ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to question whether there are possibilities for interweaving place related pedagogies into early childhood curricula on the basis of what is offered from indigenous perspectives. The research that informs this chapter has addressed the following questions: In what ways are places relevant in pedagogies and practices in Sámi early childhood institutions in urban and rural areas in Norway? And, how can elders with traditional knowledge contribute to expand the approaches to working with place in early childhood educational institutions? We acknowledge different perspectives on place as a concept, however we adopt place as assemblage, not temporally fixed but filled with unknown vitalism related to Sámi people and their region. In presenting this paper, we suggest that if the words in curricula relate to epistemologies and languages of place, a more powerful resistance toward mainstream national curricula might unfold, curricula that are more inclusive regarding indigenous epistemologies.
