Dr. Heather Sauyaq Jean Kwamboka Gordon

• • I am Iñupiaq (Alaska Native-Inuit) and an enrolled member of the Nome Eskimo Community (a federally recognized Tribe). My Iñupiaq name is Sauyaq which means drum. I was gifted this name by my grandmother who named me after her younger sister who had passed. I work to be a good relative and  advocate for Indigenous people, beating the drum to lift up our voices.  I love this description of my name: "The first thing we do when we all get together is sing… the Sauyaq brings us all together.’ The Sauyaq or Drum is used at all gatherings and ceremonies. In some Inupiaq dialects the word for ‘skin’ of the drum also means ‘future eye’ relating to the ‘eye of awareness’." From Visitors’ guide, Alaska Native Heritage Center 

  • I was born and raised on my grandmother's homestead and reindeer ranch outside of Homer, Alaska

  • I married into a Kenyan Kisii Tribal family and was gifted the name Kwamboka which means crossing a bridge. I was gifted this name my second visit to Kenya when I was able to move between my own and the Kisii culture.

  • I holds a PhD in Indigenous Studies with a concentration in Indigenous Sustainability and an MS in Community and Environmental Sociology. 

  • My work highlights links between culture and wellbeing, addresses sustainability and justice, emphasizes connectedness with nonhuman and more than human kin, and speaks about the importance of listening to Indigenous Knowledges. 

  • I am a boundary spanner between knowledge systems and academic disciplines as well as a science diplomat to communicate research and Indigenous ways of knowing to policy makers. 

  • I am a 2024-25 Fulbright Arctic Scholar. My project is: Indigenous Sovereignty and Arctic Security: Human Rights and Environmental Justice in Governance. It is essential to collaborate with Indigenous Nations and communities in land and water management to address the unsustainable colonial extraction and development practices that have contributed to climate change and its global impacts, such as threats to human and ecological wellbeing, biodiversity loss, and food insecurity. The Fulbright Arctic program is enabling me to expand my work from Alaska to the circumpolar North. My project, Indigenous Sovereignty and Arctic Security: Human Rights and Environmental Justice in Governance, will focus on learning from the Sámi in Sápmi and Inuit across Inuit Nunaat to contribute to sustainable Arctic governance. This work highlights the importance of Indigenous Knowledge in promoting planetary health for the benefit of all. 

  • I am on the Arctic Research Consortium of the US Board of Directors, a co-chair for the International Conferences on Arctic Research Planning IV Understanding Vulnerability/Resilience of Arctic Environments/Societies-Supporting Sustainable Development priority, an expert in cultural heritage and Indigenous sustainability for the U.S. Department of State Speaker Program, adjunct faculty for American University’s Measurement and Evaluation program, affiliate faculty at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the Indigenous Studies program, and on multiple advisory boards.

  • I co-lead/organized the Global Indigenous Youth Summit on Climate Change in 2023, served on the US National Academy of Sciences Co-Production of Environmental Knowledge, Methods, and Approaches committee, and was a Native Children's Research Exchange Scholar.