Through collaborative research with affected communities and specialists, we focus on how Indigenous are being recognized in the energy transition.
Our long term case collaboration is with the Pilmaiken territory over a transnational hydropower conflict on Mapuche-Williche Indigenous lands in Chile. This brought three members of team to Norway in May 2023 to observe and provide technical support for Mapuche-Williche leaders seeking to halt energy development on their sacred river.
Dartmouth students conduct independent research as part of the Energy Justice Clinic with communities in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, among other places..
We are currently building relationships to start research and learning on the Lithium Triangle of lithium extraction in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile and wind energy conflicts affecting water reserves in Chiloe Island, Chile.
Building on Professor Sarah Kelly's decade-long work with the Mapuche-Wiliche Indigenous community, we study an enduring conflict between Mapuche-Williche communities, a Norwegian state-owned renewable energy company, Statkraft, and the Chilean state.
Working with Mapuche-Williche communities and an international network of collaborators, the Clinic has developed timelines of the conflict, based on Indigenous perspectives of time according to non-linearity.
We have also produced a report on the case (linked below), theorizing through the lens of energy justice, legal studies, and Indigenous sovereignty about the disruption of this Global North company on Indigenous cosmovisions and territorial relationships in the Global South. In an effort involving scholars from Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Norway, and the United States, we have analyzed how Statkraft is blatantly disregarding several of the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights and the International Labor Organization Convention 169.
Our research centers on how Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) is enacted in practice, which is a critical legal mechanism for Indigenous rights internationally. Through our collaborative research, we aim to decolonize what we consider legitimate practices of knowledge production. For example, to question what we mean by "energy", "justice" and "sovereignty" – and who consolidated such definitions in the first place. Such questioning opens up possibilities to validate, for instance, Indigenous cosmovisions that place nature as part of kinship relationshipsinstead of as natural resources. Therefore, it becomes feasible to support these historically marginalized communities to reclaim their narratives, territories, and ways of living.
Read our work here:
Clinic report written on the case in Spanish: Protección del Pilmaiken
Clinic report written on the case in English: ProtectingthePilmaiken
Related academic article by Dr. Kelly and collaborators: Kellyetal2021
As of now, we are…
- Producing academic and social media content in Spanish and in English – to raise awareness of the ongoing energy injustices the Mapuche-Williche are suffering in Chile, especially aiming to inform Norwegian audiences of the actions of the public-owned Statkraft company
- Holding meetings with potential international collaborators, as we understand that plurality of perspectives is key to comprehending the interdisciplinary aspect of this case
- Researching the social and environmental impacts of similar renewable energy projects throughout Latin America – focusing on Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, as these countries hold similarities relating to resource extraction and Indigenous rights violations
- Writing an academic paper on "Epistemological Justice as Energy Justice: Reflections from a Transnational Collaboration on Hydropower and Indigenous Rights," advocating for epistemological inclusion of non-Western ways of knowing in the energy justice framework.
- Building collaborations with Norwegian and Sámi academics and communities confronting similar challenges related to Indigenous rights recognition in Saepmi territory of Norway