Contemporary Indigenous Research within Sámi and Global Indigenous Studies Contexts

Abstract

This chapter addresses the genealogy of Indigenous studies, and how it is conceptualized and practised in the Sámi context. It discusses the inclusion of Indigenous knowledges and Indigenous ways of doing research in academia, as well as the role of Indigenous research methodologies in this effort. We link our chapter to larger academic Indigenous discussions on the concepts of ‘knowledge’, ‘decolonization’, ‘research’ and ‘indigenization’. At the theoretical and practical levels these processes and initiatives have enabled researchers to shed light on Indigenous views on the past, the present, and the future, first of all in Indigenous societies, but also in academia. This chapter also addresses the challenges of moving between local and global levels. Indigenous research contexts are diverse and dynamic, and the key to creating dialogues, bridges, and collaboration, lies in this very diversity, complexity, and multivocality of Indigenous societies.