"For my generation to not be taught the language from birth, is the norm"
SARA WESSLING
Skolt Sami
journalist at YLE
SAMI MILLENNIALS REVIVING THEIR OPPRESSED CULTURE
Europe's only indigenous group is still unknown to the vast majority of people - the current generation is fighting for recognition
By Sara Laitinen
Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi (left) and Enni Similä (right) are proud of their Sami heritage
Young Sami are increasingly active in restoring their culture
I was quite unsure of what I was putting myself into, when I had decided to write about the Sami, an indigenous community that inhabits northern Finland. Although I grew up in Finland, I had never really learned about them; other than the fact that they wear beautiful, colourful clothes (gáktis in Northern Sami) and pursue nature-based livelihoods, such as fishing and reindeer herding.
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But when I started to research more about this minority, I was shocked to learn about things that I feel should’ve been taught to me during history lessons at school. However, there is barely any mention about Finland’s indigenous people in the Finnish education system.
The Sami, also known as Sámi or the Saami, are Europe's only indigenous group, yet they are unheard of. They mostly live in the Arctic area of Sápmi - which today encompasses parts of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. There are approximately 100,000 Sami in the world, with the majority of them living in Norway. Finland resides roughly 10,000 Sami, of which 60% live outside of Sápmi. This has brought new challenges to the community, such as preserving the language and old livelihoods.
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The largest Sami municipality in the country is Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Over 1,000 Sami live in the city. In the capital - the ‘City-Sami’ - Sami who live in larger cities in Finland work hard for language and culture restoration, guaranteeing its continuity for children and young people. There are eight different Sami languages spoken in the Sápmi area, three of which are spoken in Finland; North Sami, Skolt Sami and Inari Sami. However, there are still not enough schools in Finland which allow the Sami children to pursue an education in their mother tongue.
In 2017, the Sami history was brought in front of a global audience, with a Swedish film - Sami Blood. The internationally recognised film tells the story of a 14-year old girl who is sent to a nomad school in the early 20th century with her sister. A nomad school - a boarding school specifically for Sami children - was a place where they were not allowed speak in their mother tongue. If they did, they were violently punished.
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In the past, the community has gone through oppression by the governments of Norway, Sweden and Finland and even racial doctrine, like in Nazi Germany in the mid 1900s. Repression of the Sami in the past has resulted in some generations not wanting to teach their children about the culture and language.
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Being Sami was something that they were ashamed of - they didn’t want their children to go through what they had experienced in their youth. However, younger generations have started to restore the language and culture - they are learning the traditional artisanship and language and are more vocal about the political issues that are still concerning the indigenous minority today.
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Sara Wesslin is a Skolt Sami journalist from Ivalo, now working at the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle’s Sami-speaking arm. However, she didn’t learn her mother tongue until she began studying in a polytechnic in Kemi-Tornio in 2011. She says learning to speak the language wasn’t just grammatically challenging but also emotionally - "When studying, I also had to go re-live my family’s history – why didn’t I learn to speak Sami as a child? For my generation, to not be taught the language from birth is a norm."
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The three Sami languages spoken in Finland are on UNESCO’s list of endangered languages. Skolt Sami and Inari Sami are severely endangered - in total, there are only about 700 people who speak these languages.
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The Secretary of the Finnish Sami Youth Organisation (Suoma Sámi Nuorat, SSN), Enni Similä, an Inari Sami, also learned Sami in school in Ivalo. She says that it’s "the language of her heart" and that her Sami identity strengthened after she learned to speak the language.
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She studies Sami linguistic and cultural studies in Giellagas Institute in Oulu, and works with SSN, helping other young Sami find their identity in a country where they live as a minority. She is aware that there is still discrimination of the Sami, especially in northern Finland. She says, “whenever we go to a bar wearing our traditional costumes, people would be shouting racists comments. That’s what they’ve learned from the history, but I want to think it’s only the alcohol talking.”
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Discrimination can also be seen on social media, where anonymity blurs the lines between what is acceptable to say and what isn’t. Earlier this year, president of SSN and Sami activist Petra Laiti was targeted on social media after her profile was published in the Finnish national newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. A Finnish politician, Mikko Kärnä, who is known to intervene in all things concerning the Sami, posted the article on his Facebook page criticising Laiti for speaking on behalf of the whole community and declaring the definition of who a Sami is. Following this, Laiti started receiving hate messages on her Twitter account, where she had to eventually turn the commenting off.
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These days, social media works as a platform for many Sami activists who want to give the whole community a voice, like Petra Laiti. But the question of who a Sami is, is a divisive debate in Finland, especially on social media. It simulates a lot of discussion, where you can clearly see the majority’s stance against the indigenous minority.
The Sami have their own parliament - to be able to vote and be elected in the Sami parliament - the person must be accepted on the electoral roll. The conditions for this are that a person needs to consider themselves a Sami and the language should be used within their family. However, many non-Sami that live in Sápmi, claim that they should be able vote since one of their ancestors was a Sami.
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This has caused ambiguity in the official definition of Sami. This definition is also one of the issues for the government to not ratify ILO 169 - a convention concerning indigenous and tribal people in independent countries. It would guarantee the Sami more rights to be involved in the decision-making
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process which concerns their land, and in this way, safeguards the preservation of their culture. However, the current parliament doesn’t support ratifying the convention.
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A few years ago, journalist Niko Vartiainen received a letter in the post, confirming that he was now in the Sami electoral roll. This meant that he was officially a Sami. Niko’s mother is a Skolt Sami, yet he has never lived in the Sami culture. He grew up in southern Finland, far from Sápmi and his relatives. He has never worn a gákti and he doesn’t speak any Sami. Yet he can vote in the parliamentary election, something that hundreds of people are ready to complain about in Finland’s highest court. “I would like to take a stand in the issues concerning the Sami but as I haven’t grow up in the culture it’s hard. Having a Sami heritage hasn’t really shaped my identity since I have only really learned about it as an adult. However, I still feel the issues of Sami close to my heart whenever they are discussed on social or mainstream media,” he says.
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According to the President of the Social Democratic Youth of Finland and North Sami, Mikkel Näkkäläjärvi, some young Sami people are suffering from etnostressi. This means that if you belong to an ethnic group, you are pressured to act for the group’s benefit in everything that you do. “Etnostressi is a problem that is causing a lot of stress for some Sami, especially to those who live outside of Sápmi. They are expected to speak perfect Sami, engage in livelihoods and be active in the Sami politics,” he says. However, Näkkäläjärvi stresses that although this isn’t possible for many, if they include the culture in their lives, they’re equally as good.
But despite the issues concerning the Sami that the Finnish parliament needs to work on, such as ratifying the ILO convention, the young generation prefers to stay positive. A North Sami Aslak Länsman has raised his two children in a Sami speaking home and still practices reindeer herding despite studying at a university in Oulu, outside of Sápmi. He says, “The world is never finished, and the grievances must be addressed. But if you look at things from a positive side, the negative ones feel less painful.”
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In the recent years, there has been many positive outcomes from the Sami community, especially in culture. Many Sami artists, writers and musicians have gained recognition and the Sami media has been more active. The younger generation is fighting for the community’s rights, so that their culture will be preserved. This reviving movement of young Sami will hopefully result in changes in the Finnish law and for Sami to be involved in major decision making.
"That's what they've learned from history, but I want to think it's only the alcohol talking"
ENNI SIMILÄ
Inari Sami
university student
