TOWARDS AN "INDIGENOUS PARADIGM" FROM A SAMI PERSPECTIVE

I Resume The author discusses the need, significance and objectives of an "Indigenous paradigm" which is a way of both decolonizing Indigenous minds by "re-centring" Indigenous values and cultural practices and placing Indigenous peoples and their issues into dominant, mainstream discourses which until now have relegated Indigenous peoples to marginal positions. The author argues that the main objectives of such a paradigm include the criticism of Westem dualistic metaphysics and Eurocentrism as well as the return to the Indigenous peoples' holistic philosophies in research. Dans cet article, iI est question des besoins, du sens et des objectifs relatifs au "paradigme autochtone". Cette approche constitue un moyen de decoloniser la pensee autochtone, en "re-centrant" les pratiques culturelles et les valeurs des peuples autochtones, et d'accorder aux Autochtones et aux questions qui les concernent-jusqu'a maintenant marginalises-une place au sein des courants de pensee dominants. L'auteur emet I'hypothese que les objectifs principaux d'un tel paradigme doivent impliquer une critique de la metaphysique dualiste occidentale et, parallelement, un retour, au niveau de la recherche, a la philosophie holistique propre aux peuples autochtones. The Canadian Journal of Native Studies XX, 2(2000): 411-436. The Significance of "Indigenous Paradigm" Educational institutions have been central to the process of colonizing Indigenous peoples' minds all over the wor1d. Ties to one's own way of life, The purpose ofthis article is to discuss what I call "Indigenous peoples' paradigm" or an "Indigenous paradigm,,1 as being part of Indigenous peoples' struggle for self-determination and the decolonization process. Today, there is an increasing global movement towards Indigenous peoples' self-determination, of which the latest example is the creation of Nunavut, the newest territory in Canada and the self-governing area of the eastern Inuit. Self-determination is also one of the most fundamental goals of the on-going UN decade of Indigenous peoples. Self-determination of Indigenous peoples deals with a range of various issues, one ofthem being the right to maintain and develop manifestations of cultural practices including the restitution of their spiritual and intellectual properties. The creation of an Indigenous peoples' paradigm is part of the process of claiming these rights.2 The need for such a paradigm is manifold and is connected to the deconstruction of the consequences of colonialism. Colonialism and imperialism have exploited and dispossessed Indigenous peoples everywhere in the globe for hundreds of years. Even today, in the era of so-called postcolonialism, Indigenous peoples are the targets of various forms of internal colonialism and neo-colonialism. The powerful colonial institutions, whether educational, social or economic, have also colonized people's minds which has lead to internalized colonialism and the acquisition of ''white lenses" (hooks, 1992:1)-Westem values, ways of thinking and world views. In this way, these subtle forms of colonialism have made many Indigenous individuals devalue their own culture and anything that is connected to it. In this article, I will discuss the need, significance and objectives of an "Indigenous paradigm". I will illustrate my endeavour with examples based on Sami cultural practice. I will also consider the significance of Indigenous peoples' literature as one of the best examples of the application of an "Indigenous paradigm" in contemporary fonns of expression. While being aware of the dangers of categorizations and generalization, I will however use categories such as "Western" and "Indigenous" as a heuristic device in order to highlight that differences between these categories exist, although they are both diverse and contain differences within. Indigenous peoples in the world resist one, fixed definition for Indigenous peoples given the vast diversity of their political and geographical situations around the world.3 412 Rauna Kuokkanen Towards an Indigenous Paradigm 413 culture and language were cut off when children were forced to stay in residential schools and able to return back home only during longer holidays. This physical break from home prevented Indigenous children from learning their cultural practices and culture-based knowledge. In residential schools, lridigenous children were taught Western values, habits and behaviour. The break ofgenerational continuation of one's culture on a daily basis has had several consequences of which many are still present in Indigenous peoples' societies. Taking Sami society as an example, one can argue that one consequence is the dissociation from Sami cultural practice by many Sami scholars. Through the Western education system, they have been "immersed" into Western models of doing research which are often characterized by a Cartesian world view, based on metaphysical dualism and laden with perceptions that derive from the Enlightenment: the fragmentation of human knowledge and the distancing of oneself both physically and mentally from the research object. This has led to a situation where much Sami research follows and imitates prevailing Western paradigms and Eurocentered thinking without questioning its appropriateness or relevance. It is perhaps appropriate to note here that while discussing an "Indigenous paradigm" I am not, however, suggesting that there is only one way to do Sami research. My point is that if we acknowledge the importance of the decolonization process of Indigenous societies on the way to empowerment and full-self determination, it is also crucial that we reconnect ourselves to our cultural concepts, values and knowledge systems in order to also be self-governing intellectually. Therefore, an "Indigenous paradigm"would be a culturally specific discourse based on Indigenous peoples' premises, values and world view. Another reason to create an "Indigenous paradigm" has to do with racist, dualism notions still prevalent in much of Western scholarship. An important task of an "Indigenous paradigm" would be to challenge these notions according to which the world is divided along lines of Western "high culture" and non-Western ''folkloric'' traditions. Although many contemporary practices of poststructuralism, feminism, postmodern and postcolonial theories have undermined and rejected these assumptions, unfortunately they still guide much ofpeople's everyday thinking and actions. Unlike many Western scholars who can ignore this since it is not as common an academic approach as it used to be, we as Indigenous peoples cannot remain indifferent, since it affects us directly in various ways through dismissive and biased attitudes on our selfhood, our culture and its products. Kailo (1998:89) has noted that