Privilege, Decentring and the Challenge of Being (Non-) Indigenous in the Study of Indigenous Issues

Abstract

There are acceptable ways of studying Indigenous issues as a non-Indigenous scholar. Still, the role and identity of the scholar is important and debated within the study of Indigenous issues. The purpose of this article is to accept, but explore the premise of a distinction between Indigenous and non-Indigenous. I claim the possibility of taking a decentred space within Indigenous studies and move towards a methodological and theoretical foundation that is informed by scholars with different stances and backgrounds. A key approach is the intersectional approach to privilege. Neither privilege/oppression, Indigenous/non-Indigenous, nor insider/outsider are binary relations. From Indigenous methodologies such as kaupapa Māori, I emphasise, in particular, the local starting point, arguing that this is the way to transfer relevant issues to a bigger context.

Exploring why and how encounters with the Norwegian health-care system can be considered culturally unsafe by North Sami-speaking patients and relatives: A qualitative study based on 11 interviews

“…Our findings can encourage dialogue between health-care staff and management to discuss whether their practices are culturally safe for Sami people in Norway, or, if not, whether they can form a basis for transition, as described in Browne, Varcoe, Smye et al [48]. All health-care providers meeting patients from minority groups in circumpolar areas, including instructors on nursing degree courses in Norway, have to be reflexive and engaged in culturally safe ways to meet patient needs.…”

“…Our understanding of indigenous people comes from either an indigenous, mixed-indigenous or settler northern context, and is based on recognition and acceptance of our common history of colonialisation, assimilation, suppression and experiences of institutional and personal violation of indigenous people [5]. The analysis was conducted from both an insider (indigenous) and an outsider (nonindigenous) position, influenced by our background and experiences, which Olsen [48] describes as a privileged and empowered position.…”

“…Most of our participants were women, and five of eleven worked in healthcare but participated as patients or relatives, or both. Who people are and their background will affect the stories told and the analysis performed by the researchers [48]. Being both a health-care provider and a relative makes one capable of expecting and evaluating quality in professional care.…”

This Word is (Not?) Very Exciting: Considering Intersectionality in Indigenous Studies

“…I start out with introductions to gender in indigenous studies and intersectionality, before discussing the potential contributions of the latter to the former. As such, the article is also a contribution to gender studies (see also Olsen, 2015;2017a;2017b).…”

“…effect of downplaying gender (Olsen, 2017a). Without negating the importance and necessity of the movement of the different decolonizing and indigenous methodologies, I have previously (Olsen, 2017a;2017b) argued that there is a tendency within the academic movement of indigenous methodologies to de-emphasize other aspects of power and identity besides indigeneity, in particular gender. Porsanger (2004), Kovach (2010), Deloria (1992) and Wilson (2008) do not explicitly discuss gender in their work.…”