Unfinished indigenous geographies: The endurances and becomings of a Sámi tourism venture

Abstract

For many years, and within the context of pre-pandemic tourism growth in the Norwegian Arctic, governmental institutions have had expectations that Sámi indigenous people of the north of Norway should engage more strongly in the tourism economy. What does it however imply for Sámi people to become agents in tourism and take ownership to tourism development? This paper attends to Sámi people who engage as entrepreneurs in tourism in Norwegian parts of Sápmi. We suggest ways to identify when and how indigeneity emerges as a topic and meaning dimension that makes a difference in the entrepreneurship process and discuss how Sáminess can mark the process in ambiguous ways. The current paper’s exploration is enabled by a qualitative co-creative study and detailed account of a Sámi tourism venture in a coastal town in Finnmark, Norway. The paper attends to the venture as part of the entrepreneurs’ life stories, everyday life, and material relational practices and explores the intrinsic geographies and histories to which their various relational practices connect the enterprise. Sámi entrepreneurships in tourism are considered in light of the unstable and changing ethnic qualities of places, through an approach that acknowledges the current transformative complexities of indigeneity. The analysis illuminates tourism entrepreneurs’ engagements in indigenously transgressive enactments of places and of Sámi culture and tells about vitalities and vulnerabilities involved in becoming indigenous agents in Arctic destinations.