Implementing Indigenous Self-Determination

• Main Author: Kuokkanen, Rauna
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2019
• Subjects: Greenland; Sámi
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190913281.003.0004

Indigenous self-government is the political theory and practice of the right to self-determination. It is a political arrangement that enables a group to govern themselves according to their own will and through their own institutions. This chapter considers the degree of Indigenous self-determination in the three regions through participant discussions. In spite of increasing participation of Indigenous women in formal politics and their involvement in self-determination struggles from the outset, literature and scholarship especially from a comparative perspective on Indigenous women’s views on self-government remains next to nonexistent. Yet there are a number of similarities globally between Indigenous women’s struggles for political voice, representation, and rights and against the imposition and internalization of colonial patriarchal policies and laws. This chapter fills the gap by examining Indigenous women’s views on the current efforts of implementing indigenous self-determination and the ways in which the efforts have a connection to the everyday life of individuals. It begins with Greenland, with the most extensive self-government arrangements, and concludes with the Sámi Parliaments, whose authority is largely limited to consultation with the state and administration of state funding to Sámi language and culture.