Knowledge Justice Collective

The Knowledge Justice Collective was born out of conversations between Himalayan scholars (2019-2022) Costanza Rampini, Mabel Gergan, Pasang Yangjee Sherpa and Ritodhi Chakraborty on plural climate studies framework for the Himalayas, and between Ritodhi Chakraborty and Pasang Yangjee Sherpa (2022-2023) on critical reflections on the IPCC and Himalayan climate knowledges, with encouragement from our UN Foundation colleague Kristyn Ostanek (2022), following Ritodhi and Pasang’s joint presentation at the IPCC pavilion in COP 26.

The collective seeks to respectfully advance meaningful engagements across knowledge systems. This begins with the recognition of epistemological value of Indigenous Knowledges in solving world problems. For the last two years, the collective has focused on systematically reviewing the IPCC AR6 to identify how Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Knowledges have been included in this authoritative scientific report on the state of the planet. This led us to collaborate with geographer Eric Nost in further understanding the global landscape of climate knowledge production and the ways in which Indigenous Knowledges have been engaged with. This project has benefitted immensely from the research assistantship of students at UBC: Amrit Tamang, Charlotte Taylor, Declan Taylor, Ramudi Samarasakera, Sayano Izu, and Thanh Le.

**Pasang co-authored “Toward more ethical engagements between Western and Indigenous sciences,” published by Facets.