Indigenizing climate change health impact assessments and action plans: the Swinomish health template

Increasingly over the past decade, local and regional governments have begun developing climate change impact assessments and action plans for planning and decision-making purposes. Indigenous Nations are leading this work with the overall goal to protect the health and wellbeing of their members, lands, waters, and air. Evaluating potential human health effects is an integral part of these climate change plans, yet the majority of the plans are unable to employ the health values and priorities of Indigenous communities because there are no established metrics with which to do so. We will present our methods and findings from a recently completed project assessing community health implications and priorities in relation to projected changes in the habitats of salmon, crabs and clams due to sea level rise and storm surge on the Swinomish Reservation. We will discuss how Swinomish define health—based on the concept of resilience—and provide a template for other Indigenous communities to tailor and adapt for their own needs in evaluating community health impacts and priorities moving forward. This work demonstrates the importance of working from the ground up by involving the community in the assessment and planning processes and ensuring that the health information—what health means, what may be effected and how, and priorities, originate from the community members themselves