About

At the core of Global Indigenous Studies at the UH are ethical and land-based research, learning, and knowledge co-production.
It works with transformative and decolonial methodologies to approach Indigenous science, power relations, and reconciliation.

Indigenous Studies engages with Indigenous knowledges across place-based, regional, and global dimensions. The discipline has paved the way for Indigenous scholars and studies of lived experiences, long-term histories, and future aspirations from Indigenous perspectives. It also works to enhance dialogues between multiple actors from academia, civil society, and beyond.

Our work is carried out in close collaboration with Indigenous societies and communities, which despite differences often share similar experiences of colonisation and long-standing relational entanglements with the land. Many Indigenous peoples inhabit regions where lands are rich in diversity, constituted through active stewardship and long-time contributions. Indigenous knowledges are materialised in relational land uses, as well as livelihoods, arts, and languages. Indigenous languages comprise a majority of all languages in the world, yet they are also the most endangered of all languages. These knowledges constructed throughout generations are of particular importance when discussing socioeconomic changes in distinct regions, such as where we work in the Arctic and Amazon.

The Global Indigenous studies programme started in 2015 at the . Sámi languages and cultures have been studied at the University of Helsinki since the 19th century as part of , and the discipline has a foundation in , which was founded at the University of Helsinki in 1993. Indigenous Studies aims to expand perspectives from past research work and connect diverse contexts with a more global approach.