Thursday April 14th

1pm AKDT

Dr. Victoria Qutuuq Buschman is an Iñupiaq wildlife and conservation biologist from Utqiaġvik, Alaska now permanently living in Nuuk, Greenland. She has lived and worked across the Arctic to explore how Indigenous peoples fundamentally shape Arctic biodiversity conservation, from research, to management, to the creation of new protected areas. Her role in research is to challenge the colonial legacy of conservation and instead promote partnerships with Indigenous communities, knowledge, and governance to develop ethically-conscious, culturally-relevant, and fully knowledge-based conservation efforts in the Arctic. She currently serves as a Postdoctoral researcher at the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, though formally sits at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources. 

Friday April 15th

3:30pm AKDT

Darcy Peter supports the Polaris Project under Dr. Sue Natali. Her research primarily focuses on greenhouse gas emissions, permafrost thaw, and Arctic ecology.

Darcy is Gwich’in Athabascan from Beaver, Alaska, located along the Yukon River. She grew up living a subsistence way of life: fishing, hunting, and trapping in Beaver.

She received her B.S. from Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. Following her graduation in 2017, Peter worked for Alaska Native non-profits, in environmental science, policy, and social science. She has a broad understanding of Arctic policy, including tribe, city, corporate, state, academic, federal, non-profit, etc.

She is on six boards that range from state-wide (Alaska) to international, and is a firm believer that all research, if properly communicated to locals and policy-makers, has the power to induce change. In her free time, Darcy enjoys traveling, subsistence hunting, fishing, and trapping in Alaska.