Rauna Kuokkanen - What does Sámi democratic engagement in energy transition look like?

EXALT Podcast

This month we were honoured to be joined by Rauna Kuokkanen, a Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Politics at the University of Lapland (Finland) and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Over the course of her career, Rauna’s work has focused on comparative Indigenous politics and various forms of violence, from structural settler-colonial to interpersonal gendered violence, and theorized Indigenous feminism. She has also critiqued the narrow epistemic foundations of the academy and how Indigenous epistemes could be ethically received as a gift. In this conversation, we explore her new project on the systematic exclusion of the Sámi people and institutions in pursuit of the Nordic energy transition. What does a just transition mean for the Sámi and other Indigenous peoples? The push for decarbonization puts huge pressure on the land, resources and livelihoods in the Sápmi, while Sámi are simultaneously at the forefront experiencing the negative impacts of the climate crisis. Join us for this extremely interesting and wide-ranging conversation.

Interested in learning more about Rauna’s work? https://rauna.net/