The Sámi World

Abstract

The edited volume The Sámi World is available in hard copy through Routledge Press and through the Taylor & Francis eBooks platform. The anthology's main editor Sanna Valkonen (Vilgon Biret-Ánne Inger-Ánne Sanna), professor of Sámi research at the University of Lapland, is joined by co-editors Saara Alakorva (Piera-Jovnna-Leena Saara) and Áile Aikio (Luobbal-Sámmol-Aimo Áile), both doctoral students at the University of Lapland, as well as Sigga-Marja Magga, a researcher of Sámi cultural studies and an authority on Sámi duodji handicraft. The forty-two authors and editors are situated at more than fifteen different universities within and outside of the Nordic region, but with particularly strong representation from the University of Lapland, Arctic University of Norway, and Sámi University of Applied Sciences. They include both Sámi and non-Sámi people, and comprise a variety of different career stages, from doctoral students to independent scholars to university professors and researchers, to emeriti faculty members.The editors use lyrics from Sámi rap artist and philosopher Ailu Valle's Viidon sieiddit/Widened Sacred Rocks album to organize their anthology into three parts. Part I, “Guođohit [to herd]—Living with/in Nature” includes twelve articles exploring the “interdependence and interaction of the Sámi and their surroundings, both mental and physical, in different contexts” (p. 19). Articles in the section explore concrete ways in which Sámi have interacted with natural resources, be it the snow and ice that affects Sámi herding (Inger Marie Gaup Eira, chap. 11), eggs and cloudberries (Solveig Joks, chap. 9), or other food resources (Lena Maria Nilsson, chap. 10). Päivi Magga (chap. 8) examines the Sámi cultural environment in relation to contrasting Finnish regimes of landscape and heritage management. Part I also includes more abstract senses of networks of care and interdependence, including care regimens (Annikki Herranen-Tabibi, chap. 7), narrative genres (Hanna Helander and Veli-Pekka Lehtola, chap. 4), musical traditions (Marko Jouste, chap. 3), and gákti (Sigga-Marja Magga, chap. 2). Women's experiences in particular are highlighted in an examination of Sámi feminism (Saara Alakorva, Ritva Kylli, and Jarno Valkonen, chap. 6) and the experience of Sámi women within Laestadianism (Torjer A. Olsen, chap. 5). The section is opened and closed by examinations of representation: Áile Aikio's (chap. 1) analysis of museum exhibitions of Sámi culture and Nuccio Mazzullo's (chap. 12) exploration of images of Sámi culture in Finnish tourist communications.Part II, “Gierdat [to endure, to bear]—Living through/in Societal Ruptures” contains twelve articles examining Sápmi as “a battlefield of different competing claims, strategies, and interests, both economic and geopolitical” (p. 19). The section includes examinations of historical situations like boarding schools (Anna Andersen, chap. 14), social malaise in Soviet-controlled Sápmi (Lukas Allemann, chap. 15), post-World War II changes in “Lappology” within Nordic welfare states (Jukka Nyyssönen, chap. 16), and the Sámi political mobilization of the late 1960s, symbolized by the development of the Sámi flag (Saara Alakorva, chap. 17). It also examines contemporary situations, including the workings of the three Nordic parliaments, Sámedikkit (Ulf Mörkenstam, Per Selle, and Sanna Valkonen, chap. 18), anti-Sámi discourse in Finland (Laura Junka-Aikio, chap. 19), minority rights of Sámi in Finland (Vesa Puuronen, chap. 21), Sámi discrimination in Sweden and Norway (Ketil Lenert-Hansen, chap. 20), urban Sámi in Stockholm (Karin Eriksson, chap. 22), ongoing natural resource controversies (Tapio Nykänen, chap. 24), and contemporary Sámi news media (Inker-Anni Sara, Torkel Rasmussen, and Roy Krøvel, chap. 23). The current and future situations of the Sámi languages are examined by Leena Huss and Anna-Riitta Lindgren (chap. 13).Part III, “Duostat [to dare]—Envisioning Sámi Futures” consists of eleven articles focusing on the sometimes daunting but also exciting work of decolonizing Sámi culture and society, particularly in relation to national governments that sound receptive to decolonizing agendas in principle, but that in practice often resist real implementation of measures that would increase Sámi self-determination. Drawing on the line from Viidon sieiddit, “Fápmu lea mis go duostá” [We have the power when we dare], the editors characterize the contributions to this section as examinations of attempts to “embrace our own Sámi agency . . . and the power of acting together” (p. 19). Sámi language revitalization is examined on the level of personal engagements with language acquisition in an article by Annika Pasanen (chap. 26). The history of Sámi media is surveyed from earliest newspapers to present-day radio and television (Torkel Rasmussen, Inker-Anni Sara, and Roy Krøvel, chap. 25), while Kata Kyrölä (chap. 34) explores queer identity in the contemporary Sámi television series Njuoska bittut (Wet Leggings). Astri Dankertsen (chap. 35) examines the ways in which urban Sámi in Norway and Sweden engage with Sámi identity in connection with pastimes and entertainment. Veli-Pekka Lehtola (chap. 29) explores intergenerational knowledge sharing and historical consciousness as it unfolded in his regular interactions with an elderly relative. Topics of tradition revitalization having to do with duodji and traditional crafts like boat building are explored in articles by Eeva-Kristiina Nylander (chap. 27) and Natalia Magnani (chap. 31). Britt Kramvig and Trine Kvidal-Røvik (chap. 32) explore intersections between duodji and contemporary Sámi design. Ina Knobblock (chap. 33) examines notions of Sámi feminism. Anna-Lill Drugge (chap. 28) looks at the challenges and importance of Sámi research ethics, while Kristina Labba (chap. 30) explores the intersections between Sámi legal traditions and Norwegian state jurisprudence. An insightful overview of the volume is provided in the essay “Ways of Being in the World” by Thomas Hylland Eriksen (Epilogue).As a text for gaining a sound footing in various areas of Sámi research, the volume updates and expands on Veli-Pekka Lehtola's still highly relevant and useful anthology of essays The Sámi People: Traditions in Transition (Kustannus-Puntsi, 2002), and deepens the coverage of key topics included in The Saami: A Cultural Encyclopaedia, edited by Ulla-Maija Kulonen, Irja Seurujärvi-Kari, and Risto Pulkkinen (Finnish Literature Society, 2005). For scholars wishing to bring Sámi materials into a broader Indigenous Studies or Nordic Studies curriculum or research program, The Sámi World is an invaluable resource. The articles are fairly short and are well-grounded in international Indigenous research. They discuss particular Sámi situations with clarity and precision, using Sámi concepts throughout but providing clear backgrounding and explanations for readers unfamiliar with the field. Each individual article tends to focus on the situation of Sámi in one of the colonizing states—Finland, Norway, Sweden, Russia—and with reference to a particular Sámi community and/or language. The three sections are by no means mutually exclusive: topics recur in different sections, and articles speak to issues that span broader sets of the questions than the section titles suggest. Perhaps the most fruitful way to approach this anthology and to make use of it in scholarship or teaching is to think of each article as a valuable snapshot of one situation in the Sámi world, combining with other snapshots to create a mosaic—one that reflects both the wide array of challenges facing Sámi in the past and present and reflecting the tremendous creativity and resolve of Sámi in response to such challenges.