We are thrilled to welcome Indigenous rights, environmental law scholar Rebecca Tsosie as the Fall 2021 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals.
Tsosie’s keynote presentation will discuss the values, virtues, and challenges of “citizenship” in relation to the past and current circumstances of Indigenous peoples, who are often divided by political borders and identities that they had no role in creating. The consequences of climate change have promoted a view of the “rights of nature” as a way to conceptualize human duties to the natural world. Tsosie suggests that we draw upon Indigenous epistemologies to create a land-based vision of “citizenship” that protects the relationship between “people” and “place” that is the cornerstone of Indigenous identity. In the process, we may be required to rethink the meaning of “reconciliation” and the utility of the imagined borders that we have constructed.
Tsosie will be in virtual residency at UH Mānoa for the fall semester, participating in a variety of events with students, faculty, and community leaders. The keynote presentation is free and open to the public, and viewers must pre-register below:
Rethinking Reconciliation: Toward a Land-Based Indigenous Citizenship
Thursday, October 28, 202112 p.m. Online
Registration link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_lO0fUC0fRpWCUahifJxAzg
Rebecca Tsosie is a Regents Professor at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. She also serves as a justice for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation Supreme Court and as a judge on the San Carlos Tribal Court of Appeals. She is the Fall 2021 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals.
Professor Tsosie, who is of Yaqui descent, has authored a leading federal Indian law casebook and more than 50 articles and book chapters on topics such as cultural sovereignty, Indigenous self-determination, and biodiversity.
Established in 2005 by the UH Board of Regents, the Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals brings significant public figures to Hawaiʻi to foster public discourse regarding democratic ideals and civic engagement. The chair is housed in the Department of American Studies in the College of Arts, Languages & Letters and the William S. Richardson School of Law at UH Mānoa.