START OF A NEW SAMI BLOG

Jungle Svonni and I have started a new sami blog. It was launched a few days ago, and we have 6 post up already! We will post every tuesday. Make sure you subsribe to our feed or even our newsletter.

On this blog we will share everything we can about the Sami people – the native people of the north of Europe. If you are interested in indigenous peoples, arctic and native lifestyles, global sustainability, nature, spirituality, mythology and shamanism this blog is for you! 




See you on Beneath Northern Lights.com ! 

NORWEGIANS DON`T KNOW THEIR OWN HISTORY

It´s strange how many people in Norway think about the Sami history as something that only
concerns the Sami people - and us only. 
They don´t think it´s important for them to learn anything about it. They don´t think its relevant to them,
 becuase they are not Sami…   

But why wouldn´t it? It  concerns everyone, espescially them!. 
This happened in Norway - so its a part of Norwegian history as well. 
Some people have called it “The dark part of Norwegian history” the part that hasn´t been talked about.  
And the same happened is Sweden, Finland and Russia.

Norwegian kids don´t learn about their own history in shcool, it´s actaully NOT a part of their syllabus 
- they learn about other indigneous peoples more then about the indigenous peoples in their own country.

When I talk to people from abroad they have always thought of Norway as a country that cares about 
peoples right, the environment, and are nice, open, and understanding people. 
That we are kind and have alot of understanding and compassion for all people and that we 
don´t discriminate and all is good and so on.

They are shocked to hear what has happened in Norway regarding the Sami people.

Everything sami has been forbidden! The clothes, the language, the culture, they burned the drums and 
clothing and banned joiking and the sami culture! They wanted us to become Norwegian 
-  good Norwegians.

This is called colonisation and we are not yet decolonised unfortunately.  
We just celebrated the 100 years annivarsary since the first poltical Sami meeting. 
Colonisation started long before that, it´s hard to say excatly when - but its hundreds of years ago 
- and we are still misunderstood and discriminated in many ways. Colonisation is still happening.

The first step for us to get closer to a co-exsistence is knowledge. The schools and the whole society 
has the responsability to learn about the history of Norway. What acutally happened and 
why things are like they are now. And we have the right to learn about our own culture and live it!

Many kids growing up don´t even know they are Sami, and as they become adults and do 
some genealogy to find their ancestors, they find out they are Sami, but don´t know anything 
about how to be a Sami person.

I hope for the future that all nordic children get to learn about the Sami people in shcool, 
so that they will have a understanding about our common history, so that we can at least find 
a common ground to stand on and understand each other, so we all have the opportunity 
to live how we want to live.  

Are you surprised to hear that Norwegian kids don´t learn much about Sami people?

THE RIVER THAT NEVER FREEZES

Not far from my hometown there is a small river,  a stream that comes from the mountain and runs down to form a big pound.
This river and pound don´t freeze in wintertime. Many people find this strange, because everything freezes here during the winter. Tempearatures can get down to -50 celsius and it´s cold. So why doesnt it freeze?
The legend says that uldá/gufihtar (undergound people) live under this river, and thats why it never freezes. During the spring, when all the snow melts, sometimes the water is not so good in the tap and we have to go and get water from nearby springs. This river is one of them, so the water is supposed to be extra clean and good. Magic water if you ask me!

Can you find any other good reason then that the underground people are the reason this? 😉
Hihi, not me! 😀

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEFORE AND NOW

There is no doubt there is a huge difference on the situation with the sami people now and how it was let´s say in the 70ties or 40ies.  This is a really common question I get asked all the time:

HOW HAVE THINGS CHANGED FOR SAMI PEOPLE?

Sami culture is not prohibited anymore like it used to be. 
For a long time nothing Sami was tolerated. To simplyfy what happened: the government wanted us to become good Norwegian citizens, we where not allowed to be Sami. We had to change our names, burn the gákti (sami clothing) and drums, and stop joiking and talking sami. Chlidren in shcools would get punished if they where to talk sami or use sami clothes.

Colonisation happened, and it´s still going on, it has for at least 100 years - BUT....

Now we have opportunities - we had no voice before. 
Because there has been shown interest in reconciliation between the Norwegian government (I know best of the situation in Norway, but there are sami people in Sweden, Finland and Russia as well) and Sami´s the latest years this is an excellent chance for us to show the world who we are. On our terms. We don´t have to let anyone from outside the Sami culture define who we are, but we can choose for ourselves to show what our values are, our lifestyle and world view, our culture and what we have to offer to the world.
We are allowed to learn how to be good Sami people. We have the opportunity to define ourselves - let the world know who we are from our own perspective.

What would you say has changed for the Sami people? Do you have any thoughs about it?

WHY I SING IN SAMI

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Promo pic by Mari A. Lorentsen from 2008.
Shot ouside the sami kindergarden in Oslo. 

I left Sápmi when I was 16 years old and swore never to come back. I felt there was nothing to do there for me. We had high suicide-rates in Karasjok and the culture there was not particurlary supportive. I had my friends, of course, but when you live in a small town everything is see-through and you can´t really do anything without someone commenting on it.

I was happy living in the city and I sang in different bands and whenever I had the chance to. But I sang in English. I went back home to visit Karasjok less and less frequent and I noticed that everytime I came back I had forgotten words, and after about 8 years I was struggeling to say anything in sami. I had always had good degrees in languages, including sami, so it started to scare me. What if I was to forget the sami language, and not speak it at all – ever? That would be such a shame! I decided to do something about it, without actually having to move back, cause I didn´t want that either.  I decided I would write lyrics in sami, so that I would have something sami in my life.

GOHPPU - GUKSI The sami traditional wooden cup.

Made by Jørn Are Keskitalo in Guovdageaidnu.

This is an example of the traditional sami wooden cup. Somwhere they call it guksi, and other places they call it gohppu. I am not an expert about this, but I will tell you what I know.
It is always made of some kind of wood, and sometimes decorated with pieces of reindeer antler.
When I was at elementary shcool we used to burn our names on wooden objects, and this is also common for the gohppu.

Everyone owns their own cup wich they carry in their belt with their knife, so that wherever you come - to a river, lake or visiting another camp you will be ready to get a drink.

I made this cup with my own logo in case you what to get something sami. Handmade cups made by craftsmen are  superexphensive, but the ones I bought these are "handmade in a factory" I guess... hehe cause it saiys handmade, but we know it´s not really... But anyway, it´s the best I could to not make the price not too high. You can buy it here: http://www.elinkaaven.com/store/

Lynxie likes it too!

I AM GODMOTHER AGAIN!

Ingelin, Ailo Mathias and Steffen.

Yesterday was a great day! When I woke up this morning I felt rested, and happy. I didn´t have any nightmares at night or anything. :D

Yesterday we went to Ravnastua Mountain house where my cousin Ingelin and her boyfriend Steffen where going to baptise their child Ailo Mathias. They had asked me to be his godmother, and I of course said yes, because Ingelin and Steffen are so cool, and their child will also be cool!

To get up to the mouintain house we got to ride with my aunt and uncle with their snowmobile about half the way, and then we went skiing rest of the way. We got there just in time for the ceremony. Ingelin and Steffen and their mums where the entertainment, and the ones to hold the ceremony. They did alot of singing, and serving food, so it was really nice! Very cosy.  After we had eaten dinner, dessert and cakes, my uncle drove a bunch of us in his snow-trac back to the car-road. It was good to do some skiing, and today I felt really refreshed! 

Lihkku dunnuide, Alice ja Kenne! // Congrats!!

 
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Last weekend I went to the wedding of my second-cousing Alice and his boyfriend for many years, Ken Robert. They also have a child together. In sami culture scond-cousins are treated as cousins, so Alice and I used to play alot together and we also went to school together. I really looked forward to going to their wedding, because I am always in such a hurry, I almost never have time to go to weddings or even just to visit. I usually miss out on celebrations like that, so I was happy. :D

They got married in the church in Karasjok. The priest was actually Alice´s godfather, so it was a special ceremony... The priest also did alot for the local fotballteam «nordlys», where Alice has played as the only girl, cause there was no team for ladies, so she begged to play on the boys team. It was the funniest ceremony, because the priest was talking about Alice, and how good he was at football. «Alice was as gold...*sobs* for Nordlys».

Ken Robert has also been a good friend to me since my early teens, he is always so much fun to be around, and those two fit perfectly together, cause they a both full of humor, self-irony and just the funniest people! Congratulations to Alice and Ken Robert!

The priest does his thing

On their way out afterwards

Everyone congratulates the married couple

Outside the church after the ceremony

Eva, me and Henry found a table in the corner 

Eating cake

Just ate nattamat /"night food" <3 br="br">

Dinner

Brudevalsen- wedding walz or sth.

Samefolkets Dag/ The Sami Peoples day

Lihkku Beivviin! Håper alle har feiret samefolkets dag! :D Today was the offical sami peoples day, you should yoik a little, everyone! :D
The 6. of february has been celebrated by sami people i Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia since 1993.
It has become bigger and bigger each year, and each city have their own traditions of how they celebrate.
In kindergardens and shcools all over the country they learn about the sami people and some of them cebrate as well. The Sami kindergarden in Oslo have a party where they ask parents, a sami artist, and guests from the government, or other guests to come and spend time in the kindergarden. They make a Sami dinner with reindeer meat, and have sami games with lasso's and sing The sami peoples song. Its a nice way to remember that once we actually werent even alloud to speak sami, or wear sami clothing...

The sami people

The Sami people lives in the northern parts of four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia (the Kola Peninsula). In earlier times Sápmi (the land of the Sami) covered a much bigger part of the Scandinavian Peninsula, probably also more of northern Russia.



Lapps, Finns or Sami?
In earlier times the Sami were called Lapps (as in Lapland and Lappmarken) and Finns (as in Finnmark and Finland). During the centuries when they were suppressed by their majority neighbours the names 'Lapp' and 'Finn' acquired a disparaging value (in English the word 'Finn' means an inhabitant of Finland).

In the last decades Sami (or same in Norwegian and Swedish), derived from their own word sámit, has replaced the older names.



How many Sami?
Assimilation makes it difficult to give exact numbers for the Sami population today. They are at least 30 thousand, but they may be twice as many. The majority lives in Norway, where population numbers are at their most uncertain. Not only has assimilation gone very far in many areas, in addition a lot of Sami have moved to other parts of the country.

Russia has the smallest part. There are two thousand Sami on the Kola peninsula, fighting to survive as an ethnic group. A life-threatening environment in only one of their enemies!



The language
The Sami language is related to - but very different from - Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian. Is it divided into many dialects. Over the centuries each of these dialects developed until most of them became mutually unintelligible. However, the North Sami dialect is spoken by a majority of the population, and is the most used dialect in literature and education.

Almost all Sami speak the official language of the state where they live, but far from all speak Sami. However, the Sami language is now expanding among the groups who lost it due to assimilation and cultural suppression.


From:
http://www.borgos.nndata.no/samer.htm