Urfolkighet? Om strategisk essentialism och samisk mobilisering i tidningen Samefolket

Sammanfattning: The essay explores how the Sámi newspaper Samefolket in Sweden self-constitutes the global collective known as indigenous peoples, through a post-structuralist lens. It starts from the observation that the Swedish government primarily grants the Sámi its group rights as a minority and as reindeer herders, rather than as an indigenous population. Furthermore, when Sami activists in the early 1970s allied themselves with the emerging indigenous peoples movement, they were not immediately welcomed. Rather, they were viewed with some suspicion by the other delegates, members of groups which had all been invaded by western colonial powers. Through the framework of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory, it finds that Samefolket draws on both formal and substantial formulations of the term indigenous, and mobilises discourses of environment, spiritualism, and authenticity to constitute indigeneity. At the same time the reporting subordinates several possible positions, not least the identities worker, entrepreneur, climate activist, and woman. I argue that this can be conceptualised as a process of strategic essentialism, whereby internal differences are downplayed temporarily to put forward united political demands. In the case of the Samí these constitute primarily expanded self-determination and rights to traditional land and water, but also environmental and agricultural policies.