Sámi reindeer herder from Guovdageaidnu (Norway) Johan Mathis Turi received an Honorary Doctorate – Doctor of Education in Indigenous Knowledge and Development. The Honorary title was given by the World Indigenous Nations University (WINU) on October 1st, 2024 for Johan Mathis Turi efforts towards the Indigenous people’s education and the work with reindeer herding.
Dr.Turi has been a long-time board member of NBR/ NRL (the Sámi Reindeer Herders Assn. of Norway), a longtime board member of the Norwegian National Board of Reindeer Husbandry (Reindriftstyre), President for 8 years of the Assn. of World Reindeer Herders and its Secretary General till 2017. He has been a leading figure in developing international cooperation between reindeer herders after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he has also been working on the development of knowledge for Indigenous peoples in reindeer herding areas, has been involved in writing a number of scientific articles about reindeer husbandry with the focus on applying traditional knowledge to the study. He divides his residence between Guovdageaidnu (Winter) and Oteren (near Tromsø) in Summer.
WINU is a world network for Indigenous Higher Education and an entity in its own Indigenous sovereign right; founded upon, operating within, and, bound by the sovereignty of Indigenous Peoples. This virtual University facilitates culturally appropriate higher education opportunities worldwide for Indigenous students, Knowledge Keepers and researchers that is framed in Indigenous cultural knowledge, research, theory and scholarship that meets with Western and Cultural Knowledge Standards. WINU strives to provide a safe and flexible virtual environment that allows students to learn about and express themselves using Indigenous ways of doing and knowing.
With this good news lets look again at the speech from Johan Mathis Turi where he talks about traditional leadership and management system in the Sámi reindeer husbandry. Lecture was recorded during the J. McCarthy Leadership seminar for talented and emerging Arctic Indigenous leaders organized by ICR and Harvard University in January 25 – 29, 2021.
