Ale jaskkot eatnigiella : Alkuperäiskansaliikkeen ja saamen kielen merkitys saamelaisten identiteetille

• Main Author: Seurujärvi-Kari, Irja
• Other Authors: Rydving, Håkan, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Arts, Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies, Helsingin yliopisto, humanistinen tiedekunta, suomen kielen, suomalais-ugrilaisten ja pohjoismaisten kielten ja kirjallisuuksien laitos, suomalais-ugrilaiset kielet ja kulttuurit, Helsingfors universitet, humanistiska fakulteten, Finska, finskugriska och nordiska institutionen, Grünthal, Riho, Virtanen, Pirjo Kristiina, Ruotsala, Helena
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: Finnish
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: saamentutkimus; Sámi
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10138/28893

This study examines the Sámi people and the construction of the Sámi identity and the role of language in the cross-border Sámi movement within the context of the international indigenous movement and discourse between 1962 and 2008. The Sámi movement began as a reaction to state assimilation policies. This led to the birth of indigenous processes strengthening the Sámi cultures and languages. Activities across borders and the ethnopolitical processes in each of the Nordic countries in question also formed the basis of the internationalization of the Sámi people. The discourse on indigenous peoples has grown into a question of human rights, which is examined in different national and international contexts. The study is based on ethnographic data that has been collected via interviews, questionnaires and participant observation with the researched people in different meetings and events. Archive and newsprint material are also used. The approach of the study is auto-ethnographic. The post-colonial theories used in the study strive to destabilize power relations and the distinctions of otherness produced by colonialism, and to reclaim both one's own culture and language in the context of the indigenous movement. A standard model for this type of approach was created by Edward W. Said in his 1978 work Orientalism. The central concepts of the analysis are decolonization, otherness, ethnicity and identity. The dissertation consists of four published articles and an introduction. The subject matter is analyzed on three levels: global, European and Nordic. On the global level, the results demonstrate that the indigenous movement has constructed a new understanding of indigenousness with new rights. International treaties have facilitated the unification of new concepts and rights, such as the right to self-determination and language, also helping in transforming them into rights of the Sámi people on a national level. On the Nordic level, aligning the Sámi culture with indigenous discourse became significant for the ...