IPLP SJD Scholar Ljavaus Kazangiljan Guo Highlights Indigenous Self-Determination and Climate Governance at NAISA in Wallmapu
Climate policy is never only about science or economics. For Indigenous Peoples, it is also about who governs the land, whose knowledge shapes the rules, and who has the authority to decide the future of their communities.
Beyond the Conference Room: My First Journey to Wallmapu (the ancestral and historical territory of the indigenous Mapuche nation)
The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, or NAISA, grew out of exploratory meetings hosted by the University of Oklahoma in 2007 and the University of Georgia in 2008. Formally incorporated in 2009, NAISA is an international and interdisciplinary professional organization dedicated to advancing Indigenous studies, supporting community-engaged research, and bringing scholars and Indigenous communities together through its annual conference.
At this year’s conference, I presented my paper, “Indigenous Self-Determination and Taiwan’s Emerging Carbon Market: Indigenous Exclusion and the Need for Early Intervention.” My research examines how Taiwan’s developing carbon market may exclude Indigenous Peoples from meaningful decision-making. It also asks how Indigenous self-determination, land rights, knowledge systems, and governing institutions can be incorporated into climate policy from the beginning.
NAISA brings legal scholars, Indigenous leaders, policymakers, activists, artists, and community members into the same space. This creates a rare opportunity to engage with academic scholarship, lived experience, and community-based approaches to governance. The conference also allows Indigenous scholars from North America, Latin America, the Pacific, Asia, and other regions to share experiences and develop comparative perspectives.
Participating in NAISA had a significant impact on my professional development. Before traveling to the conference, I set three goals. I wanted to strengthen my ability to communicate complex legal and policy issues to an interdisciplinary audience, build meaningful academic and professional relationships, and deepen my understanding of how Indigenous communities in different regions are responding to similar challenges. These insights will directly inform the comparative dimension of my dissertation. With the support of my colleagues and the NAISA community, I was able to achieve all three goals.
My presentation generated thoughtful feedback from the audience. Participants engaged with my argument that climate mitigation mechanisms, including carbon markets, involve questions that extend far beyond science and economics. They also create legal and political relationships involving land, governance, knowledge, and authority.
Indigenous Peoples already possess the knowledge and institutional capacity to design and manage their own climate and carbon initiatives. Governments must recognize Indigenous self-determination and work with Indigenous Peoples during the earliest stages of legal and policy development. Early and meaningful involvement can reduce the risk that climate projects will further damage Indigenous lands, marginalize Indigenous knowledge, or weaken Indigenous governance.
After my presentation, I had the opportunity to meet Kanaka Maoli scholar Professor J. Kēhaulani Kauanui. She expressed strong interest in my work and encouraged me to consider submitting a book proposal to the co-edited series Critical Indigeneities. I also met Professor Ann-Elise Lewallen of Pacific and Asian Studies at the University of Victoria and Professor Dana Elizabeth Powell of the Graduate Institute of Medical Humanities at Taipei Medical University. Both scholars work on climate justice and critical Indigenous studies, with particular attention to Indigenous relationships, knowledge systems, and worldviews.
During a roundtable on climate change and Indigenous Peoples, I connected with Indigenous participants from Nepal, including Sherpa people involved in the stewardship of Mount Everest. I learned how Indigenous communities can adopt and transform technology while maintaining control over their knowledge, values, and collective priorities.
The participants emphasized that uncertainty exists even within scientific systems that claim to follow rigorous methodologies. Every form of knowledge has limits. Acknowledging those limits requires humility and openness toward other ways of knowing, including Indigenous knowledge and Indigenous science.
This discussion reinforced an issue that my colleagues and I had been considering shortly before the session. Indigenous knowledge should not be required to prove its validity solely through Western scientific standards. It should also be understood through Indigenous epistemologies, ontologies, and community-based systems of interpretation. These knowledge systems have been developed, refined, and tested through generations of observation, practice, and lived experience.
One of the most powerful aspects of the conference was witnessing how Mapuche Peoples shared their struggles and built relationships with participants. Mapuche land defenders continue to face serious threats, including criminalization, imprisonment, violence, and death. At the same time, Mapuche communities continue to strengthen their resistance through music, scholarship, art, community organizing, political advocacy, and cultural revitalization. Their resistance is both powerful and deeply resilient.
Through collaboration between the conference organizers and Mapuche communities, participants visited several Mapuche lof, or communities. I felt deeply honored to meet community members and share a meal at Ayllarewe Budi, located within Lafkenche territory. The Lafkenche are Mapuche people whose identity and way of life are closely connected to the sea. Their territory is naturally bordered by the Traitrako, also known as the Imperial River, to the north and the Toltén River to the south.
Community members explained that they are engaged in a significant process of rebuilding and affirming Mapuche Lafkenche culture. Their work extends across sociopolitical governance, economic life, spirituality, medicine, education, communication, and biodiversity protection. They are sustaining these efforts through Mapuche knowledge, law, and land stewardship.
This journey exceeded all of my expectations. It was far more than an academic conference. It showed me how Indigenous scholars and communities can build healthy, reciprocal relationships while advancing Indigenous rights, self-determination, and nation-building.
An academic conference does not need to remain inside a concrete building, separated from the communities whose experiences it discusses. It can move into community spaces and create opportunities for dialogue, mutual learning, accountability, and reciprocal collaboration.