Supporting Children’s Cultural Resilience in a Time of Climate Change
“Cultural preservation & connection must play a central role as we consider how to support the well-being of displaced children in a future shaped by a changing climate.”
Idea in Brief
In this essay, Anna Russo stresses the critical need to preserve children’s cultural identities when faced with climate related-displacement, particularly in marginalized communities.
Cultural connection and preservation contribute to healthy child development and can help children to heal, settle into new communities, and flourish after trauma.
Existing efforts by local communities to preserve their cultural traditions are potential models for federal policy leaders to replicate on a larger scale.
by Anna Russo
Building in Majuro, Marshall Islands
More and more children are being displaced from their homes and communities because of climate change. The effects of displacement to children’s physical and mental health are well understood. However, children’s cultural identities are also at risk. Cultural preservation and connection must play a central role as we consider how to support the well-being of displaced children in a future shaped by a changing climate.
Climate change is threatening cultures around the world, particularly those that have already struggled to survive in the face of racism, colonialism, and other destructive social forces. Historical sites and monuments are being destroyed or threatened by rising sea levels, wildfires, and extreme weather. For example, on the western coast of Alaska, the effects of climate change are leading to damage of the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, which tells the story of the first humans to inhabit North America. It also has one of the highest concentrations of archeological artifacts on the continent.
At the same time, communities are being displaced from their cultural homelands by climate-related threats and disasters, cutting them off from the people, places, and practices that would allow any culture to continue and thrive. For instance, the tiny Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana has been home to the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe. But the island is slowly disappearing due to rising sea levels and as a result the community has begun to disperse: In 2019, only 26 families out of a peak of 300 remained on the Isle. The fracturing of the tribe has already led to diminished cultural knowledge and threatens future connections for the community.
These threats are particularly relevant for children, for whom connection to cultural identity is a critical aspect of healthy development. Severed social ties, dislocated local knowledge and weakened culture practices could all contribute to this loss of connection for future generations. This in turn could lead to difficulty maintaining community identities and traditions and carrying them forward. Children from historically marginalized groups will be most affected. Their communities are disproportionately affected by climate change and have too often been neglected by cultural preservation efforts.
Current efforts to prevent displacement, to help communities adapt to new climate realities, or to support displaced families often do not support cultural resilience, particularly for children. Many efforts focus mostly on infrastructure, and some current efforts by policy leaders even require marginalized communities to compete for resources.
Even relative success stories, where people displaced by climate change have maintained cultural and community connections, demonstrate the difficulties of building a new life while maintaining connection to what has been lost and finding support to do so. The small town of Springdale, Arkansas, has become a magnet for people leaving the Marshall Islands, which is disappearing due to rising sea levels. The population of the Marshall Islands is 70,000 people, and 10,000 Marshallese live in Northern Arkansas. They vote in Marshall Island elections and more than 30 Marshallese churches offer services in the Marshallese language in or near Springdale. However, many Marshallese are relegated to low-wage work and can no longer live, eat, and gather in ways that were central to their previous ways of life. They have left their homelands, which are disappearing due to climate change, moved to a wealthy nation that is responsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, and are largely on their own in trying to make a home in the United States.
Policy leaders need to recognize that climate-related displacement and migration will only increase and begin to find ways to support those communities in maintaining connections to their cultures. This is essential both for their wellbeing and for their ability to thrive and meaningfully contribute to a new community.
Looking to refugee resettlement practices as an analogous situation, the United States government already acknowledges the importance of cultural connection for displaced people through a law that requires refugee sponsors to provide a “culturally appropriate meal” upon their arrival in the country. As more children and families navigate volatile conditions and are forced from their homes, we must adopt the mindset that connection to culture is an asset as people are navigating displacement and create systems and structures that support that connection.
Efforts by local communities affected by climate change to preserve their cultural traditions are potential models for federal policy leaders to replicate on a larger level. Tribal communities in Alaska have and continue to organize local efforts to relocate communities affected by climate change and preserve their cultural heritage. During their relocations, the Newtok Traditional Council in Alaska emphasized that development should reflect their Yup’ik cultural traditions. And residents of the atoll Carteret Islands placed high importance on protecting their traditional fishing grounds when relocating.
Similarly, programs aimed to support refugee children also provide examples of how culture can play a meaningful role in helping children face displacement. Since 2017, the Humanitarian Play Lab has hosted more than 40,000 Rohingya children to play and learn in a setting that is intentionally designed with their home in mind. It is meant to help them heal and find empowerment and dignity even through their trauma.
Leaders have the power to usher in a new era where children strengthen their cultural identities regardless of where they are or what challenges they are facing. If leaders fail to bolster the cultural resilience of marginalized communities during these unprecedented times of climate change, they run the risk of perpetuating a history in which marginalized children will grow more and more distant from their cultural identities. Their healthy development will be threatened, cultures will continue to disappear, and they will struggle to heal and flourish after trauma. Lack of thoughtful action will allow climate change to wash away children’s full and authentic selves and diminish the cultural richness of our world.
Anna Russo is the Director of Community Futures at Knowledgeworks.