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AbstractConducted in northern Finland, this study examines Sámi language teachers’ professional identities through their narratives of language acquisition. We focus on how teachers’ professional identities are shaped by their language acquisition process. The results are based on the narratives of nine North, Inari and Skolt Sámi language teachers. Two aspects of teachers’ narratives were significantly linked to their identities as Sámi language teachers: (1) their backgrounds (indigenous/non-indigenous) and (2) their language acquisition experiences (acquired Sámi language in childhood/adulthood). Indigenous teachers appeared to express their professional identities strongly despite their challenging acquisition experiences and were inclined to work towards the future of Sámi languages. In addition, non-indigenous teachers were willing to further the development of Sámi languages although they are not indigenous, which perhaps contributes towards the future of Sámi languages. Teachers narrated complex thoughts about language acquisition and their professional identity and helped develop indigenous language education in their respective indigenous communities. We recommend that teachers’ in pre-service and service education should prepare and support indigenous language teachers by sharing knowledge about multilingual education practices and coping skills, particularly to help the latter manage varied tasks and heterogeneous contexts. Thus, this research study shows that both teachers’ language acquisition experiences and their current work situations shape their professional identity.

I would like to thank my research participants who helped me throughout the research process. Without the participants of this study, I could not have completed this article. Shikaittu miihaiyuu. I also would like to thank three anonymous reviewers as well as the editors of this journal for providing me with constructive feedback. Last, but not least, I thank Akino Oshiro, Daniel Iwama, Risako Sakai and Wesley Ueunten for our ongoing discussion on compassionate listening practices.

Traditional “endangered” approaches in linguistics tend to impose Western epistemologies of languages on marginalized Indigenous language communities such as the Ryukyus. Instead, by using a collaborative approach, we ask for a change of approach from research on the Ryukyus to research with/for the Ryukyus. This article is a reflective study of collaboration in particular cases. We aim to address the issues of relationality between communities and researchers—how can communities initiate work with like-minded linguists to suit their own needs? Thus, we respond to this question to open a conversation on why insider/outsider collaboration is essential. Using our experiences of carrying out our research in different parts of the Ryukyus reflectively, we aim to provide a practical guide for collaboration that is necessary for both the good of communities and the field of linguistics. Through continuous cooperation and collaboration, we can engage in active decolonization of the field of linguistics and language documentation. We suggest that decolonization cannot be achieved without collaborative and ethical research practices based on Indigenous epistemologies. We conclude the paper with ideas of research approaches based on Ryukyuan Indigenous epistemologies, which require a transformation from individual approaches to community-based-relational approaches.