Sami people – How can we contribute?

Many times I have experienced that on interviews – and otherwise talking to people, the main focus are all the tragic parts of the Sami history. They want me to explain all the wrongs and abuse, discrimination and rasism that have been done to us in detail.

And that is really important thing to discuss, because that is a very important part of the history of the world. And its important for us to remember all this, and be aware that we have been victims to horrible crimes.   

I sometimes compare the Sami people to an abused child. We as a group of people were abused, and suffer from traumas because of that. What happens to a child that is traumatized? It looses all trust to the world.

That is how we have been acting for a long time now. We dont trust the world. We become overprotective of our culture and identities. And now it seems like many identify us with the role of the victim. That is what many people think is interesting about us. We almost get the identity of  “the traumatised people”.

What happens when an abused child grows up? It learns how to take responsability for him/herself, heals her/his wounds, and learns how to forgive and live a happy life, and not let others or the past destroy the happiness of oneself. Some even learn how to make something unfortunate to an advantage for themselves.

But 100 years have gone and we have barely started this prosess. A hundred years since we first started organising as a political group. That kind of resurrection for a whole group of people does not happen quickly. 

There is so much shame connected to being Sami, but I see the younger generation is really proud to be Sami, and that gives me hope for the future.

Because now the time has come for us to be ourselves again. Now is the time we can show the world what VALUES WE have, what teachings WE have to give to the world, what WE have learned, how we can CONTRIBUTE to whats going on in the world locally and globally.  

This is not something the government or anyone else can aid us with. Only we ourselves can do this work. This is the work we have to do internally as a group and as individuals. And until we have done this we will be stuck in more of blaming everyone else for our loss.

We have finally come to OUR TIME. When WE as a group of people have the opportunity to be proud of ourselves, gain self esteem and  find out where we really come from and who we are! What do we stand for? What is important to us? My wish is that all sami people learn our history, our ancient learnings and in that way be able to live how we were meant to live, the natural way for us and develop from that. And to move forward.

WE have to make everybody aware of that is more to us then the discriminations we have been through. We have to find back to ourselves, if we are to set things right.

We will be stuck in the past if we don`t. The media loves a story about a victim. How long do we want to be the victim-story? When instead we could be the story about positivity, surviving, growth, strength and courage to the world.

This is an example of that newspapers LOVE writing a good old story about victims:

I had been contacted by a foreign journalist. I think she was french. She was writing about how it is to be a sami artist. She had been given a whole page in the newspaper to write about Sami music. It was difficult for me to find time meeting with her because I was always travelling. But I managed to set up a meeting with her in Alta.  

I met with her at a café and we started talking. I told her that I could never have released any of my records if it hadnt been for the funding of the Sami Parliament. They fund almost every sami music release, so I am very grateful for them. She started talking about how she had heard that the Sami Parliament is not really that helpful for Sami people and asked if I had ever had difficulties because of my Sami background.

Then another known joiker happened to come into the café. He is about 25 years older then me and had been part of the most important demonstration in Sami history – the demonstrations in Alta river. He came over to me and said hello and then I presented him to the journalist; “He is a known joiker, and he is much older then me, so he knows all about the injustice that was done to us Sami people in the past, he might be able to tell you more about the difficulties of the Sami people”.

He sat down and started talking to the journalist about how joiking used to be illegal, that he was discriminated in many ways and all the awful things he and the sami people have gone through.

I sat there wondering about this interview and journalist. She seemed to have prepared a story about what she wanted to write, and I didnt deliver. Unfortunately she couldnt get it from me, because at that time I had not felt racism myself, I had never felt abused or discriminated as a Sami joiker and singer. Of course not everyone likes me, but not everyone can like everyone, thats just the way it is. I didn´t take it personally. I had always just done whatever I wanted. All I had ever done was to follow my dreams. 

When she had written the article she sent it to me and said that the newspaper had chosen to change the article to be more about the story my collegue joiker had told. One fifth of the page was a small picture of me and a few sentences about me talking about hope for the future. Rest of the page was about all the discriminations that where done to us Sami people told by the joiker who had passed by.

I remember that strangely I thought this;  “I am not a good representative of the Sami people if  my main focus is not to telling tragic stories about Sami people?”

After this episode I definately saw the importance of knowing about my own culture and how to talk about the history of the Sami people. Thats one of the reasons this blog came to be. The history of the Sami people is complicated. Its not ONE story…  

I have always focused more on mythology then politics in my work, so it must have been somewhat disappointing for her to hear a different story from me. 

And this is far from the only case where Sami people as a less fortunate people is the main focus. I see everywhere, in Scandinavian newspapers for example. When they write about Sami music artist is mostly about the discriminations. Thats what the news are interested in and thats what they want to hear about.

And maybe that is what they CAN write about at the moment. Because until we as a people are ready to tell the world who we really are, what values we have and what we can offer to the world, we will continue to be “the discrimintaed people”.

That shouldn´t be our identity. And it is no one elses but our own responsability to make our own identity. It would help us to find a common ground, even if we are not ONE culture, we are still all indigenous Sami people. (Read more about how Sami people are not ONE people) 

I hope every Sami person thinks about this. The ones who were born into Sami culture, and those who are just finding out they are Sami. What does it mean to be a Sami? How can we contribute to the world for the good of everybody?

The question is not anymore about what society owes us, but what do we have to offer to the world.