FA+
Shop
(Political/Rant) A cultural crash course: The Sami people.
2 months ago
General
Hi! I’m Lavin, and if you follow me here, you already know me. But what you might not know is that I am Sami, part of Sweden’s only officially recognized indigenous people. Lately, our government has renewed attempts to erase our culture, and it scares me. As a result, I am making this journal. This post is a mix of info and political anger, and I don't mind at all if you go 'hell naw I ain't reading all that'. I'll do my best to keep it relatively short and to the point but uh... it's a really long history that needs some information to be understood. Anyway, buckle up.
The Sami are an indigenous population, native to northern Scandinavia, with roughly 90,000 of us spread across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Traditionally, we lived in close harmony with nature. Many of us were nomadic, moving with the seasons, and relying on sustainable practices like reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing to survive. We were, and many of us still are, schamanistic/naturalistic people.
Our culture isn’t just old traditions. It’s also language, music, art, and ways of living that have survived for centuries. We joik (Hard to explain, sounds like song but is a way of... calling forth or capturing the essence of a person, place, or animal. It's also to tell stories and share feelings. Duodji, the name of our crafts, are made from what nature gives us, and every part of life has a purpose and meaning. There were different ways of life among the Sami, but most commonly one of three:
The mountain sami:
As the name implies, most of us used to live in the mountainous areas of scandinavia, and we would typically be the 'most' nomadic of the three. We were primarily reindeer herders and hunters. For thousands of years, we have walked with and lived off of the reindeer. We would take care of the reindeer, herd them between grazing grounds, protect the calves agains wildlife, check on their health and help them find food in the harsher winters. In return, we got meat, fur and antlers from the reindeer to make items and food for survival. This is the people that I am part of.
Forest sami
I am less educated on these ways of life, but I'll do my best. Forest sami, as the name translates to, were semi-nomadic, living in more permanent huts while still moving seasonally. They combined hunting, fishing, and small-scale herding to survive, sometimes with fully domesticated reindeer.
Sea sami:
Coastal communities who relied on fishing and trading while maintaining their distinct culture. Reindeer weren't common, but they instead had a lot of unique arts and crafts that wasn't really seen in much of the rest of the sami culture.
For centuries, our government and the expansion of the church tried to erase us. Children were taken from their families and sent to nomadic boarding schools, where speaking Sami was forbidden and your were given subpar education. Enough to make you able to get a job and pay swedish taxes, but poor enough that you would always be considered lesser. The Sami were put under the microscope by the racial institute that was trying to prove us biologically inferior to Swedes. Measuring our skulls. Photographing us naked. Measuring every detail that wasn't perfect and desired.
Our "Shamans" were hunted and our spiritual practices outlawed. People were forcibly relocated, such as my own family back in the early 1900's. The joik was banned. Duodji was dismissed as primitive. In Sweden, some Sami were even forcibly sterilized. It was a deliberate attempt to destroy a people, our language, our culture, and our connection to the land.
One consequence can be felt by me directly as a descendant. I am Sami, yet I don't speak our language. When my grandmother was a child, she was beaten and threatened with being taken away from her family by the school if she kept speaking sami. As a consequence, our whole family now feels that generational trauma. You would expect this to be hundreds of years ago, after all sweden is often a beacon of progressionism... But yeah, that's a facade.
Even after the worst of the forced assimilation ended, life for the Sami didn’t suddenly become fair or easy. Governments started “modernizing” our lands for industry, tourism, and forestry without consulting us. Reindeer herding, which is at the heart of our culture, was constantly restricted by laws that ignored our millenia of knowledge about the land. Our languages and traditions were allowed to exist, but barely. Funding for Sami schools and cultural programs was minimal.
Many Sami were still pressured to assimilate, move to towns, and leave the land their families had cared about for generations. Climate change and industrial expansion hit our communities first, and often hardest. Mining industries in particular has wreaked havoc on our way of life. Living like we did only 100 years ago is now not possible anymore. Wind farms, climate change and industrial poisoning of grazing lands have left massive areas that used to be open for the reindeer to be now impossible to use. This forces the reindeer herders to walk further to find food, which brings the reindeer closer to populated areas and further increases conflict of interests.
Another difficult problem is that Sami youth struggle with identity. Many of us, me included, grew up disconnected from traditions because the culture has been so suppressed. Many families viewed having sami blood as a problem that needed to be kept hidden to protect the young. My mom moved away from my family very early to escape the problems caused by the hatred. Even among our own people, it's a problem of gatekeeping. The few sami that live traditionally are TERRIFIED of trusting anyone they don't know, and often freeze out young or inexperienced sami who are genuinly trying to find their way back to the culture and the roots.
Our language is also endangered. Despite being protected by the law now, this is a VERY recent change. Language is endangered in practice. There are few media, TV, or books in Sami. Even social spaces often default to Swedish, and many of us, such as myself, are old enough that learning to speak it is very hard. Yet speaking sami is often seen as a basic requirement to even be allowed to be called a sami. Other sami people even default to this, saying that if you don't speak sami, you aren't sami... this being despite the fact that the only reason we don't is because of the actions of the state and the church. If you don't have family that are active practitioners of the culture, and you don't speak sami... you will be frozen out both by the sami and the swedish state. It's tragic.
Now, it feels like history is repeating itself. Political voices, particularly SD (Sweden's far right party which, lo and behold, was founded by nazi's in 1988), openly frame Sami culture as “special treatment” and “an obstacle to growth.” I haven't faced any form of racism since I was a child, and I genuinly never thought I would again, but the amount of raw hatred and unashamed racism I have faced in the last few years has been an absolute heartbreak. They want to remove our rights, remove our status as an indigenous people and it really feels like a loop of blatant discrimination.
Online and in public discourse, we are portrayed as undeserving or privileged while centuries of oppression are ignored. It’s the same story as before... erase the culture, erase the language, justify it in the name of progress or profit. I have been called so many horrible names, slurs and fucked up things in the last year especially. Things I never thought I would ever hear. Things that were supposed to have been said for the last time in the 70's when the government realized that 'oh, what we're doing is kind of fucked up, huh?'. The people that had the opinions would at least have the decency not to say it out loud.
And now it's back.
What the government is doing once more in the name of progression isn't equality or 'protecting the rights of the Swedish people'. It’s blatant hatred. It's taking everything that makes us unique as a people and either preventing it, or taking it away from us. And the worst part is that they keep saying one argument over and over. "It isn't profitable.". Cause apparently our culture is less important than money.
Also, that statement is even a myth.
The critics scream that tax money is going to funding sami culture because reindeer herding can't survive on it's own... yet they fail to mention that the taxes we pay, the cultural markets and the tourism we bring literally earns the government more money than we get paid. Also the mines and industries that have been placed on our land, the thing which is actively making reindeer herding impossible, made roughly 45 billion SEK (~$5 billion USD) in tax income and government fees...
I believe 100% that this sudden rise in hatred for our people is due to this one political party that is actively spreading misinformation or exagerrated information in a campaign to be allowed to make a new law that overrules our recognition by the supreme court as an indigenous people, protected by certain rights and laws. So, just to summarize, this is what the party is not only trying, but PROMISING to do if they are elected in this years vote, which unfortunately seems very likely.
This is their promises:
1. Revoke the Girjas decision, a court ruling by the supreme court that recognised a single community among the sami as the rightful custodian of a mountain area, where they won against the government to be allowed to maintain autonomy about choices regarding hunting and fishing in the area. The party argues that the right to self-autonomy is a right that not regular Swedes have and therefore it is morally wrong. Mind that the swedes are still allowed to hunt and fish there, just decided by that one sami community in that one area. The reason is because if they try to revoke that decision without changing the law, they are... well... breaking both swedish and EU law and opening up a political nightmare.
2. Remove minority language protections. We have a law in sweden that states that the government HAS to provide courses in your mother language. So for the sami in Sweden, Swedish is mandatory but nowadays we also have the right to learn Sami. I am so happy for the new generation that this exists. I wish it had been a thing when I was a child. Now the party is trying to remove that law, because "muslims being legally required to learn arabic is costing too much." Coincidentially, this law is also what protects our indigenous languages. "In sweden, we speak swedish." they say, as if we haven't been officially recognised to have been here first.
3. Open the reindeer herding (which currently is only allowed by sami people who are part of a community that has been confirmed to be reindeer herders in the past), to anyone who wants it. I am split on this as I believe a lot of young sami who has the same story as me aren't allowed to partake in what is their own traditions because they were raised in a swedish household, despite being part of the families. At the same time, opening it up to anyone (including non-sami) will remove the last thing that is unique to our culture. The reindeer culture in sweden has always been unique to the sami people. It's our whole core identity. And while yeah, it sucks that I probably will never own reindeer in my life, I can still help take care of them with my family. Swedes can help too, many already do. But yeah, they want to make sure that it isn't just 'the priveledged sami reindeer herders' that get to do it...
4. Open more industrial projects that continue to encroach on our lands, destroying grazing grounds, migratory paths, and sacred areas. Climate change worsens the impact.
I wrote this because people need to understand that Sami culture is alive, and under threat. We are not a museum exhibit yet. Actually, that's a lie, we are... but a tiny portion remains alive. A tiny, dying portion. We joik, we craft, we herd, we live. Our language, our art and our way of life is precious and fragile. Protecting it is not optional. I am personally doing my best to keep it alive. I'm trying to learn the language. I'm trying to learn the art and crafts. I'm planning to involve myself with the reindeer herding as I'm one of the lucky few who have family that are deeply engrained in the reindeer culture, some family members even living off it full time. I know which of my family is sami and where they come from. I know which sami villages we belong to. Our history. So many young sami don't have that chance. That opportunity. I plan to care for it as well as I can.
And yeah, we aren't perfect either. There are genuine issues of curruption, gatekeeping and hostility even among our own people. Progressive minds vs traditionality. One example of my own is that I disagree strongly with that we still to this day mostly mark the calves by carving their ears with knives. Several people have told me that 'oh they don't feel it, when you hold them in a certain way it releases endorphins and they don't even notice' which quite frankly I don't belive... And even it if IS true, there are so many other ways to do it, it's a silly tradition. But yeah, losing my train of thought.
I want people to see what’s happening, to know I was here and that I tried to protect my culture... I want to create a curiosity for my culture, make you look up who we are, read about it and form your own opinions on the matters instead of maybe being a little footnote in the news in a few years. Hopefully convince you stand with us if it ends up being neccessary, though this isn't your fight. I don't expect anything from anyone, but I want people to know we exist.
I have never been an activist in any form. I have always been very skeptical of taking opinions in matters I don't understand. Wether it's wars between religions, political debates or other nuanced topics, I really don't like to get involved if I don't understand the situation. Misinformation is everywhere, that's the unfortunate reality of life, so if this little rant has at all been interesting; please don't hesitate to read up on the topic or even write to me if you want information from my point of view as someone who grew up around this culture.
Thank you for reading about this <3
There are few things that makes me as happy as seeing that we as a people are being raised into the spotlight for the first time in history. There are movies being made of us, more and more swedes are realizing how messed up our history has been, and many are voicing their support for our cause. An unfortunate part of fame is that it also creates more critique. And we're not just popular in swedish films and media, we are popular politically. But...
I saw a movie a year or two ago. A movie that made me so goddamn giddy and happy. The movie is called Claus. If you haven't seen it, I strongly reccomend it. This movie is the first time in my life that I ever see a sami person in an animated family movie, and what is even cooler is that it's a global release. And then, to top it off, the sami people in the movie even speak one of the sami language! And wear our traditional clothes! Though that pretty blue dress they show is typically more of a festive wear, daily wear would be a little more simple. And yeah, it's not a perfect representation, but it's so damn great. And it has given me immense joy. And hope. Hope that we will be remembered, and maybe even protected one day. So yeah. Thanks again for reading this. Sorry if it was a bit of a snooze fest.... <3 <3 <3
INFODUMP SECTION: Who the hell are the sami????The Sami are an indigenous population, native to northern Scandinavia, with roughly 90,000 of us spread across Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Traditionally, we lived in close harmony with nature. Many of us were nomadic, moving with the seasons, and relying on sustainable practices like reindeer herding, hunting, and fishing to survive. We were, and many of us still are, schamanistic/naturalistic people.
Our culture isn’t just old traditions. It’s also language, music, art, and ways of living that have survived for centuries. We joik (Hard to explain, sounds like song but is a way of... calling forth or capturing the essence of a person, place, or animal. It's also to tell stories and share feelings. Duodji, the name of our crafts, are made from what nature gives us, and every part of life has a purpose and meaning. There were different ways of life among the Sami, but most commonly one of three:
The mountain sami:
As the name implies, most of us used to live in the mountainous areas of scandinavia, and we would typically be the 'most' nomadic of the three. We were primarily reindeer herders and hunters. For thousands of years, we have walked with and lived off of the reindeer. We would take care of the reindeer, herd them between grazing grounds, protect the calves agains wildlife, check on their health and help them find food in the harsher winters. In return, we got meat, fur and antlers from the reindeer to make items and food for survival. This is the people that I am part of.
Forest sami
I am less educated on these ways of life, but I'll do my best. Forest sami, as the name translates to, were semi-nomadic, living in more permanent huts while still moving seasonally. They combined hunting, fishing, and small-scale herding to survive, sometimes with fully domesticated reindeer.
Sea sami:
Coastal communities who relied on fishing and trading while maintaining their distinct culture. Reindeer weren't common, but they instead had a lot of unique arts and crafts that wasn't really seen in much of the rest of the sami culture.
The History of Opression: 1700's - 1970'sFor centuries, our government and the expansion of the church tried to erase us. Children were taken from their families and sent to nomadic boarding schools, where speaking Sami was forbidden and your were given subpar education. Enough to make you able to get a job and pay swedish taxes, but poor enough that you would always be considered lesser. The Sami were put under the microscope by the racial institute that was trying to prove us biologically inferior to Swedes. Measuring our skulls. Photographing us naked. Measuring every detail that wasn't perfect and desired.
Our "Shamans" were hunted and our spiritual practices outlawed. People were forcibly relocated, such as my own family back in the early 1900's. The joik was banned. Duodji was dismissed as primitive. In Sweden, some Sami were even forcibly sterilized. It was a deliberate attempt to destroy a people, our language, our culture, and our connection to the land.
One consequence can be felt by me directly as a descendant. I am Sami, yet I don't speak our language. When my grandmother was a child, she was beaten and threatened with being taken away from her family by the school if she kept speaking sami. As a consequence, our whole family now feels that generational trauma. You would expect this to be hundreds of years ago, after all sweden is often a beacon of progressionism... But yeah, that's a facade.
Modern era challenges: 1970's - 2010'sEven after the worst of the forced assimilation ended, life for the Sami didn’t suddenly become fair or easy. Governments started “modernizing” our lands for industry, tourism, and forestry without consulting us. Reindeer herding, which is at the heart of our culture, was constantly restricted by laws that ignored our millenia of knowledge about the land. Our languages and traditions were allowed to exist, but barely. Funding for Sami schools and cultural programs was minimal.
Many Sami were still pressured to assimilate, move to towns, and leave the land their families had cared about for generations. Climate change and industrial expansion hit our communities first, and often hardest. Mining industries in particular has wreaked havoc on our way of life. Living like we did only 100 years ago is now not possible anymore. Wind farms, climate change and industrial poisoning of grazing lands have left massive areas that used to be open for the reindeer to be now impossible to use. This forces the reindeer herders to walk further to find food, which brings the reindeer closer to populated areas and further increases conflict of interests.
Another difficult problem is that Sami youth struggle with identity. Many of us, me included, grew up disconnected from traditions because the culture has been so suppressed. Many families viewed having sami blood as a problem that needed to be kept hidden to protect the young. My mom moved away from my family very early to escape the problems caused by the hatred. Even among our own people, it's a problem of gatekeeping. The few sami that live traditionally are TERRIFIED of trusting anyone they don't know, and often freeze out young or inexperienced sami who are genuinly trying to find their way back to the culture and the roots.
Our language is also endangered. Despite being protected by the law now, this is a VERY recent change. Language is endangered in practice. There are few media, TV, or books in Sami. Even social spaces often default to Swedish, and many of us, such as myself, are old enough that learning to speak it is very hard. Yet speaking sami is often seen as a basic requirement to even be allowed to be called a sami. Other sami people even default to this, saying that if you don't speak sami, you aren't sami... this being despite the fact that the only reason we don't is because of the actions of the state and the church. If you don't have family that are active practitioners of the culture, and you don't speak sami... you will be frozen out both by the sami and the swedish state. It's tragic.
The History that is Repeating:Now, it feels like history is repeating itself. Political voices, particularly SD (Sweden's far right party which, lo and behold, was founded by nazi's in 1988), openly frame Sami culture as “special treatment” and “an obstacle to growth.” I haven't faced any form of racism since I was a child, and I genuinly never thought I would again, but the amount of raw hatred and unashamed racism I have faced in the last few years has been an absolute heartbreak. They want to remove our rights, remove our status as an indigenous people and it really feels like a loop of blatant discrimination.
Online and in public discourse, we are portrayed as undeserving or privileged while centuries of oppression are ignored. It’s the same story as before... erase the culture, erase the language, justify it in the name of progress or profit. I have been called so many horrible names, slurs and fucked up things in the last year especially. Things I never thought I would ever hear. Things that were supposed to have been said for the last time in the 70's when the government realized that 'oh, what we're doing is kind of fucked up, huh?'. The people that had the opinions would at least have the decency not to say it out loud.
And now it's back.
What the government is doing once more in the name of progression isn't equality or 'protecting the rights of the Swedish people'. It’s blatant hatred. It's taking everything that makes us unique as a people and either preventing it, or taking it away from us. And the worst part is that they keep saying one argument over and over. "It isn't profitable.". Cause apparently our culture is less important than money.
Also, that statement is even a myth.
The critics scream that tax money is going to funding sami culture because reindeer herding can't survive on it's own... yet they fail to mention that the taxes we pay, the cultural markets and the tourism we bring literally earns the government more money than we get paid. Also the mines and industries that have been placed on our land, the thing which is actively making reindeer herding impossible, made roughly 45 billion SEK (~$5 billion USD) in tax income and government fees...
I believe 100% that this sudden rise in hatred for our people is due to this one political party that is actively spreading misinformation or exagerrated information in a campaign to be allowed to make a new law that overrules our recognition by the supreme court as an indigenous people, protected by certain rights and laws. So, just to summarize, this is what the party is not only trying, but PROMISING to do if they are elected in this years vote, which unfortunately seems very likely.
This is their promises:
1. Revoke the Girjas decision, a court ruling by the supreme court that recognised a single community among the sami as the rightful custodian of a mountain area, where they won against the government to be allowed to maintain autonomy about choices regarding hunting and fishing in the area. The party argues that the right to self-autonomy is a right that not regular Swedes have and therefore it is morally wrong. Mind that the swedes are still allowed to hunt and fish there, just decided by that one sami community in that one area. The reason is because if they try to revoke that decision without changing the law, they are... well... breaking both swedish and EU law and opening up a political nightmare.
2. Remove minority language protections. We have a law in sweden that states that the government HAS to provide courses in your mother language. So for the sami in Sweden, Swedish is mandatory but nowadays we also have the right to learn Sami. I am so happy for the new generation that this exists. I wish it had been a thing when I was a child. Now the party is trying to remove that law, because "muslims being legally required to learn arabic is costing too much." Coincidentially, this law is also what protects our indigenous languages. "In sweden, we speak swedish." they say, as if we haven't been officially recognised to have been here first.
3. Open the reindeer herding (which currently is only allowed by sami people who are part of a community that has been confirmed to be reindeer herders in the past), to anyone who wants it. I am split on this as I believe a lot of young sami who has the same story as me aren't allowed to partake in what is their own traditions because they were raised in a swedish household, despite being part of the families. At the same time, opening it up to anyone (including non-sami) will remove the last thing that is unique to our culture. The reindeer culture in sweden has always been unique to the sami people. It's our whole core identity. And while yeah, it sucks that I probably will never own reindeer in my life, I can still help take care of them with my family. Swedes can help too, many already do. But yeah, they want to make sure that it isn't just 'the priveledged sami reindeer herders' that get to do it...
4. Open more industrial projects that continue to encroach on our lands, destroying grazing grounds, migratory paths, and sacred areas. Climate change worsens the impact.
Final notes/Why I made this journal.I wrote this because people need to understand that Sami culture is alive, and under threat. We are not a museum exhibit yet. Actually, that's a lie, we are... but a tiny portion remains alive. A tiny, dying portion. We joik, we craft, we herd, we live. Our language, our art and our way of life is precious and fragile. Protecting it is not optional. I am personally doing my best to keep it alive. I'm trying to learn the language. I'm trying to learn the art and crafts. I'm planning to involve myself with the reindeer herding as I'm one of the lucky few who have family that are deeply engrained in the reindeer culture, some family members even living off it full time. I know which of my family is sami and where they come from. I know which sami villages we belong to. Our history. So many young sami don't have that chance. That opportunity. I plan to care for it as well as I can.
And yeah, we aren't perfect either. There are genuine issues of curruption, gatekeeping and hostility even among our own people. Progressive minds vs traditionality. One example of my own is that I disagree strongly with that we still to this day mostly mark the calves by carving their ears with knives. Several people have told me that 'oh they don't feel it, when you hold them in a certain way it releases endorphins and they don't even notice' which quite frankly I don't belive... And even it if IS true, there are so many other ways to do it, it's a silly tradition. But yeah, losing my train of thought.
I want people to see what’s happening, to know I was here and that I tried to protect my culture... I want to create a curiosity for my culture, make you look up who we are, read about it and form your own opinions on the matters instead of maybe being a little footnote in the news in a few years. Hopefully convince you stand with us if it ends up being neccessary, though this isn't your fight. I don't expect anything from anyone, but I want people to know we exist.
I have never been an activist in any form. I have always been very skeptical of taking opinions in matters I don't understand. Wether it's wars between religions, political debates or other nuanced topics, I really don't like to get involved if I don't understand the situation. Misinformation is everywhere, that's the unfortunate reality of life, so if this little rant has at all been interesting; please don't hesitate to read up on the topic or even write to me if you want information from my point of view as someone who grew up around this culture.
Thank you for reading about this <3
Now, this is actually the final notes! I wanted to end on something positive at least:There are few things that makes me as happy as seeing that we as a people are being raised into the spotlight for the first time in history. There are movies being made of us, more and more swedes are realizing how messed up our history has been, and many are voicing their support for our cause. An unfortunate part of fame is that it also creates more critique. And we're not just popular in swedish films and media, we are popular politically. But...
I saw a movie a year or two ago. A movie that made me so goddamn giddy and happy. The movie is called Claus. If you haven't seen it, I strongly reccomend it. This movie is the first time in my life that I ever see a sami person in an animated family movie, and what is even cooler is that it's a global release. And then, to top it off, the sami people in the movie even speak one of the sami language! And wear our traditional clothes! Though that pretty blue dress they show is typically more of a festive wear, daily wear would be a little more simple. And yeah, it's not a perfect representation, but it's so damn great. And it has given me immense joy. And hope. Hope that we will be remembered, and maybe even protected one day. So yeah. Thanks again for reading this. Sorry if it was a bit of a snooze fest.... <3 <3 <3
Can sadly say that what you face is not a unique problem and reading your journal made my heart hurt (and my blood boil). Fuck the colonizing shit governments do.
But at least there's some progress to be made even if it's just a start. Have a great day and, even if I've already gone numb to it, don't lose hope.