluwa as children recall being woken up at midnight, excitedly looking out their windows, and watching as the traveling souls sing and wave at them.
Pangangaluluwa is a hybrid holiday that brings together Roman Catholic traditions and traditional Filipino faith practices. The idea of purgatory and individual souls comes from Catholicism, while the acknowledgement that ancestors continue to influence the present comes from pre-colonial Filipino beliefs. Pangangaluluwa has been cited as a significant cultural practice in the postcolonial era: While Catholic missions and Spanish colonialism eradicated many traditional Filipino practices, Pangangaluluwa has survived, in part because it allowed people to preserve traditional beliefs while incorporating new ones.
In the early 20th century, Pangangaluluwa saw the height of its popularity, until the practice died down during the 1940s as a result of food insecurity and the Marcos dictatorship. Today, some Filipino advocates are reviving the tradition, including Eric Dedace of the Sariaya Tourism Council. You can read more about the holiday and the current revival work happening in the Philippines here.
Haiti: Fèt Gede
Fèt Gede, or the Haitian Day of the Dead, is a variation of Day of the Dead celebrations that incorporates the African tradition of vodou. Like All Saints Day, it is celebrated on November 1 and November 2 each year. The celebrations are loud and extravagant, and generate large crowds of people each year in the Haitian city of Port-au-Prince.
The primary component of Fèt Gede is a parade of vodou practitioners, or vodouwizan, who have performed a ritual uniting them with the dead. The gede refers to a deceased friend or relative of a vodouwizan who the practitioner has contacted through a ceremony and invited to possess their body for the duration of Fèt Gede. While possessed, the vodouwizan wear white, black and purple attire, cover their face in white powder, and carry a walking stick and a bottle filled with alcohol and hot peppers— as the gede are known to love hot peppers.
The vodouwizan cover several miles while dancing and entertaining the crowd, until they arrive at the cemetery, where they continue to sing, dance, and visit graves. The celebrations are a loud and boisterous way of paying respect to deceased loved ones. Additionally, Vodou’s African origin points to ancestral traditions that survived their history of enslavement and colonialism. You can learn more about Fèt Gede and other Haitian traditions here.
Conclusion
I hope you have enjoyed learning about Halloween and Harvest traditions from around the world! Our globe contains such a vast diversity of cultural practices, faith traditions, and ways of having fun and remembering the dead. As you participate in your own traditions this month— whether joyful or somber, spooky or friendly— I hope you enjoy yourself and stay safe. Thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next month with another blog post!
Web Resources Referenced:
Day of The Dead 2024 Events & Parties in Vancouver. (2024). AllEvents. https://allevents.in/vancouver/day-of-the-dead
Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos). (n.d.). Day of the Dead. Retrieved October 1, 2024, from https://dayofthedead.holiday/
Fèt Gede—The Haitian Day of the Dead. (2020, February 1). Visit Haiti. https://visithaiti.com/festivals-events/fet-gede-haitian-day-of-the-dead/
Samhain ‑ Traditions, Halloween, Wicca. (2024, September 27). History. https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/samhain
Woolsey, B. (2022, October 24). The Disappearing Philippine Tradition of “Souling” for Rice Cakes. Atlas Obscura. http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/philippine-halloween-traditions
Scholarly Resources:
Brandes, S. H. (2006). Skulls to the living, bread to the dead: The day of the dead in mexico and beyond. Blackwell Pub. [Available at UBC Library]
Rogers, N., & CRKN MiL Collection. (2002). Halloween: From pagan ritual to party night (1st ed.). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195146912.001.0001 [Available at UBC Library]
Santino, J. (1998). The hallowed eve: Dimensions of culture in a calendar festival in northern ireland. The University Press of Kentucky. [Available at UBC Library]
BC History Digitization Program: 2025/2026 Call for submissions
The British Columbia History Digitization Program (BCHDP) is now accepting applications for project funding. The program, initiated by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre in 2006, provides matching funds to support digitization projects that make unique British Columbia content freely available. Since its inception in 2006, the BCHDP has awarded more than $2 million of matching funds for more than 250 projects.
In 2024, the program awarded more than $160,000 for 19 projects. The wealth and diversity of unique British Columbia content to be digitized is impressive. The BCHDP will be accepting applications for the 2025/2026 funding year. Applicants can receive up to $15,000 of matching funds for their projects. Multi-year projects are accepted with each successive year going through the adjudication process.
Prospective applicants should be a registered charity or qualified donee listed by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). If an applicant is not a registered charity or qualified donee, a community organization that is a qualified donee may be permitted to act as a financial intermediary. If you have further questions or concerns about this requirement, please contact the BCHDP Coordinator (bc.historydigitization@ubc.ca).
In the context of de-colonization and reconciliation, the BC History Digitization Program will consider applications from Indigenous organizations for projects that will not result in public access to the digitized material. IKBLC recognizes that open access is not always ethical or appropriate for Indigenous content. Indigenous applications will be evaluated according to the same criteria in all other aspects of the project applications but will not be required to provide public access to the digitized content.
NOTE: BC ELN partner libraries interested in applying for BCHDP grants can receive advice and support from the BC ELN office; contact digisupport@bceln.ca for more details.
Applications are due by Friday, December 6, 2024 @ 5:00 pm PST. Information about the application process as well as the guidelines and application form are available on the BCHDP website (https://ikblc.ubc.ca/initiatives/bcdigitinfo/bchdp-applicant-information/). It is highly recommended that applicants consult the Guidelines and Instructions as well as accessing the Application Form because both are updated annually based on feedback from applicants and the program adjudicators.
For more information about the program and to view past projects, please visit the BC History Digitization Program website (https://ikblc.ubc.ca/initiatives/bcdigitinfo/).
Orange Shirt Day: History and 2024 Commemorations at UBC
Hello and welcome to a new academic year! I and the team at IKBLC hope you’re excited for new classes and new experiences this fall. I’m Celia, the EDI Student Librarian at IKBLC, and I’ll be publishing short blog posts each month about a topic relevant to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. I hope you’ll read along and learn something new!
This month’s blog post will explore the history and significance of Orange Shirt Day. If you are new to Canada, like I was a year ago, you may be unfamiliar with this day of observance. This post will help you understand the meaning of the day, why it matters, and how to get involved at UBC this year.
Canada’s History of Residential Schools
Orange Shirt Day is a holiday observed on September 30 in Canada. It aims to remember and honour the experiences of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation people who attended residential schools, including survivors and those who did not return home.
Residential schools were a tool of colonialism designed to separate children from their homes and culture. They operated beginning in 1831, with the last schools closing in the 1990s. Children at residential schools were forced to assimilate into white Christian culture. They were often punished for speaking their native languages, prohibited from their traditional cultural practices, and physically separated from their families and land. Additionally, physical and sexual abuse was common at residential schools.
After the closing of residential schools in the 1990s, Canada has taken steps to address the harm the schools caused. One of those steps was the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 to witness and document what happened at residential schools. The Commission concluded in their report, “Honouring the Truth, Reconciling the Future,” that residential schools “were created for the purpose of separating Aboriginal children from their families, in order to minimize and weaken family ties and cultural linkages, and to indoctrinate children into a new culture—the culture of the legally dominant Euro-Christian Canadian society” (V). You can read more about the history of residential schools from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Canada is still working towards reconciliation with First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nation people in the wake of 150 years of cultural genocide.
Why Orange Shirts?
Thousands of children attended residential schools, but it is one woman’s story that inspired Orange Shirt Day. Phyllis Webstad, the founder of Orange Shirt Day, is a member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation. From 1973 to 1974, she attended St. Joseph Mission residential school, located near Williams Lake, BC. She describes her experience arriving at the school in this quotation:
“We never had very much money, but somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to the Mission school. I remember going to Robinson’s store and picking out a shiny orange shirt. It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exciting – just like I felt to be going to school!
When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn’t understand why they wouldn’t give it back to me, it was mine! The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing.”
You can read more of Phyllis Webstad’s story in her own words here on the Orange Shirt Society website.
When Phyllis founded the Orange Shirt Society, she used the image of the orange shirt to represent and remember residential school experiences. She now spends her time touring Canada to tell her story and raise awareness about the impact of residential schools. She also wrote two books telling her story, The Orange Shirt Story and Phyllis’s Orange Shirt for younger children.
Orange Shirt Day at UBC
UBC will observe Orange Shirt Day on September 30. There are a number of ways you can get involved, including events, speakers, t-shirt sales, and an intergenerational march.
The intergenerational march will be held from 11:45am to 3:00pm at the UBC Outdoor Amphitheatre at 1956 Main Mall. The march is open to all ages and will involve opportunities for learning and engagement. It will include opening words from Musqueam Elder Larry Grant, a speech from a residential school survivor, and a performance from the Spakwus Slolem (Eagle Song Dancers), a traditional Coast Salish song and dance group.
In addition to the intergenerational march, Orange Shirt Day will include food, educational resources, and orange shirts available for purchase outside the UBC Bookstore. T-shirt proceeds will be donated to the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society.
For more information about these events, see this page with details on the intergenerational march, and this page with general information about Orange Shirt Day at UBC.
I hope you have learned something new from this blog post, and you will be inspired to continue recognizing and reflecting upon Canada’s colonial history. I wish you all a happy September and a meaningful Orange Shirt Day. Thanks, as always, for reading!
Web Resources:
About the Society. (n.d.). Orange Shirt Society. Retrieved September 12, 2024, from https://orangeshirtday.org/about-us/
Participate in Orange Shirt Day on Sept. 30. (2024, September 9). UBC Today. Retrieved September 12, 2024, from https://ubctoday.ubc.ca/news/september-09-2024/participate-orange-shirt-day-sept-30
Phyllis’ Story. (n.d.). Orange Shirt Society. Retrieved September 12, 2024, from https://orangeshirtday.org/phyllis-story/
Residential School History. (2020, December 21). National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. https://nctr.ca/education/teaching-resources/residential-school-history/, https://nctr.ca/education/teaching-resources/residential-school-history/
Scholarly Resources:
Gora, L. S. (2022). ‘Sad ol’ mush’: The poetics and politics of porridge in residential schools in canada. Childhood in the Past, 15(2), 86-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/17585716.2022.2095173
Webstad, P., Sorley, J., & Orange Shirt Society. (2020). Orange shirt day, september 30th. Medicine Wheel Education. [Available at UBC Library].
Wilk, P., Maltby, A., & Cooke, M. (2017). Residential schools and the effects on indigenous health and well-being in canada: A scoping review. Public Health Reviews, 38(1), 8-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-017-0055-6
UBC Researchers:
Tricia Logan, Interim Academic Director of UBC’s Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre (IRSHDC)
Kristin Kozar, Executive Director and Oral Testimony Program Co-leader at the IRSHDC
David McAtackney, Research Manager at the IRSHDC
Climate Justice: The Intersectional and Emotional Aspects of Climate Work
Did you know that climate change does not impact all people equally?
While nobody can entirely avoid climate change, some groups are more impacted than others. Groups that have been historically marginalized by oppressive societal systems, such as racialized people, Indigenous people, disabled people, and people living in the global south, are experiencing greater and more immediate impacts of climate change.
This reality is the basis of Climate Justice, a field of work which recognizes the disproportionate impact of climate change on marginalized communities while working to implement solutions. Today we will explore some of the Climate Justice work happening at UBC. I hope this blog post allows you to consider climate change through a new lens, and to recognize the unique, multifaceted ways that you engage with climate and the environment.
The Centre for Climate Justice at UBC was established in 2021. It recognizes challenges related to taking action against climate change, including that climate change disproportionately impacts people already impacted by other injustices. Grounded in this knowledge, their mission is to “diversify the expertise and perspectives represented in climate justice theory, policy, and research” and to “connect often-siloed issue areas between climate and housing, or climate and care work.” These actions will help address the disproportionate impacts that marginalized communities are experiencing, increasing the intersectionality of climate activism work.
An example of the Centre’s work includes the ‘Right to Cool’ Knowledge Exchange workshop, led by Liv Yoon and the Centre for Climate Justice, and facilitated by Olive Dempsey. The workshop occurred in June 2024 and brought together community members to discuss innovative ways to combat extreme heat. By exchanging knowledge with the community and addressing issues like housing policy in relation to extreme heat, the event put the principles of Climate Justice into action.
The Centre has also supported initiatives that recognize the emotional, phenomenological ways that people experience climate change. They collaborated with Future Ecologies to create the podcast series “The Right to Feel.” In the podcast, UBC students share their emotions surrounding climate change, uncovering new layers through storytelling and personal reflection.
I find this podcast extremely compelling, unique, and distinct from the ways information about climate change is typically presented. “The Right to Feel” recognizes that climate change is not only an empirical, scientific issue. It is also a deeply emotional issue that impacts different people in different ways. Depending on our backgrounds, identities, and experiences, engaging with climate change can be shocking or routine, energizing or exhausting, paralyzing or motivating. It can spark passion in some while causing avoidance and denial in others. Climate Justice recognizes these emotional realities and aims to integrate climate change activism into other areas of social justice work, such as anti-racism, Indigenous truth-telling and reconciliation, and working to end the housing crisis.
When we ground our climate work in this understanding, we are better able to effectively and equitably work with people to combat adverse changes to the climate. The Climate Justice framework allows those most impacted by climate change to be represented equitably in decision-making. It leads to better climate activism outcomes, since the actions of researchers will be aligned with the needs of communities most impacted.
Human beings are guided by emotions. Even when we know climate change is a pressing issue, we may hesitate to engage with information about it, discouraged by feelings of fear, anxiety, and grief. You may come to the table with vastly different conceptions and experiences than I do. My research into the Centre for Climate Justice’s work has led me to conclude that humanity’s best strategy to combat climate change is to embrace our differences. Information-sharing and solution-making must realize that climate change intersects with every other injustice in our society, and engaging with those injustices is emotional, personal, community-driven work.
I hope you have enjoyed this dive into Climate Justice. To wrap up this blog post, I invite you to consider three questions about climate change and your relationship to it:
- What parts of your own identity and life experience affect the way you think about climate change?
- What emotional responses do you feel when you read, talk, and learn about climate change?
- How might you move forward with your answers to those questions, integrating your identity, experiences, and feelings into the ways you take action for our climate
Feel free to comment your takeaways down below, or keep them in a journal, notes app, or sticky note on your fridge.
As always, thank you for reading, and I’ll see you next month with another exploration of EDI issues in our community.
Web Resources:
Right to Cool Knowledge Exchange Workshop
Mission and Mandate – Centre for Climate Justice
“The Right to Feel” Podcast by Future Ecologies – Centre for Climate Justice
Scholarly Resources:
Srikanth, R., & Thompson, L. (2024). Climate justice and public health: Realities, responses, and reimaginings for a better future. University of Massachusetts Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.16148239
Gardiner, S. M., Obst, A., & Taylor & Francis eBooks EBA. (2023;2022;). In Obst A. (Ed.), Dialogues on climate justice (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003123408
Lake, O. O. (2024). The story is in our bones: How worldviews and climate justice can remake a world in crisis. New Society Publishers.
UBC Researchers:
Glen Coulthard, Yellowknives Dene and associate professor in the First Nations and Indigenous Studies Program and the Departments of Political Science
Amanda Giang, Assistant Professor in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Mechanical Engineering
Maggie Low, Co-Chair of the Indigenous Community Planning (ICP) program at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning (SCARP)
View more faculty here