Indigenising Nordic Feminism—A Sámi Decolonial Critique

Abstract

This chapter discusses how to make space for Sámi feminist perspectives within both Sámi research and Nordic feminist research. The author explores how both patriarchal and colonial power continue to shape the lives of Sámi women, and argues that there is a need for a feminist decolonial critique that destabilises the taken-for-granted silencing of Sámi women’s perspectives in both Sámi research and Nordic feminist research. In order to do so, we need to move beyond the traditional ways of defining feminist perspectives, and include Indigenous perspectives on land, water, health, rights and identities, and through this highlight how it is possible to create a common ground for both Sámi and feminist perspectives. The relative lack of Sámi feminist perspectives is paradoxical, given the fact that both intersectional and postcolonial perspectives have made an impact on feminist research today, and contemporary Sámi women are increasingly educated and hold a strong position within academia, activism and the Sámi society as a whole.

Decolonizing Higher Education in Norway: Critical Collaborative Autoethnographic Reflections on a University Pedagogy Course

“…Besides, the focus on the predominantly white academic's awareness-raising and introspection needs to be complemented with relational perspectives and the practice of listening to silenced Others through invited lecturers, not least bringing in existing Indigenous Studies from a Sámi context (e.g. Dankertsen, 2019Dankertsen, , 2021Kuokkanen, 2000;Minde, 2005). Furthermore, recognizing how language-use matters in decolonizing attempts and how the conversations enabled Fredrik and Jørgen to initiate critical metacognitive self-reflections on terminology, such as the term "awareness", ensured not only a double research process (Delamont, 2009;Eriksen, 2020;Pillow, 2015;Țîștea, 2020), but also a LTHE peda gogical process, hopefully leading them towards more decolonial transformative LTHE practices (Blalock & Akehi, 2018), including vocabulary from other knowledge systems.…”

“…Tuck and Yang's (2012) reminder that decolonization is not a metaphor is useful for understanding the Sámi in their relation to the nation state (cf. Dankertsen, 2021;Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 2023). From an Indigenous Studies perspective, Tuck and Yang (2012) highlight the dangers of an academic domestication of "decolonization" as it is used metaphorically to describe efforts to promote diversity and inclusion, and clarify how decolonization is not a metaphor of symbolic or rhetorical substance, but something that involves real, tangible anticolonial political and social strategies and actions (cf.…”

“…Eriksen, 2021;Høiskar, 2020). Important contributions specifically in the area of HE are the pedagogical toolkit of the Norwegian Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund (2020) and the collaborative autoethnography by Eriksen et al (2023), as well as, in a Nordic context, Velásquez Atehortúa (2020) and Suárez-Krabbe (2012), while within the wider field of education and academia in the Nordic countries there are recent works such as Eriksen and Svendsen (2020b), Dankertsen (2021) and Fjellheim (2020).…”

“…Historically, HEIs have had an important role in the grounding of Western systems of knowledge production and thus in the perpetuation of coloniality (Shahjahan et al, 2022). However in Norway, European colonial history is mainly considered something that Norway (and the wider Nordic region) is excepted from (e.g., Dankertsen, 2021;Eriksen & Svendsen, 2020a;Keskinen et al, 2009). Yet the Norwegian state is by no means exempt from the global logic of coloniality.…”

“…However, this national historical legacy is often obscured in both academic and public debates, contributing to a lack of knowledge about the historical and contemporary continuous colonization and racism in Norwegian society. Recent initiatives have shown the urgency of making Indigenous knowledge and knowledge of the Sámi visible in research and HE (Dankertsen, 2019(Dankertsen, , 2021Eriksen, 2021;Fjellheim, 2020;Students' and Academics' International Assistance Fund, 2020). Furthermore, Norwegian lecturers remain predominantly white/Western and there is a relative lack of teachers from minority groups in tenured positions and within fields such as educational science (Askvik & Drange, 2019;Thomas & Fylkesnes, forthcoming).…”