Sahir Iqbal

Sahir Iqbal, MPH, is a public health researcher and filmmaker whose work focuses on community-led approaches to Indigenous health and well-being. Trained in Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, his work sits at the intersection of Indigenous rights and environmental and health justice, with attention to how policy and governance shape tribally governed ecologies of health. He is a Fellow in Anthropology at Harvard University, working with Professor Joseph P. Gone. In the past several years, Sahir has collaborated with Tribal governments and Indigenous organizations across the United States on projects that foreground Tribal health sovereignty, self-governance, and community-defined priorities. 

As a filmmaker, Sahir executive produced the award-winning feature documentary Alaskan Nets, about basketball, fishing, and connections to place for the Metlakatla Indian Community, and served as co-executive producer of Unearth, which follows Alaska Native and non-Indigenous community members in their work to protect their land and community from extractive industries. He currently advises a collaborative film project with the Tamamta Program, housed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which aims to transform research processes and elevate Indigenous Knowledge Systems in fisheries sciences and governance.