Green Hour: Knowing Otherwise: Indigenous Storytelling and Environmental Relations (Dr. Juliane Egerer)

Environmental and climate issues are usually addressed through scientific, technological, and policy-based approaches developed by dominant cultures. Indigenous peoples across the diversity of their cultures, however, approach these issues first and foremost through stories: narrative practices grounded in relational ethics and ecological balance that inspire further action. This lecture examines how contemporary Indigenous storytelling across various media understands and shapes environmental relations, highlighting the centrality of listening to the stories of the land and more-than-human beings. Drawing on Kalaallit Inuit, Sámi, and Anishinaabe stories from Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland), Sápmi, and Turtle Island (North America), it demonstrates how narratives cultivate reciprocity, responsibility, and resilience, even amid ongoing colonial disruptions. Key concepts include Indigenous storywork, terristory—the inseparability of land and story—and Indigenous epistemologies that integrate human, nonhuman, and spiritual worlds across spatio-temporal borders. By engaging stories with humility as living relations rather than objects of study, listeners encounter what “knowing otherwise” entails.

Location: WZU, Room 101 (Building U), Universitätsstr. 1a (innocube), 86159 Augsburg