Representing Indigeneity. Shifting Notions of Indigenous Belonging in Northern Finland

As a legal category and political concept, “indigenous people” is a social construction that has become political reality and practice through establishing international and national/local indigenous polities. Indigenous people is a political concept which gets different meanings and has different uses and consequences depending on the context and thus, is an object of an ongoing political and also scientific debate. This debate materializes very concretely in the process of establishing the indigenous Sámi citizenship in Finland. Since the Sámi of Finland have gained constitutionally recognized position as an indigenous people and obtained cultural autonomy in their home region in 1996, their position has become much politicized in present-day Finnish political and academic debates. The introduction of the concept of indigenous people has transformed the political organization of Sámi ethnicity but has also given birth to political projects of belonging which struggle for recognition of their alleged Sáminess/indigeneity. My paper approaches this struggle of belonging and recognition by analyzing different representations of being indigenous. The focus is particularly on the shifting notions of indigenous belonging that the concept and category of indigenous people seem to promote.