Thinking About Indigenous Religions artwork

Thinking About Indigenous Religions

9 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 3 years ago -

Welcome to «Thinking About Indigenous Religions», a podcast where scholars, activists, artists, practitioners, and students discuss their understandings and usages of the term indigenous religions. The ambition is to address questions that many of us think of when we are thinking about indigenous religions. Are they the religions of indigenous peoples or a distinct group of religions? Is it a method, a theory, or a research field? Who gets to define indigenous religions? Who has already been defining indigenous religions, and whose voices and claims are yet to be heard and recognized? What makes a practice recognizable as religious and indigenous? This podcast is brought to you by INREL and GOVMAT from the Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Recording studio and technical support: UiT Result. Musical intro and outro: Lasse Michelsen. Host, editor and logo designer: Liudmila Nikanorova.

Social Sciences Science Society & Culture indigenous religions religious studies history of religion study of religion indigenous methodologies religion research indigeneity indigenous
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Episodes

Episode 8. Imagining Global Adivasi-ness with Arjun Rathva and Gregory D. Alles

March 25, 2021 13:00 - 31 minutes - 21.9 MB

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 of Rathvas as...

Episode 7. Indigenous Futures: The Practice of Sovereignty in Nagaland with Arkotong Longkumer and Aheli Moitra

February 22, 2021 04:00 - 1 hour - 44.2 MB

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 languag...

Episode 6. Sámi Activism from Alta to Standing Rock with Siv Ellen Kraft

February 15, 2021 08:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MB

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 ...

Episode 5. The Alta Conflict. Hunger strike for Sámi rights with Jorunn Eikjok. Part Two

February 04, 2021 07:00 - 39 minutes - 27.2 MB

"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. 

Episode 4. The Alta Conflict. Hunger strike for Sámi rights with Jorunn Eikjok. Part One.

February 02, 2021 05:00 - 41 minutes - 28.7 MB

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 people and the...

Episode 4. The Alta Conflict. Hunger strike for Sámi rights with Jorunn Eikjok. Part One.

February 02, 2021 05:00 - 41 minutes - 28.7 MB

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 people and the...

Episode 3. Translating Indigeneities with Bjørn Ola Tafjord

January 26, 2021 05:00 - 35 minutes - 24.2 MB

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 ep...

Episode 2. Putting Sápmi on the Map. Sámi Activism through Art with Elle-Hánsa/Hans Ragnar Mathisen

January 19, 2021 09:00 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MB

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 C...

Episode 1. Introduction to Indigenous Religions with Siv Ellen Kraft and Bjørn Ola Tafjord

January 11, 2021 23:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MB

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 pro...