Becoming An Ally : Beginning to Decolonise My Mind

• Main Author: Öhberg, Emilia
• Format: Bachelor Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Birkbeck, University of London 2016
• Subjects: Indigenous studies; Ally; Sámi; Saami; Cultural Studies; Kulturstudier; Asan; saami
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-308449

The aim of this project is to investigate howdecolonial research can be conducted in practice whenthe researcher is a member of the majority population.I ask: what does it mean to be an ally as well as anacademic? Through autoethnography and ParticipatoryAction Research (PAR) I am attempting to “decolonisemy mind” in order to unlearn oppressive systems ofknowledge and I am using academic disobedience asan intentional strategy to disrupt colonial epistemichegemonies. Following feminist and other criticaltheory traditions and using decolonial and indigenousresearch ethics I am criticising the remnants of positivistresearch structures that exists within the social sciencesand the colonising, racialised, gendered and classed wayin which knowledge is traditionally constructed.I am also attempting to position PAR as adecolonising research methodology. Because a PARanimator does not have an automatic right to writeup and disseminate the knowledge that has beencollectively constructed by the co-researchers, however,I am inserting myself into the narrative in order toAbstractdisrupt the traditional academic voice. I attempt toquestion critically how I (auto) act in relation to myown culture and Sámi culture (ethno) through theprocess of reflective writing and analysis (graphy) – inother words, autoethnograpy.I set out to conduct a PAR project within a Sámiorganisation in Stockholm but despite my efforts theproject never really got off the ground. So apart fromexploring my own positionality relative to the Sámi,and apart from constructing an argument for decolonialresearch and allyship, this essay also offers my thoughtson why the project didn’t happen and my journey intolearning how to be a better academic ally. Student thesis MA in Culture, Diaspora and Ethnicity at Birkbeck, University of London. Presented as a seminar in "Kunskapsproduktion bortom normerna". May-Britt Öhman was supervisor to the thesis.