Thinking About Indigenous Religions

This episode concentrates on the translation - the transformation in performance - of the U.N.'s International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples (9th of August) into the World Adivasi Day (Vishwa Adivasi Divas or Din) in Gujarat, specifically in the town of Chhotaudepur. Professor Arjun Rathva from MC Rathva College and Professor Gregory D. Alles from McDaniel College talk about an imagined global adivasi ('indigenous') community, ongoing legal challenges to the status o...

How does ‘sovereignty’ play out in the Naga areas – on the borders of India and Myanmar – with their rich stories connected to land, and their struggles to survive? How can we think about notions of sovereignty beyond nation-state boundaries, territorial independence, common language, culture, and religion; instead look at the productive ways in which people orient their lives, and politics, across time and space? What are the different ways in which academics and journalists use the language...

Former Sámi Parliament President Aili Keskitalo declared Standing Rock "is our common cause. It has become symbolic, one may rightly say that this is the world's Alta-case" (NRK Nyheter 07.11.2016)In this episode, we meet Professor Siv Ellen Kraft, who talks about the shift to 'indigeneity' and 'indigenous religions' among the Sámi, through a focus on Sámi activism in Alta (1979-1981, concerning a proposed power plant) and Standing Rock (2016-2017, concerning a proposed pipeline). For more ...

"Norwegian Government did not just give us Sámi rights; we, the Sámi people, demanded our rights!"In Part Two of this two-part episode, we continue the conversation with Sámi anthropologist and activist Jorunn Eikjok, as she takes us through the protest site in Oslo, 1979 . The Alta Conflict is reported to be the largest Sámi protest, which was followed by fundamental changes in the relationship between the Sámi people and the Norwegian State. Find Part One here.

This two-part episode is dedicated to the Alta Conflict, where Sámi activists led a series of protests in the 1970s and 1980s against the construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Alta River in Northern Norway. The Sámi activists declared a hunger strike on the 8th of October, 1979, in front of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo. The Alta Conflict is reported to be the largest Sámi protest, which was followed by fundamental changes in the relationship between the Sámi peopl...

How to do research in religious studies without being too preoccupied with finding religion? How to resist the temptation of translating things categorically into religion and indigeneity? How to take seriously practices that powerful institutions try to delegitimize as ‘false religion’ or ‘primitive religion’? How to do critical research without religionizing and indigenizing practices and communities uncritically? In this episode, we meet Professor Bjørn Ola Tafjord, who describes how ...

In this episode we have the privilege to be joined by Elle-Hánsa, a Sámi artist, cartographer, and indigenous activist, to talk about how, through his art, he became a Sámi activist. Elle-Hánsa is also known as Hans Ragnar Mathisen (his Norwegian name), and Keviselie (a name given to him by his Naga friends and relatives). Elle-Hánsa's first map of Sápmi offered a unique vision of Sápmi without the borders of the nation-states (Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia), which he took to the World Coun...

What counts as indigenous religions? Who uses this term? How are their claims connected to indigenous movements and struggles for recognition, rights and sovereignty? Who opposes and problematizes the category of indigenous religions, and why do they do that?To address these questions and introduce the study of indigenous religions we are joined by the authors of the open-access book Indigenous Religion(s): Local Grounds, Global Networks (Routledge 2020), professor Siv Ellen Kraft and p...