Global Indigeneity on the Move. The World Drum - Afterlives, Drift Matter, and Object Agency

Abstract

In October 2006 a drum embarked on what is possibly the most extensive journey of any drum at any time. The journey’s ambitions were similarly grand: to serve as a wakeup call to the needs of Mother Earth by linking people, things, and places. What follows is my take on this project in the context of the reclaiming of drums in Sápmi and globalizing discourses on Indigenous religion(s), as well as a focus on object agency and the modes and codes of Indigeneity on the move. I propose ‘drift matter’ (borrowed from the archaeological perspectives of Þóra Pétursdóttir and Bjørnar Olsen) as a concept to consider this case and for the unruliness of afterlives.