Work Packages

Work Package 1: Indigneous cultural politics, colonialism, and social change
WP 1 focuses on two main questions:  What are the issues, concerns and objectives that Sámi artists, culture professionals and other stake-holders identify as central for Sámi cultural politics and policy in the context of the “new Sámi renaissance”? And what can recent developments in Sámi cultural politics tell us about broader changes in the relationship between indigenous and majority societies, and in the character of contemporary (Nordic) colonialisms? The task of WP 1 is to investigate, map and clarify the overall problem-space of the new renaissance, and to use it as a prism through which to theorize contemporary aspects of Nordic colonialism and changes in the relations between ther Sámi and majority societies.

WP1 Leader: Laura Junka-Aikio (UiT)
Researchers and research collaborators affiliated with the WP 1: Saara Alakorva (Sámi Allaskuvla), Trude Fonneland (UiT), Sigga-Marja Magga (Univ. of Lapland), Sanna Valkonen (Univ. of Lapland).

Work Package 2:  Indigeneity as cultural capital and the politics of identity
WP 2 explores the meanings of indigenous identity and community, investigates how new struggles over indigenous voice and identity are articulated on the level of arts and popular culture, and examines how indigeneity is politicised in the contex of concrete struggles over indigenous land rights and traditional livelihoods. Central questions addressed by this WP include: How are the boundaries of indigeneity articulated, negotiated, managed and challenged within Sámi communities, on the level of Sámi political institutions, and in the context of the arts and popular culture in Finland, Sweden and Norway? How does the growing interest in indigeneity affect understandings of what is indigenous art and popular culture and how to manage it? How is indigeneity employed and opreationalised politically within contemporary arts and popular culture?

Work Package leader: Ivar Björklund (UiT)
Researchers and research collaborators associated with the WP 2: Laura Junka-Aikio (UiT), Anni-Siiri Länsman (Giellagas, Univ. of Oulu), Darryl Leroux (Univ. of St. Mary's, Canada), Jukka Nyyssönen (NIKU),  Kaisa Raitio (Univ. of Uppsala), Moa Sandström (Univ. of Umeå).

Work Package 3: From appropriation to appreciation? New developments in indigenous cultural policy

WP 3  examines the fairly recent rise of new cultural policies and practices which seek to contribute to a broad shift from the exploitative practices associated with "cultural appropriation" to more just forms of engagement that one could conceptualise in terms of "cultural appreciation" or even "decolonization". Central questions examiend in this workpackage include, what kind of social, economic and political forces are driving the emergence of such policies and practices? How, and through what kind of collaborative, legal and social processes are these policies and practices designed and implemented? How effective are these policies at brigning positive change, and what has been their social, economic, political or cultural impact so far?

WP 3 Leader: Trude Fonneland (UiT)
Researchers and research collaborators associated with the WP 3: Àile Aikio (Univ. of Lapland), Annukka Hirvasvuopio-Laiti (Sámi Allaskuvla), Britt Kramvig (UiT), Veli-Pekka Lehtola (Giellagas, Univ. of Oulu), Eli-Anita Øivand Schoning (UiT), Rossella Ragazzi (UiT), Solen Roth (Univ. of Montréal), Gro Ween (Univ. of Oslo).