#sápmi = the traditional land of the sámi in the northern parts of scandinavia & sweden norway finland & russia

[ladyimaginarium]

from mikjikj-mnikuk/turtle island to inuit nunangat to kanata to kalaallit nunaat to anahuac to abya yala to alkebulan to the levant to moananuiākea to sápmi to éire to bhārata to zhōngguó to nihon to aynu mosir to siberia to niugini to nusantara to bandaiyan to aotearoa, from coast to coast to coast to coast, from sea to sea to sea to sea, none of us are free until all of us — men, women, enben, children, queer people, disabled & neurodivergent people, elders, animals and the land and the sea and the sky — are free!!!!

[anarchotolkienist]

thoughts on the vikings, the modern saami, and middle eastern reffugees? (this is three different questions)

What, just in general?

The Vikings is a general term for a loosely affiliated mediaeval groups of people from Scandinavia. They were just that, a varied group of people from about a thousand years ago, who in general were skillful sailors and who used this both to trade far and wide and to plunder, with all the unpleasantness that implies. Therefore they were neither what some progressives would like them to have been (women's-rights upholding gay sailors with fashionable clothing) nor what the far-Right would have liked them to have been (brutal lily-white warriors who held to truck with foreigners and slaughtered everyone and everything they met). In general, honour societies like theirs tend to seem like quite unpleasant places to live in, however, at least to my mind.

The modern Sámi are the indigenous people of Sápmi, large parts of northern Scandinavia, including about a third of of Sweden and Norway each. Sápmi is colonised by Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia, and though this has been the case for a long time - some five hundred years - state capacity to actually fully dominate the semi-autonomous Sámi nomads was very limited until the rise of the modern state in Scandinavia some 200 years ago. Since then, their language(s) and culture have been under sustained assault, and their lands have been systematically taken away from them, usually by the state, sometimes by individual settler-farmers. Today, the Sámi language(s) are at risk of dying out, and climate change and land exploitation threatens the future of all traditional Sámi lifeways (whether hunting, herding, or fishing). Therefore, we're currently seeing a new explosion of land struggle in Sápmi, which everyone -espescially Scandinavians, since the colonialism is happening in our name-ought to support.

To start, freedom of movement is a core freedom that ought to apply to everyone, and as such the freedom to live where the u want, when you want to, is one that I uphold on a principled level. Additionally, Middle Eastern refugees are refugees from the lingering, awful impact of western imperialism, including in a lot of recent cases things that Sweden played an active part in (say the terror bombing of Libya, or the occupation of Afghanistan) or profited from through our large arms industry (say, for example, Yemen). The very fucking least that Sweden can do then is to take in everyone who applies, and ideally we would use some of the profits we made out of that to help refugees get to Sweden safely, instead of as we do now, spending money for Frontex to deport people drowning in the Mediterranean.

Also, on a much less important personal note, as I have said before, I think that Sweden and Swedish culture - indeed my life - is much the richer for the presence of people from the middle east. Poetry, music, art, social movements (what would the autonomous left do without the Kurds?) have all seen huge enrichment through their presence. Again, not that that matters at all for the first two points - those would still be just as true if the Sweden Democrats were right about the negative impact of refugees on these issues, and I would not change my stance. But since you asked my opinion.

[languagestoday]

Sami languages

Sámi language fluency has been declining rapidly for decades. Pite Sámi is critically endangered, with fewer than 50 living speakers, all in Sweden. Today, Northern Sámi is the most widely spoken.

Due to assimilation policies in all the countries the Sámi found themselves in, older generations of Sámi people were not allowed to speak their own language in school, meaning some languages have already been lost.

The Local spoke to speakers and researchers of the languages to find out some of the most unique and beautiful words still in use.

1. Sápmi  

Sápmi is the Northern Sámi word for the traditional dwelling place of the Sámi people, which encompasses the northern parts of Scandinavia and the Kola peninsula of Russia. Since the 20th century, national borders and state policies have divided Sápmi and the people who call it home.

“The word means a Sápmi without borders, it means relatives, sisters and brothers, and community,”.

2. Eadni

Eadni means ‘mother’ in Northern Sámi.

“It’s one of the first words that children learn,” 

It has a complex phonology (sound system), and is similar to the Northern Sámi word for Earth, which is eanan.

3. Guohtun  

Guohtun is a Northern Sámi word that describes the ideal conditions for reindeer to find lichen to graze under a covering of snow. But it’s more complicated than that. It’s one of those words that resists simple translation.

 “Guohtun is a very complex word. It encompasses geography, plants, lichens, snow, and reindeer. It exemplifies the language and its connection to land and water.”

“It’s a very soothing word because it means that there is food and the reindeer can reach it,”.

4. Giitu  

Giitu means ‘thank you’ in Northern Sámi.

Anyone who knows some Finnish might notice that it sounds quite similar to the Finnish word for ‘thank you’, kiitos. That’s because Sámi languages have more in common with Finnish than with Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, coming from the same language family: Finno-Uralic.

You can respond to giitu with leage buorre which means ‘you’re welcome.’

5. Čáiddas

This means snowball. We couldn’t have a list of Sámi words without having something specific to snow, could we?

6. Vuovdi

This means forest in Northern Sámi. Vast swathes of Sápmi is covered in forest. Sámi reindeer herders rely on old-growth forests to let their reindeer graze; they eat the kind of lichen that only grows in older forests.

‘Never have I seen so few old trees around’: What’s happening to Sweden’s forests?

7. Boazu

Reindeer husbandry is a vital part of Sámi life.

In all Sámi languages, there are two different words for reindeer. In Northern Sámi there is goddi and boazu.

Boazu means a reindeer who has been tamed and can be milked. Goddi is the word for wilder reindeer.  

Reindeer herding is an important aspect of Sámi culture and a vital source of income for many Sámi people. The Sámi parliament estimates that about 2,500 people are dependent on income from reindeer husbandry.

8. Bures

An easy one! This is how you say “hello” to another person in Northern Sámi.

9. Goahte  

Goahte is a type of hut in Lule Sámi. It’s a traditional Sámi home that can be built in several different ways, depending on what material is available, like with wooden panels or a construction of wooden poles covered with peat or cloth.

10. Sámediggi

This is the Northern Sámi word for the Sámi Parliament. There’s a Sámi parliament in each country that divides Sápmi.

In the Scandinavian countries, it’s essentially a government agency with the aim of representing the Sámi people and increasing opportunities to participate in public debate.  

[arinkalinders]

Sami house in Norway. The Sami people (also Sámi or Saami, traditionally known in English as Lapps or Laplanders) are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sami are the only indigenous people in Scandinavia that is recognized and protected under the international conventions of indigenous peoples, and are hence one of the northernmost indigenous people of Europe. Sami ancestral lands are not well-defined. Their traditional languages are the Sami languages and are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family. The Sami have for centuries been the subject of discrimination and abuse by the dominant cultures claiming possession of their lands right unto the present day. They have never been a single community in a single region of Lapland, which until recently was considered only a cultural region. Norway has been greatly criticized by the international community for the politics of Norwegianization of and discrimination against the aboriginal population of the country. On 8 April 2011, the UN Racial Discrimination Committee recommendations were handed over to Norway; these addressed many issues, including the educational situation for students needing bilingual education in Sami. One committee recommendation was that no language be allowed to be a basis for discrimination in the Norwegian anti-discrimination laws, and it recommended wording of Racial Discrimination Convention Article 1 contained in the Act. Further points of recommendation concerning the Sami population in Norway included the incorporation of the racial Convention through the Human Rights Act, improving the availability and quality of interpreter services, and equality of the civil Ombudsman's recommendations for action. To make up for past suppression, the authorities of Norway, Sweden and Finland now make an effort to build up Sami cultural institutions and promote Sami culture and language. (bij Eidfjord I Hardanger, Hordaland, Norway)