State Discourses of Indigenous “Inclusion”: Identity and Representation in the Arctic

• Published in: Antipode
• Main Author: Medby, Ingrid A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2019
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/anti.12542; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/anti.12542; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1111/anti.12542

Abstract Arctic decision‐making processes are often praised for including Indigenous peoples. Yet, state practices of “inclusion” may also inadvertently delimit what can be meaningfully said from a stage already set for a highly specific role as “Arctic voices”. This paper draws on reflections offered by Norwegian and Icelandic state personnel on the meanings of Arctic statehood and identity, showing how often well‐meaning attempts to “include” may serve the includer more than the included—indeed, may serve to uphold the same power structures they seemingly seek to improve. In so doing, the paper contributes both to understandings of Arctic statecraft and to work seeking the “peopling” of geopolitical concepts such as the state. By focusing on the operation of dominant discourses, the paper argues that current prescribed performances of “inclusion” are not enough in a region marked by histories of dispossession, assimilation, and colonisation.