CROSSROADS IN CULTURAL STUDIES
Fourth International Conference
June 29 - July 2, 2002, Tampere, Finland

Indigenous Peoples and Cultures of Resistance

Organisers: Louise Every and Johanna Perheentupa

Holmbom, Annika (Åbo Akademi University, Finland) WHAT ABOUT CHUCK? REPRESENTATIONS OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS
My paper will examine children's picture books as an arena for resistance, particularly picture books written by Aboriginal authors from Canada. What kind of representations of Aboriginal people can be found and what kind of strategies are used to counteract stereotypes? Children's books about First Nations people have predominantly been written by non-aboriginal authors. Despite the best of intentions, these books have been proven to contain stereotypical representations of Aboriginal Peoples. The heightened awareness of this situation has encouraged Aboriginal Peoples to start writing stories of their own. This has given Aboriginal Peoples a voice in children's literature. The books challenge the stereotypical representations of Aboriginal Peoples and hence empower Aboriginal children by providing them with positive role models while teaching them about their own history and culture. The books not only address Aboriginal children, but also non-Aboriginal readers, and increase the opportunity for cross-cultural learning.

Perheentupa, Johanna (University of Turku, Finland) THE BLACK THEATRE AS A SITE OF RESISTANCE
The Black Theatre in Sydney was established as a part of the Indigenous Movement in Australia in the early 1970s. Though it was inspired by the Afro-American example, the Black Theatre took its form and content from Aboriginal culture and from the lived experiences of Indigenous peoples. The Black Theatre gave Indigenous people a space for resistance and achannel by which to communicate their issues to the wider audience within the framework of theatre. Based in the suburb of Redfern, it was locatedrightat the centre of Sydney Indigenous activism. In this paper I will examine Australian Indigenous resistance duringthe1970s in the context of the Black Theatre. In particular I willstudy its significance as a place and space of Indigenous resistance inSydney.

Stoor, Maritta (University of Jyväskylä, Finland) THE SOUND OF SÁMI SILENCE - AVOIDING CONFLICT IN PUBLIC AS A STRATEGY OF SURVIVAL
This presentation discusses the current ethno-political debate in Finland over the Sámi definition, the identity questions, and the Sámi land rights issues. The perspective taken is emancipatory and reflects the Sámi point of view. The present debate in the Sámi domicile area has two counterparts: the Sámi people and the State of Finland. However, the majority population of Finnish origin, residing in the area, has started to fight against the improvement of the status of Sámi people. As a counter strategy for survival, the Sámi people have adopted a conscious strategy of silence. It means avoiding conflict in public and in media with the Finnish population and concentrating in the legislative work at the institutional level. Also a second strategy has been adopted: the constant co-operation at the transnational and at the global level has been utterly crucial for the Sámi People.

Aarelaid-Tart, Aili (Tallinn Pedagogical University, Estonia) SINGING NATIONALISM PHENOMENON OF ANTI-SOVIET RESISTANT MOVEMENT
After the occupation of Estonia by Soviets the traditional folk culture played a huge role in consolidating the indigenous Estonians. Seizing the restricted legitimacy Estonians built up a unique phenomenon - a singing nationalism. Namely, Estonians converted their historical tradition of song festivals, officially allowed by Moscow, into original nation-wide protest movement. 19871991 began a period of national liberation struggle, when broad-based popular movements called for the restoration of pre-war independence. This period is known as a unique event called singing revolution, which has based on the same traditions of folklore culture and song festivals. Singing revolution may be defined as a short-lasting high concentration of organisational and human capital of previously formed anti-imperial singing nationalism with the ultimate ideal to restore the independent national state. When the singing revolution ended, so did the singing nationalism too.

Every, Louise (University of Arizona, USA) MAKING SPACE, USING SCALE: ABORIGINAL IDENTITY POLITICS AT THE SYDNEY 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES
Postcolonial (and related colonial and imperial) studies have sought to find non-reductionist ways to relate global capitalism to the cultural politics of colonialism. As cultural politics, and to an extent, global capitalism, occur 'in a place', implicit to this project is an understanding of how space, scale and identity produce each other, and what relations of power lie behind these productions. This paper explores the notion of (post)colonial spaces, how they are produced and the role of scale in producing them. The paper is based on research on Indigenous protests relating to the Sydney Olympic Games. Attention is drawn as to how discursive and performative notions of the 'colonial' and the 'colonized' competed with those of the 'postcolonial', often using spatial metaphors, to produce and legitimate a site of protest. The strategic use of scale by state and non-state actors to advance their cause(s) provides an empirical example of recent theorizations of multiscalar cultural politics.