The issue discusses the multiple logics in the discourses and practices of resilience. The authors from the University of Lapland contributing to the issue are Professor Julian Reid (Faculty of Social Sciences), University researcher Marjo Lindroth (Arctic Centre) and University researcher Heidi Sinevaara-Niskanen (Gender Studies, Faculty of Education).

Reid’s article “’We the resilient’: colonizing indigeneity in the era of Trump” questions the rationalities that shape the discourse of indigenous resilience in both the Trump-era US and in the Arctic. He argues for a rejection of the concept of resilience on account of its compliancy with neoliberal colonialism. In their article “Colonialism invigorated? The manufacture of resilient indigeneity”, Lindroth and Sinevaara-Niskanen dissect the promise of change engendered through the call for indigenous resilience. They offer an account of the ways in which resilience cements time-tried expectations that indigenous peoples always adapt, furnishing politics with an excuse to withdraw from its responsibility to provide security and social equality.

This research is part of the project “Indigeneity in Waiting: Elusive Rights and the Power of Hope”, funded by the Academy of Finland (2016-2020).