As we round out day eight of COP29, I’m left feeling quite demoralized with the global community. While I have left most days loving the Indigenous representatives across the world and feeling that we can solve the issue of climate change if those in power are willing to listen and act, I am sitting in our residence right now at a loss.
Today, we experienced what it’s like for young people to meet a very important U.S. government agency leader and their assistant.
This meeting was supposed to be about how this agency can better engage young people as we enter a new administration in the U.S. and how they can best try to permanently change their agency to standardize the inclusion of young people before the new administration takes over in 61 days. I did not know very much about the meeting beforehand, but as I heard the introduction, I became excited to see what the young people had to say and consult them on because I know that they are pissed off, wronged, and so ready to be leaders in climate change advocacy and work.
Instead, what we experienced was three youth “leaders” of climate change international conferences taking up almost the entirety of the hour and not letting anyone else speak very much or at all. I saw how the agency head specifically only called on them and did not care at all to hear from the others. With only an hour set aside by this agency for youth consultation, 45 minutes was taken up by those who have already been to many COP meetings, have big followings, and created an atmosphere of ego and pride. All of this whilst heavily indicating to me that they don’t actually do real community work whatsoever.
What surprised and angered me the most is that one of these young “leaders” represented themselves as Indigenous to North America and it took about 30 minutes for them to finally admit that they are not Indigenous at all to North America. It also took awhile to understand that they don’t even live in the United States at all either. I was left bewildered as to why they would show up to a meeting with a U.S. agency and represent themselves as Indigenous to the States. As the walls closed in on them because they couldn’t answer the agency leader’s question about how to engage Indigenous communities in the States, I realized that they always take up space as the “Indigenous” leader in this space in particular.
Suffice to say, I left this meeting feeling quite angered that somebody could do this and feel no problem with it because authentic Indigenous representation isn’t always present at these meetings. But this time, we were there, and they knew they couldn’t continue their act. I have no problem with allies of Indigenous people speaking with vigor and thoughtfulness, but to represent yourself as someone who comes from these communities and works with them when you don’t is really awful to see.
Unfortunately, I’m beginning to understand that at the COP meetings, those who represent grassroots and community work are not always real.
Their entire job and life work is to go to international meetings and say rhetorical things to sound “woke” and correct. What this type of life provides is not justice, community, or inclusion.
We need to be really careful about how we move forward as people. If we don’t start teaching our young people about collectivism and how to hold their peers as equal, we will continue to see fame and fortune being made off of the backs of those suffering the most. It is important to remind ourselves that we are never the most important in the room and that collective and authentic voices being equally heard is not only vital but lifesaving.
Jen is a Climate Generation Window Into COP delegate for COP29. To learn more, we encourage you to meet the full delegation, support our delegates, and subscribe to the Window Into COP digest.
Jen (Nape Mato Win) is an enrolled member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Since the KXL pipeline threatened treaty territory of the Dakotas, Jen has been passionate about a world beyond fossil fuels and centering Indigenous voices, culture, and history. Jen is also a beadwork artist, Indigenous gardener, and received a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Augsburg University. She believes that positive cultural and ancestral based knowledge are vital components to Indigenous resiliency. Currently, Jen is the Environmental Justice and Stewardship Programs Manager at Wakan Tipi Awanyankapi, an East Side St. Paul, Minnesota – Indigenous led environmental nonprofit that stewards the sacred site known as Wakan Tipi.
