‘Indigenous wisdom’ has become a catchphrase in environmentalist circles and international diplomacy since the 2000s. Intergovernmental organisations, scholars, and NGOs point to Indigenous peoples as the carriers of solutions for the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and ecological collapse. There is an increasing recognition that the Western way of being not only fails to right the ecological wrongs but even increases them. Yet, in these conversations, Indigenous peoples become fetishised, and their knowledge romanticised, mysticised, and misunderstood.
This webinar gives the stage to an Anishinaabe-Ukrainian writer and speaker, a Sámi Wisdom Keeper and trauma specialist, and a Tupi activist and artist to explain their worlds, cosmovisions, and lessons.
Patty Krawec is an Anishinaabe-Ukrainian writer and speaker of the Lac Seul First Nation (Obishikokaang) territory. She is the founding director of the Nii’kinaaganaa Foundation, co-host of Medicine for the Resistance, and has authored the books Bad Indians Book Club: Reading at the Edge of a Thousand Worlds and Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future.
Helene Lindmark is a Sámi Wisdom Keeper and trauma specialist from Sápmi, Sweden. Her work bridges ancestral knowledge and contemporary society through healing, leadership, and community development. Drawing on Indigenous perspectives and lived experience, she explores the relationship between people, place, memory, and belonging. She contributes to international dialogues on climate, sustainability, and Indigenous rights, bringing a grounded perspective on humanity’s relationship with nature and the relevance of Indigenous knowledge in addressing today's global challenges.
Victoria Matos (alias: Vicka Tupi) is an Indigenous activist and actress from the Tupi Peoples living under today's Brazil. She is the creator and director of the podcast Sementes Urbanas (Urban Seeds), a collective created by three Indigenous peoples to reclaim their Indigenous identity. Vicka’s main project deals with how to be an Indigenous person in the contemporary world.
The webinar is moderated by Dr. David Goyes, University of Oslo.
Watch the webinar here (YouTube)
The event has been supported by UiO:Life Science.
The project is funded by the University of Oslo’s interdisciplinary initiative UiO: Energy and Environment.