In this article, I explore how haunting as a theoretical concept is useful for analyzing the emotional effects of colonization and forced assimilation of the Sámi, the Indigenous people in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. While some still find it difficult to talk about what it means for them to be Sámi today, telling stories about hauntings is paradoxically something that they do more easily. Through theories concerning affect, emotions and haunting, I explore how these stories represent something more than elements of the Sámi religion. The act of telling these stories can also be analyzed as metaphors for both a continued connection that people have to the landscapes and their ancestors, and as a way of dealing with the emotional ambiguity of trying to find new ways of articulating a continuing Sámi presence.
Phillip Orcher, Victoria J. Palmer and Tyson Yunkaporta
2025 | Australia
This paper describes the health and wellbeing applications of a protocol designed from a Gumbaynggirr Australian First People’s concept, Bigaagarri. The protocol reframes threats to health and wellbeing as part of a communicative system of environmental signals, rather than an individualised, behavioural fight–flight–fear response. Developed by a Muruwari Gumbaynggirr researcher,…
Amani Kasherwa, Caroline Lenette, Achol Arop and Ajang Duot
2024 | Australia
The issue of suicide has garnered considerable attention in refugee scholarship, where research examines how unique forced migration and resettlement challenges exacerbate risks and vulnerabilities to suicide. However, there are gaps in understanding the social and cultural factors shaping the lived experience of suicide in refugee communities. Using the example…
Performance methodologies take many forms—performative writing, poetic transcription, and co-performative witnessing, to name only a few—and can be both process and product, differentiating and unifying a group between and across differences. As a social work researcher committed to decolonial, liberatory methodologies that make and bring meaning to the communities I…
Helena Abolins-Thompson, Kimiora L. Henare, Bridget Simonson, Mark Chaffin, Patrick T. Ellinor, Claire Henry, Mairarangi Haimona, Jake Aitken, Taku Parai, Bianca Elkington, Michael Rongo, Kirsty M. Danielson and Megan P. Leask
2025 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Introduction: Indigenous communities globally are inequitably affected by non-communicable diseases such as cancer and coronary artery disease. Increased focus on personalized medicine approaches for the treatment of these diseases offers opportunities to improve the health of Indigenous people. Conversely, poorly implemented approaches pose increased risk of further exacerbating current inequities in…
Phillip Orcher, Victoria J. Palmer and Tyson Yunkaporta
2025 | Australia
This paper describes the health and wellbeing applications of a protocol designed from a Gumbaynggirr Australian First People’s concept, Bigaagarri. The protocol reframes threats to health and wellbeing as part of a communicative system of environmental signals, rather than an individualised, behavioural fight–flight–fear response. Developed by a Muruwari Gumbaynggirr researcher,…
Amani Kasherwa, Caroline Lenette, Achol Arop and Ajang Duot
2024 | Australia
The issue of suicide has garnered considerable attention in refugee scholarship, where research examines how unique forced migration and resettlement challenges exacerbate risks and vulnerabilities to suicide. However, there are gaps in understanding the social and cultural factors shaping the lived experience of suicide in refugee communities. Using the example…
Performance methodologies take many forms—performative writing, poetic transcription, and co-performative witnessing, to name only a few—and can be both process and product, differentiating and unifying a group between and across differences. As a social work researcher committed to decolonial, liberatory methodologies that make and bring meaning to the communities I…
Helena Abolins-Thompson, Kimiora L. Henare, Bridget Simonson, Mark Chaffin, Patrick T. Ellinor, Claire Henry, Mairarangi Haimona, Jake Aitken, Taku Parai, Bianca Elkington, Michael Rongo, Kirsty M. Danielson and Megan P. Leask
2025 | Aotearoa New Zealand
Introduction: Indigenous communities globally are inequitably affected by non-communicable diseases such as cancer and coronary artery disease. Increased focus on personalized medicine approaches for the treatment of these diseases offers opportunities to improve the health of Indigenous people. Conversely, poorly implemented approaches pose increased risk of further exacerbating current inequities in…
