The Sámi People, Landscape and Literature

“There were buildings on the riverbanks, on the open fields, and at the edge of the birch woods. Here the Sami had settled and struggled for food in a landscape that the frost had tormented. In the middle of the brushwood or in a clearing beside the bog, at the edge of a swamp, on a field of heather or a moss-covered ridge, nature had yielded places for them. And from this the meadows had grown forth.”

Guttorm, Hans Aslak; Winter Night, from Koccam spalli, 1940, Translated by Roland Thorstensson; Gaski, In the Shadow of the Midnight sun, page 99

I. INTRODUCTION

My aim is to comprehend how Sami writers portrait their own people at the turn of the century? To do this I read the works compiled in the book “In the Shadow of theMidight sun” edited by Mr Harald Gaski, a work of contemporary Sami prose and poetry, assembled by Davvi Girjo. I like to take the examples of writing around 1900 to 1930 with three writers Johan Turi, Anders Larsen, and Matti Aikio.

The Poetics and The Landscape on the work of Nils Aslak Valkaapaa and Hans Aslak Guttorm; both in poetic and prose, have portrayed the importance and powerful influence that landscape has on the feeling of being Sámi. Their works illustrate the direct impact of nature of the Nordic landscape into the creative process and Sámi Identity.

This is not a deep academic research but it is more an empirical approach that accounts of my findings as a reader, I’ll use some references from authors aiming to make my report as complete as possible, but I’ll keep a simple work line which is how the writers represent Sami people? And which is my respond to their texts?It is a general view of how their texts are product of an unspoken need of represent their Identity, some text reflex reality, some others are the expression of unfolded desires of freedom and self-governance.

II. LEHTOLA QUESTIONING
Veli-Pekka Lehtola in his text Saami Literature in the Crossing of old and New asked some basic questions that will help develop my hesitation, those are:
1) How to create spiritual reunion in a culture that is spread out in several states?
2) How to develop Sámi culture in the conditions of the present society?
3) How to integrate old traditions with new influences and modern views?
4) How to bring the cultural heritage and values into the contemporary frame of the world that Sámi youth adopted at school?

Those are not easy questions to answer, but Mr. Lehtola explains how Sámi artist work on base of their own thoughts and feelings which are in natural connection with their background (natural landscape and own community). Expressing and writing down their own feelings and emotions as a personal experience they work out the way for Sámi art in writing and yield way to texts that portrait the feelings and worries of their own communities, settling precedents for their own kinsfolk. Some works depict anguish feelings, and some others give personal solutions to problems that combine past problems and actual issues, those texts appointed solutions but those solutions had to be found within the community where they are embedded.
So for the first question the spiritual reunion of the Sámi culture is preserved not intact at one level as long as they practice their crafts and yoiks, even though they have being integrated to the political system of their respective country where they were settle; therefore they thought of themselves as Norwegians, Swedish, Russians or Finns, but kept their traditions and uses of the land as Sámi people in the hiding until they were able to expressed openly, nowadays still some reticence to do it so.
For the second question Sámi culture founds its roots deep embedded in their own communities, from the 60’s and 70’s, Sámi people have risen as activist, protecting their land and heritage against a new wave of colonialism the most remarkable issue was the Alta conflict. They became aware of their role as guardians for their land, and keepers of their own cultures; however the younger generations did agree with modern ways of living. This issue drives me to the third question.
How to integrated old traditions within the frame of modern life? First the need of a national unity has been recognized as a precondition for the present and future of Sámi. Then the importance of the language as a central key against cultural alienation, as the increasing number of publications on Sámi languages seems to be a sliding door to the future; example in Norway the different Sámi languages have been given official status. Creation of three Sami parliaments (Norway, Sweden and Finland) and the increasing publication of texts in their languages are outcomes to the future.
Finally the settlement and acceptance of multiculturalism as part of the society brings educational outcomes for minorities, the creation of Sami universities, colleges and mass media publication and radio and TV channels are the open doors that support the XXI century for Sámi land.

III. “Sámeeatnan sámiide!” (Sápmi for the Sámi!) Isak Saba, Larsen and the Awakening of Sámi.
“Sámeeatnan sámiide!” (Sápmi for the Sámi!) Isak Saba, the first Sami representative to the Norwegian National parliament. His friend Anders Larsen published ‘Beaivi-algu’ The Day is Dawning, 1912. The optimistic tone of this text brings up naturalistic motives as ancestral links with the land, and it’s flown with personal experiences common to Sámi people living in Finnmark, as we read:
The earth he was lying on spoke to him: “I belong to the Sami. I love you, Sami people. I offer you great riches. I give you what I have, as long as you take care of me. I don’t demand that you speak Norwegian. I only ask that you care for me and protect me.” (Larsen, the day is Dawning, extracted from the compilation by Gaski, in the Shadow of the Midnight Sun, 1997, p 62)
Here in his dream, Eira is addressed by the land represented by the figure of Maria Evje, this figure combines both the catholic figure of the virgin Maria, and the Sámi woman, as well as representing the Sámi dream of independence. Yet the text presents a melancholic tone as Larsen, through the character of Eira, briefly but punctual, talks about the process of assimilation of Sami people in Norway. His views are presented in everyday language, direct and simple, making this work one in the list of the texts that represent the awakening of Sami.
This Awakening is translated in organizations, the Sámi people started to cooperate and gather in order to become a tighten community, as in Norway 5 local organization were founded from 1906-1908, and in 1920 the Sámi Central Association was founded in Sweden, and - the Social activism was consolidated in the meeting at Trondheim, Norway, 6th February, 1918 where Elsa Laula-Renberg declared “Today we try for the first time to unite Sámi from Norway and Sweden” Mostly South Sámi participated in the meeting. The day of the meeting is now the Sámi National Day’. - (Lehtola, Sámi Literature, p49)

IV. Johan Turi (1854-1936) and the Everyday Life of a Sámi

Johan Turi (1854-1936), Muitalus sámiid birra [Turi’s Book of Lapland, 1931] first publication 1910, it was published simultaneously in Danish, translated by artist and ethnologist Emilie Demant. This work is both realistic and dramatic; depicting everyday life in reindeer herding Sami it fights colonization of Sapmi, talks about tradition, folk’s medicine and belifs. It served as background for the film Ofelaš [Pathfinder], depicting the intrution of eastern bands of morauder as the Tjudis. (Davvi Girji Os, in the Shadow of the Midnight Sun, page19-20) (Municipality pictures archive http://www.eng.samer.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1273)

The Yoik in Sámi land served as a mean of communication in two different levels, first on the superficial level, it contained a harmless tale of various events in the lives of the Sami, but in a second level its underlying message to the Sami audience conveyed a call to resist cultural suppression and assimilation.
Lahtteluokta, where Johan Turi wrote Muitalus Sámiid birra [Turi’s Book of Lapland]
(http://www.finnmark2007.com/diary/2007/04/04/home-to-johan-turi/)
“When a week had passed, they went to Márjá’s. There is an old tradition among the Sami that, when a young man goes on a courting expedition, the young woman he is courting will meet him and unharness his draft reindeer, as a sign that she wants him.” (Turi, Song of the Sami, extracted from Gaski, pag 49)

In this extract we see the traditions of Sámi courting, as well as a rich description of the everyday life, Turi focuses on writing the details of Sámi life as the ordinary day life, the reindeer herding and the Yoik of Sámi. There’s always the public gaze and protocol within the community that watches over the youngest members talking and singing as a way of communication.

V. Matti Aikio
‘Aikio’s entire authorship revolves around the problems of mixed cultures and a person’s identity these are timely topics, which should make his writings appeal to today’s multicultural readers. ‘ (Gaski, p67)
In his Rafting Down the Lana River, Aikio illustrate the landscape as powerful provider of trouble but as well as scenery for the everyday quarrelers of Sámi people, I feel that the action between the characters were just an excuse to start describing the settings where the action was taking place, the magnificent landscape, the power of the river compared to the small human lives and small troubled personas that were traveling on the rafts. As well the river goes through land borders and the difference between Upland, Northland, and the Finnish border, here the river as a natural force cross the human boundaries, being larger than the human scale and their human fretting:
“Here, by the Wolf’s Gap, the river lost the Finnish border, or more accurately, the border lost the river and took off across the mountains, first in a southerly direction then far eastward, and did not meet a real river until it reached the Russian border far to the east bye Grense-Jakobselv.” (Gaski, in the shadow of the midnight sun, Aikio –pag 78)
Never the less, Halle Johanas character master his own fears and takes his raft on the river, just to lost one of his rafts as a toll for the river on the Wolf’s Gap; after up passing troubles, the last description gives us a moment of contemplation of the landscape that is just possible in the northern regions, a moment of ecstasy, and calm that seems uncanny but full of hope and love.
“It is far between the steep, upright mountains on both sides of the river mouth. The huge, sandy beaches are covered by the spring flood; there are wide, completely flat areas with birch forest and a small farm here and there on either side. The mountain to the west is just a pile of rocks. The one to the east shines of red sand stone and violet rock faces in the midnight sun.
The fjord is blue between steep, golden mountains.”
(From Bygden på elveneset, 1929, Translated by Lars Nordström; Gaski, In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun; page83)

VI. CONCLUSION
The Opening citation –Winter Night- Guttorm, 1940, serves me to articulated my conclusion, land and language are upmost needed to have community and sovereignty over the land means a body of laws and an education system that make sure the rightful functioning of the community life. Guttorm illustrated on this passage the tenacious nature of the winterland, and how Sami People have worshipped the land as he wrote –Here the Sami had settled and struggled for food in a landscape that the frost had tormented. - I understand this as clear as it gets the importance of the Land in the conformation of a settlement in one hand and on the other the Landscape and its influence in culture and its expression in writing. As Anders used nature to translate the need for awakening, and Aikio used the river as a way to transit the landscape out of the human borderlines, Guttorm take this entire heritage and mind the gap between what it was and the present. In his description of the winter land he write the present and the past, documenting the ways of living, taking more care of the storyline, and the description of the natural environments since this is an important part of the life in the north. The passage of fighting wolfs is realistic and illustrate the way of living in a wild open space and its struggles to keep their herd; Different from the poetic ways of the Sámi yoik presented by Turi. Where everything’s swings from folks tales and traditions among Sámi; their aim is different and the evolution in the narratives integrating the motives of the landscape and the reindeer herding are always present. As a constant the Land of the Sami is part indivisible of their Identity, and as such it is transliterated in their works.

Summing up I comprehend the way Landscape, territory, sources and sovereignty collides in the writing works of Sámi writers, each of them illustrate the human dimension of living up North. Their feelings product of alienation, colonialism, and scarcity, also their feelings of community, culture, art craft and kinsfolk; each author is a stepping stone on their cultural development, and each text serves to build up their writing heritage.

VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gaski, Harald; In the Shadow of the Midnight sun: Contemporary Sami prose and poetry/ Edited and introduced by Harald Gaski; Kárášjohka: Davvi Girji, 1996
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka; Saami Literature in the Crossing of Old and New, Translation by Riitta Kataja, Hand out.
Lehtola, Veli-Pekka; The Sámi People, Traditions In transition; Kustannus-puntsi, Inari, 2004
WEB SITES
Sápmi, Johan Turi; http://www.eng.samer.se/servlet/GetDoc?meta_id=1273
Finnmark 2007 Diary; Home to Johan Turi; http://www.finnmark2007.com/diary/2007/04/04/home-to-johan-turi/
Matti Aikio By Kristian Nissen, The American-Scandinavian Review, Nr 45, 1957, p61-67; http://www.genealogia.org/emi/art/article291e.htm