Speakers
Home / Conference / KCIS 2022 / Rauna Kuokkanen
Dr. Rauna Kuokkanen
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Rauna Kuokkanen is Research Professor of Arctic Indigenous Studies at the University of Lapland, Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto and a 2021-2022 Fulbright Arctic Initiative Fellow. Her most recent book is the award-winning Restructuring Relations: Indigenous Self-Determination, Governance and Gender (Oxford UP, 2019), an Indigenous feminist investigation of Indigenous self-determination, governance and gender regimes in Indigenous political institutions. She is also the author of Boaris dego eana: Eamiálbmogiid diehtu, filosofiijat ja dutkan (in Sámi; translated title: As Old as the Earth. Indigenous Knowledge, Philosophies and Research, 2009). Her book Reshaping the University: Responsibility, Indigenous Epistemes and the Logic of the Gift (2007) develops an Indigenous, poststructural critique of the contemporary university. Professor Kuokkanen has recently published on the truth and reconciliation process in Finland and Nordic settler colonialism. She is from Ohcejohka/Utsjoki, Sápmi and previously lived in Canada for nearly 20 years.
Conference Abstract
Arctic Indigenous Diplomacy in the New Era
There are over 40 different circumpolar Indigenous peoples, who make about fourth of the population in the Arctic region. Arctic Indigenous traditions of diplomacy are a very little studied field, but have most likely accounted, in part, for the survival and well-being of the peoples in the High North. In my talk, I discuss some examples of contemporary international Indigenous cooperation and consider what they may offer for the changed and rapidly changing multilateralism in the Arctic. My cases include the Sámi and the Inuit peoples, both of whose traditional territories today span across multiple countries, including Russia. Moreover, the Sámi and the Inuit both are the founding Permanent Participants of the Arctic Council, the operations of which were suspended earlier this year due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Notwithstanding that the Arctic Council is premised on active, meaningful participation and involvement of circumpolar Indigenous peoples, the Permanent Participants were not consulted about the suspension of the Council’s activities. I also briefly consider the effects of the emergence of the new Cold War on the Sámi and Inuit peoples’ prospects for internal diplomacy and cooperation across nation-state borders.
