Indigenism and Cosmopolitanism: A Pan-Sami view of the Indigenous Perspective in Sami Culture and Research

This article explores Sami cultural and literary research in a pan-Sami perspective, contextualizing it in relation to the emergence of similar research among other Indigenous peoples in the world, termed Indigenous methodology. The article summarizes the development within the field so far, arguing...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples
Main Author: Gaski, Harald
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/117718011300900201
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/117718011300900201
Description
Summary:This article explores Sami cultural and literary research in a pan-Sami perspective, contextualizing it in relation to the emergence of similar research among other Indigenous peoples in the world, termed Indigenous methodology. The article summarizes the development within the field so far, arguing for stronger Sami participation in the international discourse on the role of Indigenous peoples within academia. Indigenous methodology is inspired by the development within postcolonial and decolonizing studies and places Indigenous peoples at the centre, while simultaneously seeking to Indigenize academia. The approach questions which values ought to guide research, and to what degree Indigenous peoples should expect research to have a transformative effect on society. What is the role and place of Indigenous peoples’ own values and worldviews in scholarship in general? The article underscores the importance of having developed Sami as an academic language, a great achievement in a world where more and more Indigenous languages are becoming extinct.