How can epistemic justice to Indigenous Peoples be promoted through research? This question was deliberated at this year’s fall colloquium of the Finnish Society for Environmental Social Science (YHYS). The EnJUSTICE Finnish team facilitated a session bringing together social scientists collaborating with Sámi communities and organisations.
Indigenous Peoples continue to suffer from epistemic injustice. Academic, scientific knowledge with “Western” origins has been positioned as universal and superior, while Indigenous Knowledge systems have been rendered subordinate, unreasonable, untrue, or non-existent. Indigenous Knowledge holders have been marginalised, and majority societies lack the ability to understand Indigenous Knowledge. Involving Indigenous Peoples, or the owners of Indigenous Knowledge in research is a prerequisite to addressing epistemic injustice but ‘research fatigue’ (for instance, tiredness of being treated as the object of research or of not seeing benefits of the participation) amongst Indigenous communities is a serious concern. Thus, the question of how to prevent burdening the individuals and communities through research arises. Further, involving Indigenous Peoples in research processes does not necessarily lead to empowerment and the recognition of Indigenous worlds, knowledge systems or human and Indigenous rights. Thus, Anna Ott, member of the Finnish EnJUSTICE project team, invited colleagues to discuss how research that challenges existing power structures that marginalise Indigenous Knowledge holders could or should look like. At the YHYS fall colloquium 2025, Elina Mikola, Aino Lipsanen, Tiina Jääskeläinen, Emma Kaskinen, and Marja Helena Sivonen shared their experiences regarding attempts to promote recognition of Indigenous Knowledge, especially Sámi traditional knowledge, as valid and valuable knowledge and at collaborating ethically with Indigenous communities and organizations
Elina Mikola, Climate and Environment Advisor at Amnesty International Finland, talked about practices applied and lessons learned during a joint research project of Amnesty International and the Saami Council. In this research project carried out between 2022-2025 Sámi experts were involved from the outset, since the first brainstorming and planning stages of the project. The research fatigue amongst the Sámi was addressed by aiming to ensure that the Sámi communities saw the research project beneficial to them. By combining research, advocacy, education, and campaigning Amnesty and the Sámi Parliament also aspired to make sure that the research project had a genuine social impact. Main findings and policy recommendations of the research project were published in the report “Just Transition Or ‘Green Colonialism’? How mineral extraction and new energy projects without free, prior and informed consent are threatening Indigenous Sámi livelihoods and culture in Sweden, Norway and Finland“ (link to the report).
Aino Lipsanen, Project Manager at the Finnish Environment Institute, presented what kind of choices were made in the project Indigenous Knowledge and Arctic Forests (IKForest) to promote just and ethically conscious collaborations with Indigenous Peoples. These ethical choices involved, for instance, consultations with Sámi self-governing organizations and Saami Council on obtaining free, prior and informed consent, and including equally representatives of Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and environmental administration to the Steering Committee, responsible for setting high-level priorities, approving activities and decision-making related to the project. Following a recommendation from the Sámi Parliament in Finland, the project contracted an Indigenous Knowledge Advisor, responsible for developing and overseeing guidelines for safeguarding Indigenous Knowledge throughout the project, creating culturally appropriate safe space guidelines and ensuring cultural compatibility, such as aligning activities with Indigenous annual cycles. To return the knowledge gathered to the participating communities, dedicated events for sharing the results were held, and summaries of the report with recommendations were translated to Indigenous languages. The project also held space for responding needs expressed by the communities during the project, which resulted in developing and piloting a training on forest governance and policy for Indigenous communities.
Tiina Jääskeläinen, Doctoral Researcher at Hanken School of Economics and Project Researcher at University of Eastern Finland, shared experiences from her doctoral research on land use, natural resource and development governance in the Sámi homeland (Sápmi) in Finland. Tiina highlighted that a researcher cannot be ethical only by following a set of ethical research principles but that ethical dilemmas might arise when choices related to ethical research principles are made in research practice. By reference to her own fieldwork, she illustrated that each choice made during a research process involves ethical dilemmas and that whilst one can anticipate consequences, no researcher can ever know their full array in advance. Finally, she called for safe spaces in academia to reflect on ethical dilemmas to mitigate the risk of reproducing (neo)colonial dualistic dividers.
Emma Kaskinen, Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oulu, joined in the discussion by sharing challenges faced when defining “the field”. Emma’s research aims at understanding the impact of the Finnish state’s neglect towards the Sámi in the context of increased militarisation of Sápmi. Emma raised central questions that should be tackled early in the research process such as who is the audience? What sort of knowledge and understanding is the aim? What are possible avenues to discuss and distribute the research so that it could benefit the impacted Sámi communities? Further, she reflected on her own positionality as a Finnish researcher doing research on Sámi issues, and the lack of encountering other than “Western” academic ways of knowing during her own education.
Finally, Marja Helena Sivonen, Senior Researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute (Syke) and a visiting researcher at the Arctic Center, presented a preliminary collaborative initiative between Syke and the Sámi Parliament of Finland, aimed at fostering impactful and effective Sámi-research-partnerships while minimizing the burden on the Sámi Parliament. Marja explained a test round at Syke related to procedures for obtaining consent in research projects that engage with Sámi cultural heritage and traditional knowledge. Upon meeting with the Sámi Parliament to hear their thoughts and expectations, all relevant research applications at Syke were combined and the Sámi Parliament provided comments on them at one go. Marja raised that while Syke needs to develop its practices, other research institutes and universities should also build structures that ensure ethical research involving the Sámi and facilitate cooperation without increasing burdening of the Sámi Parliament and other communities. This includes finding sustainable ways to return the traditional knowledge received during the cooperation.
The sessions covered many different viewpoints to increasing ethical and just research in the academia. The presentations were able to cover early-stages of planning a project, challenges related to consortiums with multiple partners and the final stages of what to do when a project is ending. In the future, more topics could be discussed, such as bringing the Sámi views to these discussions, as more and more research is done by the Sámi in Sámi institutions and thus, we as non-indigenous researchers could learn from them. We would, however, like to highlight that the responsibility to conduct ethical research lays with the researcher. It is our duty to improve not only our own ways, but also the methods and the institutional structures we work in.
Finally, as a key point the session highlighted the importance of open and active communication with the Sámi communities and with the partners within the projects and outside of it.
Thank you to the full room of interested colleagues and researchers, for sharing your experiences and for inspiring discussions on how researchers should and can contribute to epistemic justice to Indigenous Peoples.
Written by Anna Ott, Emma Kaskinen, Tiina Jääskeläinen, Elina Mikola, Aino Lipsanen and Marja Helena Sivonen, 17.12.2025