A ‘crisis communication gap’ threatens Indigenous peoples

Grist digs into what Indigenous leaders are calling a "crisis communication gap" — the failure of governments to send emergency alerts in Indigenous languages when disaster strikes. When a wildfire threatened the remote Xeni Gwet'in First Nation in western Canada this spring, alerts went out only in official languages, not the Tŝilhqot'in tongue that many elders depend on to make life-or-death decisions. At a United Nations meeting in Geneva this week, Indigenous delegates from Canada, Russia, and beyond pressed authorities to consult them directly, warning that as climate change makes wildfires and floods more frequent, language erasure and exclusion from planning leave communities dangerously in the dark. As they framed it, Indigenous peoples are not just victims of these crises but rights holders whose knowledge could help protect everyone.

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