Seminar: "Indigenous futures imagined: Amazon and Arctic discussions"

Seminar: “Indigenous futures imagined: Amazon and Arctic discussions”

 

Date: Wednesday, May 3^rd, 2023
Time: 10– 12:30
Venue: Room Z/022- Z/023 Sala Antoni Rosell, ICTA-UAB & online https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83697668566?pwd=MnVmd2pNRXcvVC8vZzlzQkFldWh3Zz09
 

The speakers include:

Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares is a Ramón y Cajal research fellow at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He uses geospatial analysis to quantify  Indigenous Peoples' contributions to biodiversity conservation. 

Outi Laiti is a postdoctoral researcher of Indigenous Studies at the University of Helsinki. She focuses on Sámi wordlings and empowerment through Sámi game development.

Pirjo Kristiina Virtanen is an associate professor of Indigenous Studies at the University of Helsinki. She discusses the future of Amazonian land-based education and biocultural heritage.

Francisco Apurinã is a postdoctoral researcher of Indigenous Studies at the University of Helsinki. He addresses oral histories of Apurinã people as a guiding framework for the community-based environmental conservation projects. 

Ksenija Hanacek is postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. She works on environmental justice conflicts in the Arctic region with the Global Atlas of Environmental Justice, an online tool and database, which makes visible social injustices related to extractive projects.
 

Abstract

Human-environment engagements have shaped the planet’s climate and ecosystems for millennia. Meanwhile, Indigenous societies’ ways of co-being with the environment and their conservation efforts for the current and future generations have been effective in different parts of the world. In this seminar, Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars discuss future imaginations across Indigenous Arctic and Amazonian contexts. By bringing these two globally-important regions together, alternative futures imagined here and now and through the past are revealed. The futures of Amazonia are addressed drawing from Indigenous oral histories as a guide for sustainability pathways. Sámi world-making is discussed through game-design and digital software sovereignty. Finally, evidence derived from collaborative mapping for the defense of human-environment collectives and world's biodiversity are presented and reflected upon the future of the Amazon and the Arctic.