Abstract
I had reached the age of 42 when I was told that I am Sámi, of the indigenous people of Fenno-Scandia. This article draws on my personal experiences and insights since the day I learned about my hidden family history and started understanding the silences and shame as part of an aggressive colonization by the Swedish state towards my people, my culture, our lands, waters, memories, and bodies. In the article, I turn to the Sámi tradition of yoiking to narrate, remember, empower, and heal. I set out for a quest for my own voice, as a Sámi woman in academia, struggling in an aggressive natural resource exploiting colonial system which is a constant threat to Sámi culture, tradition, health, well-being, and long-term survival. Through the blending of feminist technoscience, storytelling, ego-histoire, and lived experiences – a corporeality and the Sámi tradition of yoiking – I create a space for my own version of the production of history and decolonization.
“Sábme” is the Lule Sámi word for the territory of the Sámi people. This territory stretches over four nation states, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Part of the territory is also known as “Lapland” in English or “Lappland” in Swedish. I don’t use “Lapland” because for me, and many other Sámi, it is a colonial naming of our territory and “Lapp” is a derogatory name for Sámi persons. “Lappland” was also a geographical denomination of a specific territory – one out of the 25 Swedish “landskap” traditional provinces. These traditional provinces have long ceased to serve any administrative function. Sweden is now divided into a number of administrative regions called “län.” “Lappland” covered parts of inland Norrbotten and Västerbotten, whereas Sábme covers a much larger area including five of the counties – Västernorrland, Jämtland, Gävleborg, Västerbotten, and Norrbotten – collectively known as “Norrland” (see Hägerstrand and Sporrong 1993: 95; Lundholm 1993: 132, and Lundmark 2008). The North Sámi word “Sápmi” is more well known and more commonly used than “Sábme”; however, I prefer to use the Lule Sámi word as this is the language that has been used in my family of Lule Sámi origin. There are nine different Sámi languages. In Sweden, the three major Sámi languages are North Sámi, Lule Sámi, and South Sámi (Sarivaara et al. 2013).
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Notes
- 1.
“Yoik” means “to sing” and “vuolle” is the song/narrative. As Stoor (2007:20) explains: “The term vuolle, vuolle, vuelie and luohti all means the same thing, it is yoik melodies which can have text content, but does not necessarily have that.”
- 2.
This yoik was made by Mattias Kuoljok (1897–1965). See Kuoljok Lind et al. 2004 as well as the CD by Kuoljok (2005). It can also be listened to on Spotify. The text is translated from Swedish to English by the author. The Lule Sámi language version above is provided by Apmut Ivar Kuoljok, the son of Mattias Kuoljok, and language-edited by Karin Tuolja in 2012. A yoik seldom remains the exactly the same but is developed and the person yoiking it may add his or her own perspectives. This is also the case with this yoik.
- 3.
Johan Turi was the first Sámi to publish a book written in his mother tongue, North Sámi, about Sámi from a Sámi perspective. The book has been translated into several languages and is considered an important document of the situation of the Sámi in Scandinavia at this time (see also Cocq 2008:17).
- 4.
When I started my PhD research in January 1999, I also started looking into the Lule River, studying the hydropower exploitation in this river, my home river, first as a way to understand hydropower plants better and later on I started drawing some parallels to the exploitations in Tanzania. See Öhman and Sandström 2004 and my PhD Thesis, Öhman 2007.
- 5.
I use the term “invisibilization” as a direct translation from the Swedish word “osynliggörande” – which means the act of making someone invisible. In the Scandinavian academic context, “osynliggörande” is commonly applied within discussions and analyses of gendered power structures – referring to a phenomenon where social and economic activities performed by women are being neglected or made invisible, declared unimportant, or even ridiculed (Ås 1979). Invisibilization has been used by several other scholars in similar discussions on Nation States vis-a-vis indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. For instance, drawing on Skutnabb-Kangas (2000: 354), Haig (2003:123) defines the concept as follows: “‘Invisibilisation’ is the deliberate removal, or concealment, of the overt signs of the existence a particular culture, with the aim of rendering that culture invisible. It is part of the logic of invisibilisation that the policy and its implementation remain covert, because overt formulation would mean increased visibility.” See also Öhman (2007: 52 ff).
- 6.
- 7.
During the more forty-year history of indigenous issues at the United Nations (UN), considerable thinking and debate have been devoted to the question of definition of “indigenous peoples.” However, no definition has ever been adopted by any UN-system body. One of the most cited descriptions of the concept of the indigenous was provided by Jose R. Martinez Cobo, the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, in the Study on the Problem of Discrimination against Indigenous Populations: “Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system”(Martínez Cobo 1987:379).
- 8.
This is a quote from a presentation at NWSA, National Women’s Studies Association, annual meeting, Atlanta, November 2010 (in Öhman 2010b). When I heard this statement, it was overwhelming to the point that I did not take note of the name of the woman stating it. This statement and the way it was said, in gesture and almost whispering, has haunted me ever since.
- 9.
In Försvenskningen av Sverige (The Swedification of Sweden), three professors of ethnology, Ehn et al. (1993), analyze the elements that constitute a perceived Swedishness and how this identity has developed within different spheres of the Swedish nation state during the twentieth century. A similar analysis on how school children have been educated to become part of the Swedish national identity is made by Anne-Li Lindgren (2002).
- 10.
With “beyond their physical bodies,” I mean that they have passed on, they are no longer walking in their human bodies on this earth but that their thoughts, ideas, and writings are still part of what inform my understandings.
- 11.
Translation from Swedish by M-B Öhman.
- 12.
“Goathie” is in North Sámi, “gåetie” in Lule Sámi, and “kåta” in Swedish. Also the word “lavvo” or “lávvu” is used in Sámi. As with the tipis of the First Nation people of the Great Plains, the construction style of the goathie/lavvo differed between groups and according to purpose.
- 13.
Within the Swedish state, censuses have been made since 1749, initially being made every year. From 1860, they were made every tenth year. Ethnic categorizations were introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, starting with describing the Sámi as a “foreign tribe.” Five years later, the Tornedalen Finns were similarly categorized, and within two decades, groups such as Roma and Jewish people were distinguished separately. Thus, in the census entry for each person, there would be a box for any ethnicity other than Swedish. If the person was considered to be Swedish, the box was left empty. This system was in practice up to the Second World War (see, e.g., Elenius 2001: 267).
- 14.
There are too many people to mention here, unfortunately only a few of you will be mentioned in this article. But I thank you all for your warm support and encouragements along my way.
- 15.
- 16.
In a discussion of the design ideals of Messaure, Sörlin and Nordlund describe how “the work of Erik Lundberg, who declared the cuts and sears of nature to be true and rational” (Sörlin and Nordlund 2003:308).
- 17.
[Swedish: “Vi i den politiska majoriteten i Jokkmokk har ställt oss positiva till en etablering, något vi var mycket tydliga med till väljarna långt före valet 2010. Anledningen till vårt ställningstagande är den ekonomiska injektion det skulle ge både lokalt och regionalt näringsliv. Det skulle ge en stor mängd arbetstillfällen, möjlighet till befolkningsökning och möjlighet för våra barn och ungdomar att kunna bo kvar i vår fantastiska kommun om de vill. […] Det högst prioriterade målet i kommunen är befolkningstillväxt.”]
- 18.
Electricity production in Sweden is based on equal parts of hydropower and nuclear power up to 90 %, with the nuclear power functioning as a stable base and the hydropower being easier to regulate corresponding to the different needs over the seasons.
- 19.
Vattenfall annually pays around 24–26 million SEK to the municipality of Jokkmokk, in something called “bygdemedel,” which translates to “countryside funds.” Jokkmokk and other municipalities which are affected by hydropower regulations receive these funds as compensation, and the funds are supposed to be used for development within the municipality. However, in comparison to the actual profit that is made from Julevädno’s annual production of 15Twh, this amount is extremely little.
- 20.
I refer to this stretch of the river – a limited spot of a couple of kilometers – as my own because of several reasons. First, this area, a so-called homestead has been owned by my family since the 1850s, and by inheritance, it was also my own, coowned with other family members, for a couple of years. Second, it is the stretch of the river where I have spent a lot of time, since childhood, and to which I keep coming back. Finally, I rarely meet any one else when I come here. I can spend hours without meeting one other person here. To me it feels like “my own” stretch, full of memories of my own and of my ancestors.
- 21.
Translated from Swedish by May-Britt Öhman.
- 22.
This was a pilot study. I went through all literature lists of gender studies for the undergraduate courses at the universities of Umeå, Luleå, Stockholm, and Lund for 2012 available online by August 8, 2012. I looked at the titles and authors of books and chapters. As I am familiar with Sámi literature, as well as gender studies literature, it was quite easy for me to confirm the void of Sámi authors and texts that in particular deal with issues of Sami history, culture, and traditions.
- 23.
Text in English and in North Sámi is taken from the CD Vajas (2007).
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Acknowledgments
Research work and the writing of this article was funded by research project funds from Vetenskapsrådet and FORMAS. My heartfelt gratitude goes to all those who have supported me in getting this article together and published: The editor Jacob Bull for encouragements and patience and understanding for my attempts to write in a new style and the work with finding appropriate double-blind peer reviewers; the peer reviewers for relevant and strengthening comments; to Katarina Pirak Sikku and Inger Zachrisson for reading and providing helpful and encouraging comments to an early version of the manuscript; to India Reed Bowers for language editing and encouragement; to Apmut Ivar Kuoljok, Lovisa Negga, and Ande Somby/Vajas for letting me publish your yoiks; to all of you who are mentioned in the article and to all of you who are not mentioned, all of you who at some point earlier or currently are contributing to the understanding of myself and helping me to strengthen my position in life and as a Sámi Scholar; to my ever patient nonhuman companion – friend, research assistant, photo model, German Shepherd, wonderful Lexie; to M., my constant research assistant and travel companion in research and in life; to my ancestors and to my contemporary human and nonhuman companions, friends, and close ones; to my mountain, forests, lands, and waters; and to Julevädno.
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Öhman, MB. (2016). TechnoVisions of a Sámi Cyborg: Reclaiming Sámi Body-, Land-, and Waterscapes After a Century of Colonial Exploitations in Sábme. In: Bull, J., Fahlgren, M. (eds) Illdisciplined Gender. Crossroads of Knowledge. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15272-1_5
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