Indigenous peoples have for the past decades increasingly argued that not only is their traditional knowledge to be recognized in the management of their traditional territories, but that Indigenous control and self-governance over territories and natural resources are crucial for long-term sustainability of the land and cultural revitalisation of its people. In recent years, the Saami in Sweden have also presented themselves as pathfinders, offering advice and solutions for a more sustainable future not only for the Saami society, but for all of Sweden. This paper investigates how Saami claims for rights and stewardship in environmental management are related to Saami cultural revitalisation, within a Swedish colonial framework. It is based on an investigation of the Saami policy positions expressed in policy documents and opinion pieces produced by organisations representing the Saami, linking claims for rights and environmental stewardship with cultural revitalisation and a more sustainable development for all.

At Te Papa Atawhai/Department of Conservation in Aotearoa New Zealand, ‘cultural dif-ferences’ account for some of the difficulties that department staff experience in their interaction with Indigenous Māori in conservation work. To meet the need for better ‘cultural awareness’ of Māori conservation principles, the department has facilitated the development of Te Pūkenga Atawhai, which is an introductory course to Māori views of conservation offered to all department staff. For Māori, the course is also a part of a broader revitalisation process for Māori culture and society and a recognition of their bicultural Treaty partnership with the Crown. The paper investigates how the Te Pūkenga Atawhai course addresses the perceived difficulties with cultural differences between DOC and Māori in conservation work, and how Pou Kura Taiao and participants perceive its usefulness for teaching staff about Māori views of conservation. Some department staff argue that the course has contributed to a better understanding of Māori culture and conservation principles; others that it is too politicised and engages in cultural ‘tokenism’ of little relevance for conservation work.

Introduction

Up until the late 20th century, small village elementary schools, connected in many ways with the church, provided education for most rural children in Sweden. With increasing urbanisation and the centralisation of public services in Sweden, small village schools are increasingly abandoned in favour of larger schools that can accommodate more pupils, have more efficient services, be more democratic and not connected with any special church communion.

Background

Village schools, like Kyrkskolan (Church School) in the village of Bankeryd, provided the local children with much more than formal education, it also functioned as an arena for play and social acceptance. The closing down of Kyrkskolan has meant that children are referred to the larger schools where they lack a local social connection and respect for their individual differences. This has also meant that the tolerance for social difference has changed. Pupils with social or cognitive challenges who were accepted as persons in the local village school become both invisible and hyper-visible in the larger schools, when they are collectively stigmatised together with other pupils with similar challenges.

In the age-integrated school classes at Kyrkskolan, pupils of different ages worked and played together inside and outside of the school buildings, where also previous generations of local people have worked and played – thus uniting village people of different ages in their shared experiences of the same school, the gestalt of the school. The social life of a village school therefore fundamentally expresses local identities and values over time, beyond the school context.

The research

Researching, visually documenting and framing, the social life of a village school thus requires more than finding the aesthetically most pleasing photographic and analytical angle. In order to access the meaning of the social life of a place, the researcher must move beyond being merely an occasional observer, to become a participant observer. It is through the shared experiences of those places that the researcher can approach their meanings and be able to represent the places and the people from an insider’s point of view. By regularly participating, observing and respecting school work and play over a longer period of time in a naturally occurring way, the researcher is able to identify what characterises that social environment, how it is understood by the other participants, and therefore how it can be documented and presented in a meaningful way.

For the researcher of this project, it did not become apparent what the research was about until late in the photographic process. Instead of zooming in on the work, the research suggested that the meaning of the social life of the school children should best be pictured within a framework of work as play. This paper deals with the methodological challenges faced by the ethnographer/photographer, and discusses the interplay between place, time and representation, as well as the aesthetics of photography as a means to picture peoples’ lives. 

"Shoot, dig, and shut up !" Differing perceptions of wolves in urban and rural Sweden The wolf population in Sweden has grown considerably in recent years, which has created conflicts in society. Urban people and national authorities are in favour of the strict protection of wolves, while rural people and the indigenous Saami reindeer herders are increasingly frustrated over wolf damages. Despite national protection efforts, the number of illegally killed wolves each year is increasing, and it is possible today to talk about the ethnic dimensions of a "wolf conflict" between urban and rural people in Sweden.

In the face of climatic changes and environmental problems, indigenous knowledge is increasingly being accepted as an alternative to Western science in conservation policies. While indigenous knowledge may help indigenous empowerment, it is also placed under the control of the authorities whose science and strucutres it is meant to challenge. Indigenous knowledge is therefore the subject of a two-way appropriation by indigenous peoples as well as environmental authorities. This process is illustrated by the Sami reindeer herders in the World Heritage site of Laponia in Arctic Sweden, who are negotating a new joint management scheme with Swedish authorities, including a Sami majority on the park board. Sami indigenous knowledge will form the basis for the new management policies, but with minimal changes to existing national legislation. While the Sami will gain some political control, Swedish authorities will also gain access to and control over Sami indigenous knowledge, hence a two-way appropriation.

Conservation management systems which include indigenous traditional knowledge have increasingly been recognized by international conservation authorities as complementary or even superior to the more conventional conservation approach. Many indigenous peoples, including the Maori in New Zealand and the Saami in Sweden, have actively promoted their traditional knowledge as pivotal for sustainable development, and are now gaining more control over the management of their traditional areas. However, perceptions of traditional knowledge and its relation to sustainable development often differ between indigenous peoples and conservation authorities, and posit a challenge to the formulation of conservation policies.

The nomination and appointment of World Heritage sites ential a willingness from UNESCO and its member states to recognise the value of cultural and biological diversity on Earth by protecting representative or threatened cultural landscapes on behalf of all mankind and for all times. After recommendation from UNESCO, it has become increasingly popular among member states to nominate sites including living indigenous cultures, in order to provide these sites with international protection, and in order to benefit from the World Heritage status. However, the ways in which these kind of sites are protected differ greatly between states and particular sites. Whereas one indigenous people may own the land of the World Heritage site and have considerable influence on how the site is managed, another indigenous people may remain politically marginal and only play a symbolical role as carriers of indigenous culture. This paper intends to compare the situation for the indigenous people in four structurally similar World Heritage sites: Laponia in Sweden, Tongariro in New Zealand and Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Kakadu in Australia.