The University of Lapland and the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, will organise a workshop in London on 12 February 2016 to address the current claim that political power is being redistributed and exercised in new ways in indigenous issues. The workshop is part of the international research project “Indigeneity in Waiting: Elusive Rights and the Power of Hope” funded by Kone Foundation.

The workshop seeks to explore whether this alleged progress has
marked a significant change in the ways in which indigenous subjectivity is
perceived. What are the links between claims to push forward the status and rights
of indigenous peoples, and the interpellation of indigeneity in terms of adaptation,
endurance and persistence?

The workshop “Indigeneity
and the Promise of Inclusion” will take place at the University of Westminster.
Among other scholars, the workshops convenors, Professor David Chandler from
University of Westminster and postdoctoral researchers Marjo Lindroth and Heidi
Sinevaara-Niskanen from University of Lapland will present their research on
resilience, indigeneity and knowledge. Lindroth and Sinevaara-Niskanen have jointly
studied indigenous peoples in international politics, especially in terms of
environmental agency and the demand for adaptation and resilience.

The three-year project “Indigeneity in Waiting: Elusive Rights and
the Power of Hope” (2016–2018) is led by Professor Julian Reid, Faculty of
Social Sciences, and it employs postdoctoral researchers Marjo Lindroth from the
Arctic Centre and Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen from the Unit for Gender Studies. The
project views legal and institutional advances concerning indigenous peoples, and
the promise of such advances, as an integral part of politics today. The research
project problematises the promise of progress in indigenous issues and argues it has
engendered a new form of power that operates specifically through hope. Questions of
rights, hope and indigeneity are studied in three contexts: Australia, Finland and
Greenland.

Further
information:

Professor Julian Reid
julian.reid (at) ulapland.fi

Postdoctoral researcher
Marjo Lindroth
marjo.lindroth (at) ulapland.fi

Postdoctoral researcher Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen
heidi.sinevaara-niskanen(at) ulapland.fi

Project’s home
page

ULapland/Communications/SV