Turbulent indigenous objects: Controversies around cultural appropriation and recognition of difference

Abstract

This article addresses an ongoing controversy in Noway around designing and naming Sámi (indigenous) objects. The authors argue that controversies in many academic debates have been framed in essentializing ways that stress identity politics and believe this framing to be analytically and politically unfruitful. There are ways of thinking about or narrating tensions that are not essentialist and that do not close down productive ways of recognizing difference. They are concerned with the tension raised in the Scandinavian/Sámi public on respectful use, and ownership, of Sámi traditional costumes and traditional objects. The contested Sámi objects come with different stories and the aim of this research is to answer the following questions: What stories are told in moments of tension and conflict regarding the use of traditional objects? How are differences articulated? Can recognition be enacted in these encounters and political controversies? The authors take two specific debates as starting points for exploring how the objects are enacted.