Project Overview

Initiated in late 2022, the purpose of this international collaborative project is to investigate in a historical perspective how Indigenous societies survive and maintain cohesion when faced with changing physical conditions due to colonialism and environmental change. The knowledge produced will be of essential relevance for understanding and identifying human responses to climate change and loss of biodiversity.

With a current team of diverse researchers from Finland, Sweden, and the United States, the SUN project aims to collaborate with a multitude of individuals and Indigenous communities across the globe in order to accomplish these goals.

Using a historical perspective to investigate causes and consequences of changing physical conditions and loss of biodiversity for a select number of Indigenous societies in North America and Northern Europe.
Identifying spaces and practices of survivance among Native American and Sámi communities
Tracking survivance as a form of entanglement, linking Indigenous peoples to pasts and futures, to the land, and to each other across community, national, and imperial borders.
Communicating research findings with Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities and policy makers, initiating dialogues on how to face the unthinkable consequences of global climate change and biodiversity loss.

Current Initiatives

Lindsay Doran 2/16/23 Lindsay Doran 2/16/23

Bordered Spaces and Remembered Land

Retainment of traditional knowledge, and emergent conflict lines.

Lindsay Doran 2/16/23 Lindsay Doran 2/16/23

Colonial Education and Traditional Knowledge

What roles did settler colonialism and colonial rhetoric play in Indigenous education? How were traditions preserved in the face of cultural assimilation and absorption?