1. Week 9: November 15, 2021
Dr. Zoe Todd
Department of Sociology and
Anthropology
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

2. • Indigenous issues in Siberia and Sápmi
Class outline
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3. • We discussed the Rubis and Theriault, Paredes articles and
considered Canada’s impacts on Indigenous peoples’ and local
peoples’ rights in different parts of Asia
Recap Week 9 (November 8)
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4. Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

5. Brightman, Gotti, Ulturgasheva
“In a long history of frontier-centre relations Amazonia
and Siberia have been subject to predatory
exploitation of a centre.”
(Brightman, Gotti and Ulturgasheva 2007: 2)
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

6. Siberia – resource frontiers
Brightman, Grotti, Ulturgasheva 2007: 5
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7. Brightman, Grotti, Ulturgasheva p.
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8. “Norway wind turbines
should be torn down,
reindeer herders say"
We’re going to do an in-class exercise
Read this article (I’ll give us 15 minutes to do so)
https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/norway-wind-
turbines-should-be-torn-down-reindeer-herders-say-2021-11-
12/?fbclid=IwAR1aq_JoLLZkjsW9i33q_vvjG0SuE_XTi-pzQRUYyyQIZtHi-
j-M3zmvht0
We’ll reconvene in 15 minutes to discuss the piece
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

9. Guiding questions
What is the issue identified in the
article?
Who is impacted by or perpetuating
the issue?
What are the underlying power
dynamics affecting the issue?
What role does Indigenous
sovereignty play in this issue?
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

10. https://www.theguardian.com/global-
development/2016/feb/21/sami-people-reindeer-herders-
arctic-culture Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

11. Guardian article
• “His colleague, Aslak Eira, adds: “The problem is land grabbing.
Government expropriates land for roads and tunnels, windfarms
and mines. Our land is being eroded by development. Almost half
of our winter lands have gone. I fear that in future there will be
nowhere left for the reindeer.””
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

12. Guardian, con’t
• “There is an urban, European way of thinking about their
activity. Pastoralism is aimed at using barren land, but the law
is not set up for the movement of animals in the natural
environment and Norwegian laws can criminalise herder
activity. The authorities want to manage reindeer as if they
were sheep.”
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

13. Dr. Olga Ulturgasheva
• Dr. Ulturgasheva is an Indigenous anthropologist at Manchester University:
• “Olga Ulturgasheva (PhD; Cambridge) has carried out ethnographic
research on childhood and adolescence, narrative and memory, animist and
nomadic cosmologies, reindeer herding and hunting, climate change and
the latest envrionmental transformations in Siberia and Alaska. Since 2006
she has been engaged in a number of international projects exploring
human and non-human personhood, youth resilience, climate change and
adaptation patterns in Siberia, American Arctic and Amazonia. She is an
author of Narrating the Future in Siberia: Childhood, Adolescence and
Autobiography among the Eveny (Berghahn Books 2012) and co-editor
of Animism in Rainforest and Tundra: Personhood, Animals, Plants and
Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia (Berghahn 2012).” source:
https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/olga.ulturgasheva.html
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

14. Ulturgasheva and Bodenhorn Article:
• Flexibility in the context of confronting the specific challenges of
climate change in the arctic:
“— In the Arctic, the effects of already existing climate changes are
constant and require just as constant responses—material and non-
material.” (p.3)
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

15. Ulturgasheva and Bodenhorn
“The effects of these extreme events are as much a function of
politico-economic processes, past and present, as they are of
environmental conditions. The extent to which responses are
realizable depends on the creativity, ingenuity and determination of
people who must cope with the conditions around them. But they also
reflect geopolitics—the possibilities as well as the limits that are
shaped by global processes. In this case, we examine some of the ways
in which Siberia and Alaska share similar ecological conditions and
distinct socio-political realities.” (p. 3)
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

16. Ulturgasheva and Bodenhorn
• “and we need to be able to imagine an economic model that is not
based on infinite growth.” (p.2)
• https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/jun/17/is-time-to-end-
our-fixation-with-gdp-and-growth
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

17. School on the move (supplemental activity to
learn more about Indigenous issues in Siberia)
• Access this film via the Carleton VPN so that you can watch National
Film Board Campus subscription films:
https://www.nfb.ca/film/school_on_the_move/
• Reflect on the positionality of the narrator, the interviewees, the
anthropologist, the filmmaker, and other people in the
documentary. Using the tools we have from our readings
throughout the term – is this story rooted in reciprocity? Are there
ways to amend the narrative/filmmaker’s gaze to centre Indigenous
voices more? How would you go about decolonizing this
documentary?
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021

18. Weekly reflection:
Take the opportunity to spend some time with the trees this week
(this can take whatever form feels right for you – visiting a park,
spending time with indoor plants, drawing/painting some images of
trees). Share whatever you feel like sharing after that experience (2-3
sentences).
Copyright Professor Zoe Todd, 2021