Lecturer: Kristina Sehlin MacNeil, docent in Sami studies and deputy director of Várdduo, the center for Sami research at Umeå University
Guest: Liv Aira, choreographer, dancer and founder of the world's first Sami dance center.
Kristina Sehlin MacNeil talks about indigenous people's experiences of the so-called green transition based on a new research study. Here, thoughts are raised about the interplay between land, language and man and what humanity stands to lose if sustainable use of our planet is not prioritized.
Kristina Sehlin MacNeil is associate professor in Sami studies and deputy director of Várdduo - the center for Sami research at Umeå University, where she also works as a researcher. Sehlin MacNeil primarily researches conflicts and power relations between indigenous peoples and extractive industries and international comparisons of these; as well as various forms of violence affecting indigenous peoples. She is a member of several international research networks, including the Canadian network MinErAL, and participates in the editorial board of the Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe. She is also deputy director of the Faculty of Humanities' graduate school at Umeå University.
Liv and Kristina got questions from Birgit Bernt, the Dance Director at Norrlandsoperan, about the so called "green transition" in the north of Sweden. The discussed the the affect on indigenous people and how structural, cultural and extractive violence creates lateral violence in the indigenous culture. The structural oppression needs culture as as an important counterpoint. The discussion was connected to the importance of establishing the new cultural center, the Sami Dance Center in Vuollerim.