Mobilization of imaginaries to build Nordic Indigenous natures

• Published in: Polar Geography
• Main Authors: Maraud, Simon, Guyot, Sylvain
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Géographie Physique et Environnementale (GEOLAB), Université Blaise Pascal - Clermont-Ferrand 2 (UBP)-Institut Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société (IR SHS UNILIM), Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Université de Limoges (UNILIM)-Université Clermont Auvergne 2017-2020 (UCA 2017-2020 )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Clermont Auvergne (UCA), Université Laval Québec (ULaval), Passages, Université de Bordeaux (UB)-Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication (MCC)-Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA)-Université Bordeaux Montaigne (UBM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), GEOLAB
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Indigenousness; North; Quebec; Sweden; Nature; Geographical imaginaries; [SHS.GEO]Humanities and Social Sciences/Geography; Canada; Indian; Laponia; Polar Geography; sami; James Bay; Lapland
• Online Access: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01628941; https://doi.org/10.1080/1088937x.2016.1184721

International audience This paper is about two Northern territories and peoples, the Sami in the Swedish Lapland and the Cree of James Bay (Quebec, Canada).This comparison aims to show how the North is commonly seen as a human desert – completely wild – and how this imaginative space isfull of political and poetic constructions. The colonial vision of the North omits the Indigenous dimension of such territories or includes it as the Ecological Indian of Shepard Krech III. This study shows how what was a patronizing colonial perspective became a tool for the Sami and the Cree to legitimate their involvement in the management of local resources and the protection of nature. Simultaneously, the empowerment of the Indigenous inhabitants of the two Nordic lands – via protected areas such as Laponia or Assinica – is a means of development in the communities. In particular, it supports the emergence of tourism and thus reduces the mental gap between the South and the North and their peoples. Moreover, even when Indigenous tourism is criticized for the promotion of folklore and exoticism, it also enables young generations to reconnect with a culture in oblivion.