Sami Community Research Articles

Between Norwegianisation and Revitalisation in the South Sami Society: A Memory Culture Analysis of Boarding School Life and Its Aftermath

ABSTRACT There is no doubt that the first boarding school in the South Sami region in Norway (1910–1951) was authoritarian and contributed to Sami assimilation over several generations. Descriptions given by a former student regarding the poor conditions 70 years after he felt he was the victim of abuse is perhaps a sign of growing self-awareness among the South Sami. Informants have nevertheless stated that the social community at the later Sami schools (after 1951) strengthened their sense of identity and community. Despite the challenges, some Sami students from the 1970s and 1980s claim that the Sami school has been an important identity maker. Nonetheless, the Havika legacy shapes the South Sami community today in many ways with issues relating to Norwegianisation, shared school experiences and memories. As a result, this case study investigates how boarding school life is reflected in the South Sami memory and history culture.

Queer Narratives in Nordic Sami Literature: Coming-Out Narratives and Final Exposures in Savior of the Lost Children (2008) and Himlabrand (2021)

ABSTRACT This article explores how two queer narratives in Nordic Sami literature challenge, expand and change norms and stereotypes related to queer indigenous experiences. Characteristic for these narratives is the ambition to highlight taboos and challenge stereotypes in Sami contexts. In the article, I explore the characters’ coming-out processes and relate them to larger narrative traditions. To shed light on the obstacles the characters meet in the process of coming out to themselves and to their communities, and the genres through which the stories are told, I turn to gender scholars Judith Roof, Andrea Gutenberg and Anne Mulhall. I make use of their perspectives to explore whether the coming-out processes take different shapes when the individuals in question are Sami and thus doubly minoritized. Insisting on the importance of coming out not only to oneself, but also to the Sami community at large, they take on an important activist role, transcending the perspective of the individual. The primary texts are the young-adult novel Himlabrand (“Heavenly fire”) (2021) by Moa Backe Åstot and the blog novel The Savior of the Lost Children (2008) by Sigbjørn Skåden.

A sociological study of the significance of identity and ageing in a North Sami community

ABSTRACT This article explored experiences of ageing from interviews with a sample drawn from a population living in a North Sami community. Our focus is on older adult’s involvement in activities that emphasise and maintain them as participants in specific kinds of activities that require knowledge, skills and mentorship, and to what degree it provides them with social capital and ethnic identity. We present data from in-depth interviews with female and male inhabitants ranging from 29 to 75 years of age. Thematic analysis of the data indicates that social capital and identity are particularly apparent within three contexts: 1. family and social relationships, 2. reindeer herding and other traditional labour and 3. Sami language. We conclude that older people hold vital positions in the local community regarding these three contexts. They transfer and reproduce cultural competence, and they manifest their roles and positions as active and valuable cultural members and practical contributors to the community. Their cultural involvement is not performed for their own advantage but is a regular part of their everyday lives, benefiting their special position within this sociocultural context and creating social capital.

Ethical considerations for community-based participatory research with Sami communities in North Finland.

This study examines the perspectives of Sami community members and university researchers regarding the ethical considerations for engagement in Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) with Sami communities in northern Finland. Key informant interviews were conducted with Sami people from Finland who were exposed to or participated in research in their communities as well as with researchers who have conducted research with the Sami in Finland across diverse topics. Five themes were identified: establishing trust, research preparation, research comprehension, research ethics, and inclusion in research. The differences in participant perspectives were compared based on their community versus researcher roles. Our findings emphasize the need for (1) strategies to develop and maintain trust between Sami communities and researchers; (2) methods to bridge concepts of bias projected onto Sami communities and researchers by the others' differing world views and beliefs about research; and (3) increased education in community-engaged methods for social and natural scientists working with Sami communities. This study supports the need for the development of formalized ethical protocols for conducting community-based engaged research with and for Sami people in Finland that ensure mutually beneficial research for all involved.

Ylä-Tenon saamelaisten maiseman kielellinen ulottuvuus

Artikkeli käsittelee Utsjoen Ylä-Tenolla sijaitsevan kolmen kylän saamelaisten paikkoihin ja maisemaan liittyvää perinnettä sekä paikannimien ja paikkoihin liittyvän perinteen suhdetta 1900-luvulla. Analyysin teoreettisena kehyksenä on kognitiivinen kielen- ja kulttuurintutkimus. Tärkeimpänä tutkimusaineistona ovat ns. Talvadas-projektin suomen- ja pohjoissaamenkieliset äänitteet 1960- ja 1970-luvuilta sekä omat kokemukset ja kenttätyöt alueella vuodesta 1996 alkaen. Aineistoa tarkastellaan emic-näkökulmasta: paikallisia perinnetermejä käyttäen ja kertojien omia tulkintoja kunnioittaen. Artikkelista käy ilmi, että Ylä-Tenon saamelaisten paikkoihin liittyvä perinne on hyvin monimuotoista. Sille on tyypillistä voimakas side kunkin perheen suvun maihin sekä kerronnan perustuminen omakohtaisiin kokemuksiin, jota muitalus-genren yleisyys kuvaa. Paikannimet asettuvat paikkaperinteen rinnalla vähäisempään rooliin kuin arkikokemuksen perusteella voisi arvella: ne ovat vain yksi paikan merkitysverkoston osista muiden joukossa.

Early Modern Reindeer Husbandry, Sami Economy, and Grazing Rights

The main historic trajectory in property rights to land was the development of more exclusive rights by the dissolution of common property. In the Swedish lappmarks the opposite occurred, and by the end of the nineteenth century the old system with privately assigned land finally disappeared when Samis obtained lawful common user rights to large areas for reindeer herding. Earlier research focused on the role of the state. We bring together three previously rather neglected perspectives—self-governance, ecology, and the functionality of large-scale reindeer nomadism—to explain changes in property rights. By analysing how Samis from two types of villages in Lule lappmark using different ecological settings between 1550 and 1780, we show that the older property-rights system dissolved due to the emergence of large-scale reindeer nomadism. Grazing land became one of the most valued economic assets, and a common-property regime evolved. The institutional change that spurred the development was new trading patterns during the seventeenth century. By taking a self-governing perspective in a common-pool resource (CPR) context we identify the microlevel interactions between users through which property rights evolved in early modern Sami communities. How indigenous people during this time created and negotiated property rights is highlighted. On a higher level, the CPR perspective facilitates a discussion about Sami property rights in the context of property rights elsewhere, especially regarding common property. We emphasize the importance of addressing self-governance in the analysis of historical property rights of indigenous people.

Familiar Places: A History of Place Attachment in a South Sami Community

In contrast to situations in most other countries, Indigenous land rights in Sweden are tied to a specific livelihood—reindeer husbandry. Consequently, Sami culture is intimately connected to it. Currently, Sami who are not involved in reindeer husbandry use genealogy and attachment to place to signal Sami belonging and claim Sami identity. This paper explores the relationship between Sami genealogy and attachment to place before the reindeer grazing laws of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I show that within local Sami communities the land representing home was part of family history and identity while using historical archive material, narratives, and storytelling. State projects in the late 19th century challenged the links between family and land by confining Sami land title to reindeer husbandry, thereby constructing a notion of Sami as reindeer herders. The idea has restricted families and individuals from developing their culture and livelihoods as Sami. The construct continues to cause conflicts between Sami and between Sami and other members of local communities. Nevertheless, Sami today continue to evoke their connections to kinship and place, regardless of livelihood.

Diverse Sami Livelihoods

Swedish state policy regarding the Sami from the late nineteenth century onward and studies on Sami history have tended to treat reindeer husbandry as much more important than other livelihoods practiced by Sami communities and families. By comparing livelihood diversity in southern and northern mountain-reindeer husbandry communities in Swedish Sápmi (the traditional land of the Sami people) during the period 1860–1920, this study challenges the notions of Sami as reindeer herders and mountain reindeer husbandry as a nomadic monoculture. The results shows that Sami communities and families exploited diverse natural resources, trades and means of subsistence. The study supports an understanding of historical Sami livelihoods, were reindeer husbandry as recognized as one of various Sami trades and means of subsistence, rather than as the Sami livelihood.

Let’s Name It

This article on conflict and power relations between extractive industries and Indigenous groups in Sweden and Australia draws on two case studies to compare situations for Laevas reindeer herding Sami community in Northern Sweden and Adnyamathanha Traditional Owners in South Australia. In this international comparison the analysis, based on the research participants’ narratives, employs Johan Galtung’s concepts of cultural and structural violence as analytical tools to further explore and contrast the participants’ experiences of interactions with extractive industries and industrial proponents. In addition, this study introduces extractive violence—defined as a form of direct violence but relating specifically to extractivism and Indigenous peoples—as a complement to Galtung’s model, known as the violence triangle. The results show that although the expressions of cultural, structural and extractive violence experienced by the two Indigenous communities varied, the impacts were strikingly similar. Both communities identified extractive violence, supported by structural and cultural violence, as threats to the continuation of their entire cultures. The study also shows that in order to address violence against Indigenous peoples, Indigenous and decolonising perspectives must be taken into account.

Implementing the State Duty to Consult in Land and Resource Decisions: Perspectives from Sami Communities and Swedish State Officials

The duty of states to consult indigenous communities is a well-established legal principle, but its implications for practice remain uncertain. Sweden is finding itself at a particularly critical juncture as it prepares to legislate a duty to consult the Sami people in line with its international obligations. This paper explores the ability of Swedish state actors to implement the duty to consult, based on lessons from an already existing duty set out in Swedish minority law, namely to ensure the effective participation of minorities in land and resource decisions. Presenting novel empirical material on the views of Sami communities and state officials in ministries and agencies, we demonstrate the existence of considerable implementation gaps linked to practice, sectoral legislation, and political discourse. We argue that if state duties are to promote the intended intercultural reconciliation, then new measures are needed to ensure enforcement, e.g. via mechanisms of appeal and rules of nullification. In addition, sectoral resource regulations should be amended to refer to the duties set out in minority law and/or a potential new bill on consultation duty in a consistent manner. In the near-term, the state should ensure that Sami communities are adequately resourced to engage in consultation and should invest in state authorities’ own ability to implement, i.e. through competence development, staffing, intersectoral coordination, and independent evaluation. Much could also be gained if state agencies and Sami communities worked together to develop detailed consultation routines for relevant resource sectors.

Social\u2013ecological timelines to explore human adaptation to coastal change

Through the construction of a socio-ecological timeline for the Porsanger fjord ecosystem, this article illustrates the different ways in which environmental and social–ecological changes have influenced the adaptations of rural households in coastal Sami communities in Finnmark, north Norway. The main finding is that, although environmental change in the form of seal invasions and dwindling fish stocks directly impacted the fisheries, the introduction of a new vessel quota system decisively changed adaptive capacity and coastal Sami household adaptation strategies. These changes represented a tipping point for the social–ecological system in the period between 1986 and 1990. It is thus important to discuss the ways in which governance systems may facilitate actions to adapt to climate and biodiversity change and foster sustainable rural livelihood systems in coastal Norway. Based on traditional and local ecological knowledge on the state of the ecosystem prior to the tipping point, two relevant actions to increase the resilience of the system were identified: ensuring the possibility of re-entry into fisheries as part of rural livelihood combinations, and ecological restoration of kelp beds. Flexible diversification of livelihoods allows exploitation of a range of adjacent species without large investments in a fossile fuel-driven fisheries economy. Investing in regrowth of macroalgae to foster cod nursery areas and increase carbon sequestration can be a relevant alternative for communities that are interested in contributing to climate change mitigation on a larger scale.

Conceptualization of Culture and Ethnicity within Social Work in Two Indigenous Communities

This qualitative study compares social work in Sami communities within Norway and Native American communities in Montana in the US. A total of 39 social workers were interviewed. We investigated the conceptualization of culture and ethnicity, as well as the implications of these constructions for a culturally adequate social work practice. We find that social workers in Sápmi conceptualize culture and ethnicity as hybrid and fluid, while the social workers in Native American communities have a more fixed and static conceptualization. When working in Native American communities, social workers’ theme of inequality among groups, and the continuing effect of assimilation on family life. Among social workers in Sami communities in Norway, little attention is given to power relations among ethnic groups. These differences in construction affect both the framing and the legitimacy of culturally adequate social work within these two contexts.

Psychosocial Perspectives on Working Conditions among Men and Women in Reindeer Breeding in Sweden

Objective: The aim of this project was to describe the work organisation in the Sami communities and in reindeer-herding work and to explore the range of female duties and compare how men and women experience their psychosocial working conditions.
 Design: A kind of intervention study was performed by means of a questionnaire sent out to 200 individuals from seven Sami communities. Questions were asked about work organisation, communication, personal relations, solitary work, support, participation and appreciation from colleagues and women’s tasks. Meetings and discussions were held about what was perceived as being important in the life of the Sami communities. Notes from 16 group discussions were written down and analysed according to themes of topics relating to how men and women in the Sami communities experience their lives.
 Results: Communication and relations were described as being inadequate and some respondents experienced a heavy workload. The women reported more troubled relations, less participation in decision-making and less appreciation from colleagues. Positive issues reported were the Sami identity and a strong connection to the reindeer and to nature.
 Conclusions: This study indicates a need for a more systematic study of the psychosocial work conditions in the Sami communities in Sweden. Measures should be taken to develop the organisation of work, e.g. through developing communication strategies and conflict management, which has been requested by several Sami communities.

Place-Name Loaning Patterns as Cultural Survival Strategies in Sami Contexts

This paper discusses the place-name loaning patterns of one South Sami and one Inari Sami community that have plenty of parallel names in their area. The time span studied reaches from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. The loaning and borrowing processes are analyzed and interpreted in a thoroughly studied cultural context. The author claims that the differences in loaning reflects different strategies that aim to secure the existence of minority language and culture, and that the place-names have been used as means of manifesting one’s cultural ownership to the land. The most important results based on the quality and distribution of the parallel names in the South Sami area reflects the existence of two separate name systems and a protective purist strategy toward outsiders. In the Inari Sami area the results indicate that the local Sami community has an open and pedagogical strategy towards outsiders and because of this they have shared the language-cultural code to the Finns. The author has been inspired in her study by the ideas presented in the field of ecological linguistics and cultural onomastics. This paper is based on the results of the author’s doctoral dissertation.

The politics of planning: assessing the impacts of mining on Sami lands

This article examines the implications of undertaking community-based impact assessment (CBIA) in the Swedish context where Indigenous rights receive little recognition and the institutional planning environment is disenabling. It explores how normative biases built into the permitting process for mines ontologically privilege non-Indigenous ways of defining what constitutes relevant impacts. We show how the CBIA, undertaken by an impacted Sami community together with the authors, attempted to challenge these biases by constructing narratives about future impacts from the perspective of the Indigenous community. We also discuss how the research itself became embroiled in contestations over what constituted legitimate knowledge.

Ethnic identity negotiation among Sami youth living in a majority Sami community in Norway

ABSTRACTBackground: This study was part of the international research project “Circumpolar Indigenous Pathways to Adulthood” (CIPA).Objectives: To explore ethnic identity negotiation, an unexplored theme, among indigenous North Sami youth living in a majority Sami community context in Arctic Norway.Methods: A qualitative design was followed using open-ended, in-depth interviews conducted in 2010 with 22 Sami adolescents aged 13–19 years, all reporting Sami self-identification. Grounded theory, narrative analysis, theories of ethnic identity and ecological perspectives on resilience were applied in order to identify the themes.Findings: All 22 youth reported being open about either their Sami background (86%) and/or ethnic pride (55%). Ethnic pride was reported more often among females (68%) than males (27%). However, a minority of youth (14%) with multi-ethnic parentage, poor Sami language skills, not having been born or raised in the community and with a lack of reindeer husbandry affiliation experienced exclusion by community members as not being affirmed as Sami, and therefore reported stressors like anger, resignation, rejection of their Sami origins and poor well-being. Sami language was most often considered as important for communication (73%), but was also associated with the perception of what it meant to be a Sami (32%) and “traditions” (23%).Conclusion: Ethnic pride seemed to be strong among youth in this majority Sami context. Denial of recognition by one’s own ethnic group did not negatively influence ethnic pride or openness about ones’ ethnic background, but was related to youth experience of intra-ethnic discrimination and poorer well-being. As Sami language was found to be a strong ethnic identity marker, effective language programmes for Norwegian-speaking Sami and newcomers should be provided. Language skills and competence would serve as an inclusive factor and improve students’ well-being and health. Raising awareness about the diversity of Sami identity negotiations among adolescents in teacher training and schools in general should be addressed.

A Tale of Two Reindeer: Pastoralism and Preservation in the Soviet Arctic

This paper explores the parallel histories of two institutions in the Soviet north: the Lapland Nature Reserve just west of Lake Imandra on the Kola Peninsula and the neighboring Red Pulozero collective farm. Both created in the throes of Stalinism in the early 1930s, the former aimed to restore wild reindeer on a protected parcel of land and the latter sought to turn a small Sami community into practitioners of socialist reindeer herding. Over time the relationship between these reindeer pastoralists and preservationists vacillated from mutual assistance to mutual antagonism. Sami herders provided essential knowledge for the conservation program but later found their domestic reindeer roaming on the territory of the reserve. Conservationists hired Sami staff but later accused them of poaching wild reindeer. In the end these tensions contributed to the closure of the collective farm in the early 1960s and appropriation of Pulozero reindeer by veterinary scientists.

Representations of suppressed indigenous cultural memories: the communities of Sami of Finland and Kurdish of Turkey

In my paper I intend to examine how the historical marginalization of Sami and Kurdish history and culture affects the cultural identity of these ethnic groups. I discuss how recent political discourses and state interventions have influenced the images of the past and identity politics in the Sami communities living in Finland and in the Kurdish society living in Turkey. Furthermore, I describe how these assimilated minorities have alienated from their own identity due to a damage of their collective memory caused by devastating historical events. The paper also focuses on the ways these two minorities give meaning to the past and strengthen their cultural identities through different forms of art. Both Samis and Kurds express their identities in several creative ways. Their historical realities, individual histories, memories of assimilation and common values are reflected in joiks, folk music and cinema. These are strong ways of remembering and expressions of identity in both cultures. Traditional songs, films, documentaries reveal histories, reproduce cultures and shape the memories of both Sami and Kurdish people. Therefore, I will discuss how the patterns of their cultural memory have an impact on the representation of their identities in the above art forms.

… sukkajalka, kalppinokka, tuuliturpa …

... sukkajalka, kalppinokka, tuuliturpa… Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa’s Poetics of Reindeer In the translations of Nils Aslak Valkeapaa’s collection of poems Beaivi, Ahcažan (1988) the long poem number 272 has been left untranslated. Even in the Finnish translation of Aurinko, isani (1992), the poem appears in its original language, Northern Sami. In the academic literature this decision is often seen as an act of identity politics. Since the poem contains a lot of vocabulary pertaining to the central source of livelihood of the Sami people, namely reindeer herding, the decision not to translate the poem has been understood to highlight the fact that the language which the colonist dismisses is so rich that the vocabulary of other languages is not able to express the world the poem depicts. In this article, I suggest that the poem can be analysed from another point of view, outside of identity politics, and when analysed in that way, it becomes meaningful also to those readers who do not understand the Sami language. When the semantic meaning of the poem is no longer taken as its primary meaning, the materiality of the poem is brought to light and the poem reveals its semiotic-material side. Left untranslated, the poem 272 of the collection Aurinko, isani leads the reader to see language and the world as well as nature and culture, as one. It detaches itself from the semantic level of words and through the materiality of its language it facilitates the understanding of the naturecultures of the Sami community.

“We are like lemmings”: making sense of the cultural meaning(s) of suicide among the indigenous Sami in Sweden

BackgroundSuicide is a widespread problem among indigenous people residing in the circumpolar Arctic. Though the situation among the indigenous Sami in northern Scandinavia is better than among some other indigenous people, suicide is still regarded as a major public health issue. To adapt prevention strategies that are culturally attuned one must understand how suicide is understood within context. That is, the cultural meaning(s) of suicide.ObjectiveTo explore and make sense of the cultural meaning(s) of suicide among Sami in Sweden.DesignOpen-ended focus group discussions (FGDs) on the topic “suicide among Sami” were carried out in 5 Sami communities in Sweden, with in total 22 strategically selected Sami participants. FGDs were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed through employing content analysis.ResultsFrom the FGDs 4 themes emerged including “The Sami are fighting for their culture and the herders are in the middle of the fight,” “Suicide as a consequence of Sami losing (or having lost) their identity,” “A wildfire in the Sami world” and “Difficult to get help as a Sami.”ConclusionsFindings indicate that Sami in Sweden make sense of suicide in relation to power and identity within a threatened Sami cultural context. Suicide is then understood as an act that takes place and makes sense to others when a Sami no longer has the power to maintain a Sami identity, resulting in being disconnected from the Sami world and placed in an existential void where suicide is a solution. The findings are useful in development of culturally attuned suicide prevention among Sami in Sweden.