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Thesis.Pdf (8.954Mb) “The Best of Both Worlds” Conceptualising an Urban Sámi Identity Kajsa Kemi Gjerpe Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education University of Tromsø Norway Spring 2013 ii “The Best of Both Worlds” Conceptualising an Urban Sámi Identity By Kajsa Kemi Gjerpe Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education University of Tromsø Norway Spring 2013 Supervised by Associate Professor Jorun Bræck Ramstad iii iv To Harald Eidheim For being a great source of inspiration v vi Acknowledgements It is a great pleasure to write these final words of appreciation to those who made this journey both rewarding and enjoyable. First and foremost I would like to thank the participants for their contribution. Your stories are so inspiring, and I am truly thankful that you shared them with me. My supervisor, Jorun Bræck Ramstad, thank you so much for your positive energy, countless cups of tea, and for your continuous support throughout the whole process. When I got stuck in my own thoughts, you somehow managed to make sense of everything. To the Centre for Sami Studies and its entire wonderful staff, it has been truly inspiring to be part of the Centre for the last two years. Thank you for giving me this opportunity! Torjer Olsen, thank you for your support and guidance, and for always finding new ways to challenge me. Fellow MIS students, what a ride this has been! I thank you all for your great company over the past years, and I wish you all the best in the world for your next endeavours. Tove and Sally, I have said it before, but it cannot be said enough – I would not have survived without the two of you! For all the glasses of wine, laughs, talks, you name it. Thank you for two wonderful years. A general thanks to family and friends, I am looking forward to seeing more of you from now on! Eatni, áhčči ja vielja, din ráhkisvuohta ja doarjja lea addán olu fámu, in livččii geargan din haga. Mun lean ágibeaivái giitevaš. Tor, my fiancée and my best friend, thank you for your love and support, and for showing me what is truly important in life. vii viii Abstract Indigeneity is often expected to merely exist in rural settings. The urban context is, therefore, considered atypical and inauthentic. I will distinguish between cultural traits and emblems, arguing that the creation of emblems has been an important aspect of revitalisation of Sámi culture. In addition, I maintain that the use of emblems in daily life is important for urban Sámi, as Sámi culture is not very visible in the city environment. However, the use of emblems has had unfavourable consequences. On the one hand, urban Sámi do not belong within the category of ‘ordinary urban citizen’ as they hold cultural traits that are not common in the urban and Norwegian context; nor do they belong within the ‘Sámi’ category as they lack certain expected cultural traits within the rural and Sámi context. Those who fall between the various categories become, arguably, people out of place. Opposing the notion of being of out place, this study seeks to demonstrate how the concept of an urban Sámi identity is created, articulated and challenged in an urban context. I argue that the interviewees belong in both ‘worlds’, and that the city creates a context to various means of cultural expressions. ix x Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1. HISTORICAL BASIS 2 1.1. ASSIMILATION AND REVITALISATION 4 1.2. URBAN INDIGENIETY 5 2. RESEARCH QUESTION 5 3. GUIDE THROUGH THE THESIS 6 2 INDIGENOUS METHODOLOGY AND METHODS 9 1. INDIGENOUS METHODOLOGY 9 1.1. ‘ANTHROPOLOGY AT HOME’ 12 2. RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHODS 14 2.1 INTERVIEWS 15 2.2 USING PERSONAL NETWORKS 18 2.3 CITIES AS RESEARCH LOCATIONS 19 2.4 PRACTICAL CHALLENGES AND REALISATIONS 20 3. THE EMPIRICAL DATA 22 4. ETHICS AND REFLEXIVITY 23 4.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF ANONYMITY 26 3 EMPIRICAL BACKGROUND AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES 29 1. ANALYTICAL TOOLS 29 2. URBAN DWELLING AND INDIGENIETY 30 3. SÁMI ETHNOPOLITICS AND THE STATE 31 4. ETHNIC GROUPS AND IDENTITY MANAGEMENT 33 5. SOCIAL IDENTITY AND STIGMA 36 6. PREVIOUS RESEARCH AND THE RELEVANCE OF THIS STUDY 38 7. CONCLUDING REMARKS 39 4 THE CREATION 41 1. THE REVITALISATION PROCESS 41 2. THE CREATION OF EMBLEMS 43 3. SÁPMI – A GEOGRAPHICAL PLACE OR AN EMBLEM? 46 4. CONCLUDING REMARKS 49 5 URBAN DWELLING AND BELONGING 51 1. URBAN PERSPECTIVES 51 1.1. THE CITY AS A PERMANENT ‘HOME’ 52 1.2. THE CITY AS A TEMPORARY ‘HOME’ 55 2. BELONGING WITHIN AN URBAN LANDSCAPE 59 3. THE URBAN LANDSCAPE IN RELATION TO SÁPMI AND CORE SÁMI REGIONS 62 4. CONCLUDING REMARKS 63 6 THE ARTICULATION 65 1. KINSHIP AS A CULTURAL TRAIT AND EMBLEM 65 2. TRADITIONAL APPAREL 68 3. NATIONAL CELEBRATIONS 72 xi 4. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LANGUAGE 74 5. CONCLUDING REMARKS 79 7 THE CHALLENGE 81 1. CULTURAL AUTHENTICITY 81 1.1. AUTHENTICITY IN A STATE CONTEXT 85 1.2. WHO THEN, IS CULTURALLY AUTHENTIC? 86 2. STIGMA IN RELATION TO CULTURAL AUTHENTICITY 87 3. CONCLUDING REMARKS 88 8 CONCLUDING REMARKS 91 REFERENCE LIST 95 APPENDIX 104 1. INTERVIEW GUIDE, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH 104 2. INTERVIEW GUIDE, NORWEGIAN 107 3. INFORMATION SHEET GIVEN TO INFORMANTS, ENGLISH 110 4. INFORMATION SHEET GIVEN TO INFORMANTS, NORWEGIAN 111 5. PROJECT EVALUATION FROM NSD 112 6. LIST OF INFORMANTS 114 7. MAP OF SÁPMI 115 8. MAP OF THE CORE SÁMI REGIONS 116 xii 1 Introduction Oppressive authenticity operates primarily as a mechanism of exclusion: those who cannot be placed securely within two categories – ’native’ or ’settler’ – become people out-of-place.1 Being a question of public agreement, ethnic identity ascription is based on the construction of criteria for belonging, which are related, as a matter of common sense, first to some notion of origin, i.e. one has to be able to answer satisfactorily the question of who were one’s ancestors, and, in addition, on public recognition of one’s abilities to perform according to a set of criteria that defines cultural distinctiveness.2 In October 2012, Norwegian mass media reported the violent assault of a young Sámi woman living and studying in Trondheim, in mid-Norway. While out on a Friday night with a friend, she was viciously attacked by a group of men. They had heard her speak and based on her accent they recognised she was from the North of Norway and potentially of Sámi descent.3 Some time later, in Northern Norway, a young Sámi woman entered a local shop in order to buy a head attire for her traditional Sámi clothing. She was rejected, as her southern Norwegian accent indicated that she was not from the region, and she was deemed unfit for such a purchase. What I wish to illustrate with these two episodes is how stigma can be twofold. The first example shows stigma in an inter-ethnic context. This woman holds attributes that place her in a stigmatised category, which differ from what the group of men considered as ‘normal’. This allows the group of men to conduct sanctions, which in this case included setting her 1 Sissons, Jeffrey, First Peoples. Indigenous Cultures and Their Futures, Reaktion Books Ltd, London, 2005, p. 39 2 Thuen, Trond, ’In Search of Space: Challenges in Saami Ethnopolitics in Norway 1979-2000’, in Kristina Karppi & Johan Eriksson (eds.), Conflict and Cooperation in the North, Norrlands Universitetsförlag, Umeå, 2002, p. 289 3 Norvang, Elvi Rosita, Mette Ballovara, Dan Robert Larsen, ’Rystende hets mot samejente’, NRK Sápmi, 08.10.2012, http://www.nrk.no/kanal/nrk_sapmi/1.8350580, accessed on 07.01.2013 1 jacket on fire. The second example shows stigma in an intra-ethnic context. This woman also holds attributes that place her in a stigmatised category, but in a different way. The context of buying traditional clothing requires fulfilment of certain cultural traits and the southern accent becomes a trait that is not suitable for such a context. Here too we see sanctions but in the form of a discontinued transaction. Research shows that 50 percent of Sámi living outside of Sápmi4 have experienced discrimination of some sort. For Sámi living inside Sápmi, about 35 percent have experienced discrimination.5 This study aims to explore the conception of urban Sámi identity. On the one hand, urban Sámi are not in the ‘normal’ urban inhabitant category. On the other hand, they are not securely placed in the ‘Sámi’ category, as by living an urban life they differ from the expectations of ‘authentic’ Sámi. They are, from a post-colonial view, people out-of-place. As Jon Todal argues, in Norway there is an official definition of who is Sámi. Consequently there is also a definition of who is not Sámi. Therefore it is impossible to become Sámi.6 This is in contrast to the majority Norwegian society, where the distinctions are not as clear.7 Nonetheless, I would argue that the informants are by no means out-of-place but rather the urban context opens for new ways to express their Sámi identity. The city itself creates a basis for cultural creativity. The question is, to what extent new ways of being Sámi are to be recognised as valid ways in the eyes of the majority population and between other Sámi. 1. Historical basis In this section I will give a brief historical basis for this study on urban Sámi identity.
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