Thesis by Eli-Anita Øivand Schøning

Abstract:
This master’s thesis examines how Sámi people were represented in postcards from Norwegian Sápmi during the late 19th century to present day. The study explores how postcards can unveil both grand narratives and personal and local stories. Portraying Sámi people and culture as exotic and different, is a commonality in touristic representations of the Sámi. Postcards with Sámi motifs are no exception. I argue that the postcards depict the Sámi in an “emblematic” way, through a focus on nature, reindeer herding and traditional clothing. This kind of representation is not only conducted by outsiders, and I maintain that emblems are likely to be utilized as a strategy to satisfy the demands in the tourism market. Postcards trigger memories, and can therefore be used to bring personal and local stories to the forefront. As such they serve to individualize rather than objectify, reconstruct stories of the past, and shed light on Sámi agency. Further, postcards can be instruments for the Sámi themselves. When they produce their own postcards, or repatriate old postcards through artistic work, the postcards become powerful tools in revitalization processes and contribute in shaping Sámi identities.

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Thesis by Holmberg, Aslak

Abstract:
Summers in the Deatnu valley revolve around salmon. For the indigenous Saami People, wild Atlantic salmon is a fundamental aspect of culture and self-sufficiency. In the traditional Saami culture, salmon cannot be ‘taken’, it must be ‘asked for’. Today, in order to maintain these relations to salmon, the Saami must ask for the permission from the state authorities of Norway and Finland, who despite of strong Saami opposition, impose harsh restrictions on traditional Saami fishing especially.

This thesis is about Saami traditional knowledge (TK) on the salmon, as a part of the ecosystem, and the role of this knowledge in research and management. Saami knowledge consisting of centuries of observations highlights various changes in the environment to explain fluctuations in salmon stocks. The fish biologists informing state authorities consider TK as merely a source of data, not as a knowledge system, breaking it down to examine each concern individually – and concluding that none of the factors TK holders raise are causing a decline in salmon stocks, leaving overexploitation as the only remarkable factor. As the states consider the Saami right to self-determination fulfilled with a hearing or a consultation process, the result is that traditional Saami fishing is strongly limited – thus threatening the continuation of traditional knowledge.

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Thesis by:  Saara Marjatta Sipola

Abstract:
Do not step on the farmer’s grass: On global food economy, Inuit food security and arctic agriculture is a thesis with a focus on Greenland as a part of the Inuit Nunaat, the Inuit homeland. This thesis is about the importance of indigenous food, harvest, and consumption. It is about connecting to indigenous cultures through food systems. Food systems that, in the case of Inuit, have sustained over thousands of years. Today this is not the case, and we all are consumers in what is called a global food economy. There is a vast range of literature suggesting that many indigenous peoples would still choose an indigenous diet, and participate in the food production, instead of being alienated from it. However, indigenous food production is largely perceived as ineffective and also non-profitable, thus it has had to change from large-scale industrial projects and mono-crop commercial agriculture. This thesis aims to illuminate the reasons for Inuit food insecurity beyond most often-stated reasons such as climate change or poverty. The argument set forth here is that indigenous people’s food insecurity cannot be separated from the colonial history, nor the current dominance of the global, capitalistic market forces: These issues being two sides of the same coin. Regardless of the destructive impacts on many indigenous societies, there is evidence of indigenous peoples’ resistance to seek solutions in circumstances of food insecurity, which be illustrated in the case of indigenous agriculture, and within sheep farming in South Greenland.

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Thesis by Kalpana Giri

Community forestry of Nepal represents a type of “Common Property Resources” where use rights to a forest are conferred to a community through a legalized institution called as “Community Forest User Group” (CFUG). The national forest policies broadly determine the legal structure and functioning of (CFUG). These legal rules are designed to accomplish certain goals such as conservation of forests as well as distribution of benefits to local people. People live within a socio-cultural context, and practice many other customary rules in addition to the legal rules. Nepalese society is very heterogeneous and hierarchical in terms of caste/ethnicity, economic conditions and gender. This research was conducted to assess and analyze whether prevalent heterogeneity (caste/ethnicity, economic conditions and gender) in Nepalese societies influences the equitable management of CFUG. Equity in community forestry is associated with how people of diverse economic and social groups participate in and how fairly the costs and benefits are distributed among them. I addition, this research also aimed to identify the factors associated with success or failure of equitable community forest management. Two CFUGs were selected as case studies. In –depth interviews and focus group discussion were major tools used to collect data. These case studies have shown that heterogeneity related to user’s economic condition is one of the most determining factors associated with equity in CFUG management. The economic setting of a household decides whether the family members opt to engage in livelihood activities rather than participating in community forest meetings. No variation was found amidst different castes of users about their access to forest products and knowledge and awareness level amidst users. Participation and representation of poor and women were found to be compromised. The existing system of equal benefits from community forestry. In addition, the initial design and delivery phase of community forestry also failed to encompass the issues of local heterogeneities into account. This was found as one of the major causes for the existing inequities in community forestry. Despite such limitations, the dynamic counterpart within CFUGs can determine the extent to which equity problems can be mitigated or exacerbated. Since local people can design their strategies in CFUG, there is a great potential in CFUG in incorporating the existing heterogeneity into the institutional design and deliver it in such a way that it minimizes the adverse effects of social heterogeneity into community forest management. This has to be facilitated and monitored by some external bodies such as Department of Forest to ensure that dynamic strategies are designed and also implemented.

Key words: Common property resources, community forest user groups, Caste/ethnicity, institutions local resource management.

Thesis by: D’Entremont, Cody Joshua

Abstract:
Taking Indigenous worlds seriously raises questions not only about the institutions and bureaucratization of settler colonialism as a never ending project; but also brings settler bodies, knowledges, and ontologies under questioning as they are the dominating worldings – to which they enact one-worlding. White settler bodies do not make up its whole, but are inseparable to its dynamic, fractured, and multiple transmutations through space and time. This project follows the tensions created out of the critiques found in Indigenous and people of colour narratives, art, music, and knowledges towards the white settler colonial body and its relations. Taking epistemic and body/intellectual differences seriously in their worlding otherwise is a difficult and challenging task – it is dis/orienting. However, It is not (im)possible.

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Thesis by Ekaterina Zmyvalova

Abstract:
This thesis is dedicated to the issue of realization and implementation of indigenous children’s right to learn their language at school. My focus is on the Nenets Autonomous Okrug- one of the territories where the Nenets people – one of the indigenous peoples of Russia – is located. The Nenets people is the biggest group of the indigenous peoples in Russia. According the Official statistics there are less and less in the Nenets population who speak the Nenets language. Moreover, mostly they are elderly people. The young do not know the Nenets language even though they learn it at school. I argue that among other reasons there are legal issues. In particular, inappropriate implementation of international commitments into the national legislation and ineffective realization of the national legislation in practice are among the reasons of the decline of the Nenets language in the indigenous population. I researched this issue by using such methods as the legal method and the interview. The method of interview I employed during my fieldwork in two schools in the villages Indiga and Krasnoye of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug where indigenous children learn the Nenets language. I applied the theory of non- discrimination to consider implementation and realization of the right in practice. I regard my thesis to be a contribution to the clarification of the causes of the native language situation in indigenous peoples’ communities in Russia.

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