INDIGENISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM

A pan- Sami view of the Indigenous perspective in Sami culture and research

Harald Gaski*

Abstract

This article explores Sami cultural and literary research in a pan- Sami perspective, contextual- izing it in relation to the emergence of similar research among other Indigenous peoples in the world, termed Indigenous methodology. The article summarizes the development within the fi eld so far, arguing for stronger Sami participation in the international discourse on the role of Indigenous peoples within academia. Indigenous methodology is inspired by the development within postcolonial and decolonizing studies and places Indigenous peoples at the centre, while simultaneously seeking to Indigenize academia. The approach questions which values ought to guide research, and to what degree Indigenous peoples should expect research to have a trans- formative effect on society. What is the role and place of Indigenous peoples’ own values and worldviews in scholarship in general? The article underscores the importance of having developed Sami as an academic language, a great achievement in a world where more and more Indigenous languages are becoming extinct.

Keywords

Indigenous peoples, Sami and Indigenous research, Indigenous methodology, Indigenism, Sami literature

* Faculty for Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education, University of Tromsø, Norway. Email: [email protected] 114 H. GASKI

Introduction from both North Sami and Finnish. Fjellner had mastered all of these languages, and, for the There are two central points that I want to record, let me just point out that the differences underscore in this article. The fi rst is the all-Sami, between South Sami and North Sami are com- or the pan- Sami perspective, as I have chosen parable to those between English and German. to call it, inspired by the pan-Sami intentions Anders Fjellner was an educated minister of Anders Fjellner in the myth he wrote down who graduated from the University of Uppsala about the Sami people being the children of the in 1821. A South Sami himself, Fjellner was sun. The second point is the Indigenous perspec- born in 1795 under open skies during the fall tive in Sami scholarship. My aim is to discuss, migration of the reindeer from the Norwegian albeit briefl y, these two positions in the view of side of the border back to Härjedalen in the struggle in recent decades for, and recogni- Sweden. Fjellner was a native speaker of South tion of, Indigenous approaches to academia in Sami. During his 20 years as a minister in the general, and research on Indigenous peoples Karesuando region in Northern Sweden, he and cultures more specifi cally. I will try to relate also developed competence in North Sami and my deliberations to different approaches with the Finnish language of settlers to the region. regard to Indigenous research—such as nation- During his years as a student in Uppsala, alist, Indigenist, and cosmopolitan (Krupat, Fjellner became interested in folk poetry, and 2002)—at the same time as I introduce Sami set his mind on creating a Sami mythic and epic research in an international Indigenous context. tradition similar to the Finnish Kalevala, which My examples will mainly be Sami, which is the he did with his Biejjien baernie epic poetry. He culture closest to me, being a Sami myself with was inspired to write down the epic poems he Sami as my mother tongue. Also, in my current had heard in his South Sami homeland when position, Sami language is the main instrument he became acquainted with similar traditions in my teaching and research. during his service as a minister in the North. The pan-Sami agenda applies both linguis- One of the most interesting things about tically and culturally, not in the sense that we translating “The Son of the Sun’s Courting in should be working to develop a common Sami the Land of the Giants” into North Sami—and language, but rather in the sense of respecting then participating in the project of translating common foundational values and traditions. it back to South Sami—has been discovering In the work of the early missionaries the goal just how pan-Sami Fjellner’s text is, in terms was to create a common Sami language, but of language, culture, and of course, mythology given the substantial internal differences that (Gaski, 2003). What my co-translator and PhD exist between the different languages, that student, Lena Kappfjell, and I thought would goal remains a utopia—assuming anyone still be an easy task, bringing Fjellner’s text back wants to move in that direction these days. to what everyone has always considered to “Standardization” of this sort was part of intel- be its original language—South Sami—turned lectual projects in Sweden and Norway at the out to be just about as demanding of time and time. In a sense, Fjellner was trying to establish resources as the work of translating it into the Sami nation alongside other national pro- North Sami. Fjellner must really have striven to jects under way in the region. Nevertheless, it choose words from the different Sami languages was this sort of desire that lay behind Fjellner’s in an attempt to show that, even in terms of linguistic choices in his writing of the Biejjien language, there was one common Sami liter- baernie cycle (The Son of the Sun mythic poem), ary legacy. where the foundation is a fi gurative South Sami, The theme of this article is not a linguistic rich in metaphors, and interspersed with loans or literary analysis of Fjellner’s Biejjien baernie INDIGENISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM 115 cycle; I simply wanted to say a few introduc- 60 years, these values and traditions have still tory words about Fjellner and his contribution taken part in forming our common understand- towards creating a common literary and cultural ing of what is valuable and important in Sami legacy for the entire Sami people by offering the culture. These values and traditions have been Sami our own creation myth and our own epic. transmitted to succeeding generations through Beyond that, I want to emphasize the signifi - our language and our stories, through child cance and necessity of seeing Sami culture as rearing, proverbs, yoiks (songs) and attitudes. one culture with common foundational values That is why research on Sami literature and in the north, south, west and east. My point of traditions is important; it helps us to understand reference is Sami literature—in this case primar- these traditions, and to extract the knowledge ily seen from a South Sami perspective, which that oral tradition has maintained. That is why does not happen too often—and my task is to it is meaningful, even for the Sami of today, to exemplify Sami cultural history in a pan-Sami focus on similarities and on our common foun- approach to the topic. I attempt to contextual- dational values, and to view language as our ize Sami scholarship within an international most important tradition bearer—as a reservoir Indigenous discourse. The pan- Sami perspective of knowledge from which to draw. is actually fairly well accepted in historical and At the time the Nordic Sami Institute was archaeological research. But it has, naturally established as a research body in the mid-1970s, enough, been more controversial when it comes the Sami were at the forefront in demanding a to language and literature. Language is, in addi- change from being objects of research to occu- tion to being the main means of communication pying a subject position where we ourselves between peoples, at the same time a very per- wanted to be involved in laying out the premises sonal issue; it demonstrates our belonging to for scholarship. From being one of the world’s culture, geography, social class and level of most researched peoples, the Sami eventually cultivation, or cultural sophistication. For a lot took the step to initiating our own research of people, not knowing one’s own indigenous based on our own premises. In 1976 the Sami language feels like a big loss and imperfection, philosopher Alf Isak Keskitalo published his and thus contributes to the psychological aspect trailblazing essay “Research as an inter- ethnic of the identity question connected to language relation,” which, ever since, has been a piece of competence. writing Sami academics have always returned to in search of arguments to describe the asym- metry in power relations between indigenous The ability to read nature and non- indigenous groups within academia. This way of thinking harmonized well with In order to understand what Fjellner’s aim was what was happening in other places in the and how it relates to the broader questions of world, such as North America, Australia and this article, it is important to understand how New Zealand. As time went on a political move- Sami people have looked at knowledge and its ment grew, crystallizing in the establishment of owners over time. In Sami culture the ability the World Council of Indigenous Peoples, while to read nature and its inhabitants, both ani- at the same time the political mobilization was mal and human, has been an important skill. followed up by Indigenous voices that involved When it is considered an important part of the themselves directly in research and demanded a culture, the person who possesses these abilities transformation of approaches and methodolo- is considered a learned person by the Sami. At gies—a transformation from being the objects least that’s the way it was in the past. And even of research to having the possibility of con- though much has changed over the past 50 or ducting one’s own research. In this context 116 H. GASKI

it is important to mention Indigenous schol- In North America, where there has always ars and Indigenous authors—the same people been a more outspoken type of debate com- often occupy both roles—such as Vine Deloria, pared to the Nordic region, the tone among Jr., N. Scott Momaday and Leslie Marmon Indigenous scholars was much more aggressive, Silko in the United States, and Mudrooroo and there has been a continuous struggle to and Oodgeroo (whose “white” names were “Indigenize” Native American Studies so that Colin Jackson and Kath Walker respectively) in it can become a place for Native Americans— Australia. Their work was furthered eventually more Native American-owned, if we can put it by people like Gerald Vizenor in the United like that—while we in Sápmi have, to a large States, and, even later, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, degree, left that battle unfought. So far our with her watershed 1999 book, Decolonizing scholarship has not distinguished itself to any Methodologies (2012), in New Zealand, and appreciable extent from Western scholarship in Shawn Wilson with Research is Ceremony approach or choice of methods. It’s been more (2008). Ten years after Smith’s book, Rauna about getting Sami perspectives into research— Kuokkanen in Sápmi (the Sami region) pub- i.e., Sami empiricism—and not, to the same lished Boaris dego eana (Old as the Earth), degree as in North America and Oceania, a a book about Indigenous methodology and question of taking our own epistemology as philosophy, and about the knowledge that is a point of departure, of theorizing from our our own inheritance (Kuokkanen, 2009). These own knowledge traditions. Such theorizing, people—and a great many others too numerous Sami scholars have argued, may proceed not to include here—have contributed to creating a necessarily in place of the Western tradition, space for Indigenous peoples to be active par- but rather in addition to it: the aim has not been ticipants in, and not just passive informants for, framed as an “either/or” question, but rather research. as a “both/and” proposition. Our knowledge and our traditions are just as legitimate as those of the West and we have sought to make that Need for a transformation of the premise apparent through our approaches to mentality in the scholarly world research. Which values do we want to guide schol- At the outset it was important to establish arship? To what degree do we expect that conditions that allowed the Sami and other scholarship will have a transformative effect on Indigenous peoples to have the opportunity society, so that our values and worldview can to participate in research themselves. But after have signifi cance for scholarship in general? We a while it became clearer and clearer that a Sami are a bit parochial—i.e., oriented towards transformation of mentality was needed in the our own local region—in that we think of Sami scholarly world—a new paradigm, a new way scholarship as interesting primarily to the Sami, of understanding—in order that Indigenous and we are much less concerned with the pos- peoples’ own knowledge could be allowed in. sibility that our scholarship can contribute to Both of these processes took time, and the most the larger society. In North America, scholars of intense methodological debates—we Sami have Native American studies hope that research will to admit this—have happened in places other contribute to self- governance, or sovereignty. than Sápmi. Among the Sami the view that In New Zealand, the intention is to contribute scholarship was neutral dominated for a long at the national level, while in Sápmi we seem time, along with the belief that it was enough to to think that there is a difference in principle get Sami scholars into research, and then things between research politics and research prac- would change automatically. tice. It can seem as if institution-building—and INDIGENISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM 117 thereby access to scholarship—has been prior- and the International Labour Organization. itized over and above the content (and quality) This perspective is grounded in the cultural of the scholarship. background and the reservoir of knowledge possessed by each individual tribe or people as a community—even if that community can be Different approaches: Nationalist, said to be a constructed or an imagined com- Indigenist or cosmopolitan munity—in the sense expressed in Benedict Anderson’s (1983/1991) classic book title In this section I want to use two anthologies Imagined Communities. In the Nordic region that I have been editor and co-editor for as the it will be possible to combine the meanings starting point for saying a little about different of Indigenist and nationalist in one term, and approaches to Indigenous research and cultural simply refer to it as Indigenist. The term itself is activity. I am referring to two belles- lettres theoretical and expresses a chosen approach to anthologies for secondary school: Åvtese jåhta research, but has over time also been connected (Moving Forward), which I edited together with to Indigenous peoples themselves conducting Lena Kappfjell, and Ivdnesuotna (Coloured that research. As a continuation of the nomen- Thread), for which I was the sole editor. The clature discussion one could suggest using the books were published in 2005 and 2008. Both term Indigenism for the entire fi eld of study, of these books were edited from a pan- Sami per- as a reference to the theoretical discussions on spective, or what the American literary scholar Indigenous methodology. Arnold Krupat (2002) and his Native American The cosmopolitan perspective has, as its colleague Tol Foster (2008) would have called name suggests, a global aim—it seeks to be a “nationalist” perspective. Nationalist in this international and comparative. It can also regard means basing one’s frame of reference in be presented as cosmopolitan comparativ- a nation, such as the Sami nation—a term that ism (Krupat, 2002), i.e., as an attempt, in an was used extensively earlier, as in the Finnish Indigenous context, to discover what the com- Sami researcher Karl Nickul’s (1977) book mon values among different Indigenous cultures The Lappish Nation, and much earlier, in Carl are, and perhaps too, what it is that differenti- Linnaeus’ 18th century references to Sápmi. ates them from the general Western/dominant The nationalist perspective has a goal of discourse. In a Sami context this means that we including the entire Sami people as an entity must participate in the international scholarly or community, without emphasizing the details debate about Indigenous research, and that that divide, focusing instead on that which binds we enter that debate with our own specific together. This perspective coincides with what experiences, from our own local and national I have pointed out above as Anders Fjellner’s situations, but also that we are willing to enter pan-Sami- ism—in other words, the view that into a global discussion of premises and chal- “We Sami are one people”, as it is also phrased lenges for scholarly and cultural activity that in the Sami cultural-political programme. arise from our praxis as an Indigenous culture. The term nationalist is used in relationship A cosmopolitan perspective includes an analy- to the terms Indigenist and cosmopolitan for sis grounded in a common disciplinary and perspectives on scholarship in an Indigenous methodological approach to the subject matter, context. Indigenist is derived from indigene, while simultaneously being aware of specifi c the same root as is found in Indigenous, and linguistic and cultural conditions that affect the connotes something having to do with the analysis. It would, for instance, be completely primary or originary, as in Indigenous peo- feasible to use Sami terms and a so- called “Sami ples as the term is used by the United Nations understanding” in a cosmopolitan analysis, but 118 H. GASKI

these things would then have to be explicated instead, begin working to improve our own and made accessible to an international reader, conditions. Furthermore, there is a need for and not be exoticized and ascribed an aspect of consciousness- raising that can bring Indigenous esoteric knowledge. In order for the Indigenous peoples away from re-active politics and into a perspective to be interesting as a global schol- pro- active praxis (G. Smith, 2003). These terms arly resource, it is necessary that Indigenous have been central in the construction of Kaupapa scholars are willing to communicate and func- Mäori in New Zealand, a conception of research tion as mediators in our practice of Indigenist and academic activity that places Indigenous and cosmopolitan comparative scholarship. peoples and their own wishes and needs at the centre, rather than simply responding to demands and challenges from authorities and The right to represent oneself researchers from the majority societies. Graham Smith makes the point that de- colonization is One important premise for Indigenous a reactive term, and that it should instead be research has been the right to represent one- replaced by what he calls conscientization as self. Previously, Indigenous peoples’ languages, an active element that places Indigenous people knowledge, values and worldviews were not at the centre. Kaupapa Mäori includes, among taken seriously, and one tended to feel that other things, Mäori philosophy, worldview colonial attitudes were perpetuated in schol- and cultural principles, and consists of both arship’s relation to Indigenous peoples. This practice and theory. Sami research in the Nordic dissatisfaction, and the will to do something region can draw much inspiration from both about it, form the backdrop for the develop- New Zealand and North America, not least in ment of Indigenous methodology, as well as terms of having the boldness and strength of decolonizing and anti-colonial theories and will to trust in our own knowledge and experi- methods. When one claims, from an Indigenous ence regarding the thematics, development and position, that there is a need to Indigenize conduct of research projects. the academy (as in the book Indigenizing the The starting point for the international Academy; Mihesuah & Wilson, 2004), this is debate is the principle of self- determination, based on the fact that one does not fi nd the where the principle of autonomy fi rst and fore- current situation satisfactory. It is precisely most underscores how important it is to be because of this that Indigenous communities able to make decisions affecting one’s own around the world demand decolonization and language and culture, and that these decisions application of their own knowledge systems on must refl ect the cultural, political, economic and equal footing with “Western” epistemologies. social preferences of the culture. Included here The next step, then, will be to prove in practice is also the need for a common vision of what one how to apply Indigenous peoples’ traditional desires to achieve. This conceptualization must knowledge—how it can be rendered accessible be followed up with a transformative praxis—in and usable in an ethical and culturally respon- other words, practical work to change the situ- sible way—across signifi cantly broad swaths of ation for the better, a programme for achieving research and scholarship (Wilson, 2008). The the conditions that the Indigenous people desire. efforts at Indigenization within academia rep- Therefore there is a need for “change agents”— resent an international Indigenous movement. people who use their time working towards the According to the Mäori scholar Graham goal of greater independence in questions of Smith, colonization is actually not over. He research and education. argues that Indigenous peoples must liberate There will always be voices that oppose themselves from “politics of distraction” and, this view—including voices among Indigenous INDIGENISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM 119 peoples’ own academics—those who stand out all, as a scholarly movement that can attract in this context as defenders of the hegemony, other scholars to cooperate with it. In this new of a state of being that perpetuates current perspective a central point will be that uni- institutional arrangements, either because these versities and university colleges in the Sami people themselves benefi t from the status quo, north cooperate across national borders and or because they view the Indigenous meth- across old disciplinary boundaries. The goal odology debate as far too politicized. In the of new knowledge must always be considered meantime, it is important to emphasize that in relation to the people, culture and schol- we are discussing the conditions for conduct- arly community that the knowledge will serve, ing research, the legitimacy of being able to test and therefore consideration of capacity and out and use our own knowledge traditions and capability-building will be central, in part in ways of understanding, in addition to what may order to educate Indigenous candidates to be be purely methodological choices for concrete leaders in this research themselves. research projects. In regard to Sami culture and In the United States, the Native American cultural expressions, this suggests that Sami scholar and author Gerald Vizenor coined the normative values, along with ethical thinking term survivance (Vizenor, 1994, 2009), which and terminology, must be used to form the basis is a combination of the words survival and for analysis of Sami art, literature and music, resistance—i.e., survival through resistance—as for instance. Such Sami views need not be taken a path for Native Americans to take, to survive as the only approach, but at least as an equally by engaging in resistance to the pressure of the important and equally valid approach to tra- majority. This is reminiscent of our classical ditional “Western” ways of understanding. As Sami texts, which the Finnish pastor Jakob the next step, it would be natural to also try Fellman wrote down in Ohcejohka, in north- applying this approach to material from other ernmost Finland, at the end of the 1820s, and branches of the sciences, including the social in which the shaman’s message to his people is sciences. to fi ght on through the language, and never to The Native American researcher Craig allow themselves to be assimilated (Fellman, Womack comments on what self-government 1906, pp. 254–259); in other words: survival means in practice for Native American and through resistance. Indigenous literary scholarship: The Sami shaman’s words in the antiphony “Suola ja Noaidi” (The Thief and the Shaman; Native literature, and Native literary criticism, Gaski, 2004, pp. 36, 44–45), can also be heard in written by Native authors, is part of sover- the Australian scholar and author Mudrooroo’s eignty; Indian people exercising the right to term poetemics (Mudrooroo, 1997, p. 68). He present images of themselves and to discuss combines the words poetics and polemics, and those images … The ongoing expression of a wants Indigenous people to write a counter- tribal voice, through imagination, language, discourse, a counter- narrative to the narrative and literature, contributes to keeping sover- of assimilation. Sami authors have indeed done eignty alive in the citizens of a nation and gives this, from Johan Turi, Anders Larsen and Pedar sovereignty a meaning that is defi ned within Jalvi in the early 1900s, through Paulus Utsi, the tribe rather than by external sources. Gustav Kappfjell and Nils- Aslak Valkeapää (Womack, 1999, p. 14) from 1970 to 2000. But our scholars have not followed up in the same way. Therefore it is It is in this perspective that Sami research can important to remind ourselves of other voices, begin to emerge with greater value and with beyond the scholars’, in order to emphasize the international ambitions—and, not least of Sami message. The shaman’s words, from the 120 H. GASKI

time when colonization began, live on in art, (1650–1719) two yoik poems from the mid- but they have sadly been far too absent in Sami dle of the 17th century made their impression scholarly practice. on European literature through translations On the other hand it must be said that part into English, German, French and Dutch. They of the reason that the initiative of the Sami were even published in what is regarded to be eventually gave way internationally to the Europe’s fi rst cultural journal, The Spectator, Anglo-American world is grounded in two in 1712. Isak Saba (1875–1921) wrote the Sami important facts: fi rst, that the Sami voices were national anthem, while Elsa Laula Renberg more engaged in working for Indigenous peo- (1877–1931) organized the fi rst national gath- ples’ rights at a purely political level, and second, ering of the Sami. The Sami National Day, that as one of the world’s Indigenous peoples, 6 February, was established in her honour. Nils- the Sami concentrated primarily on develop- Aslak Valkeapää (1943–2001) was the foremost ing scholarship about ourselves in our own Sami multimedia artist, and a great poet, who language. The political struggle also had a clear was awarded the prestigious Nordic Council linguistic dimension for the Sami, to a much Literature Prize in 1991—the only Sami author larger degree than for most other Indigenous so far to receive this honour. Jovnna-Ánde peoples—with the possible exception of the Inuit Vest (1948–) is perhaps the leading prosaist in Greenland. That’s the way it still stands today, in Sami, while Rauni Magga Lukkari (1943–) and the Sami ought to, and have every right to, is regarded by many to be the language’s fore- feel proud about having managed to develop most poet. Kirsti Paltto (1947–) is by far the our language into a scholarly language. But, at most prolifi c Sami writer, with publications in the same time, this has meant that we haven’t all genres. had time to participate in the international Among the non- Sami, a person like the Indigenous discourse at the same level as others Finnish minister Jakob Fellman (1795–1875) because it takes time to conduct research, dis- is also an important voice in the history of seminate research, and discuss research politics Sami literature, as he learnt Sami himself and in Sami, Norwegian and English simultaneously. accomplished tremendous work in collecting Therefore it is not at all odd that the Sami have and transcribing epic yoiks that would other- been on the defensive for a time, but we are now wise have been lost over time, since they had once again headed back to the international been obliged to go underground in the colo- arena at full speed (Kuokkanen, 2007; Minde, nial context. Performance of these yoiks was 2008; Porsanger, 2004). not allowed by the missionaries, and the yoiks were thus ever more rarely performed in pub- lic, and would ultimately have been forgotten Sami classical works of literature as traditions changed and were lost in social transition. The colonization of Sápmi and the In Sami literary and cultural history there are Christianization of the Sami brought about such several classics, such as those written by Olaus major upheavals in our history that our entire Sirma, Anders Fjellner, Isak Saba, Elsa Laula society changed. Without enthusiastic collectors Renberg, Nils- Aslak Valkeapää, Paulus Utsi, of Sami traditions during this tumultuous and Gustav Kappfjell, Nils Mattias Andersson, unfortunate period, we would be much poorer Rauni Magga Lukkari, Jovnna- Ánde Vest and today culturally. That is part of the price one Kirsti Paltto. These and others are notable fi g- pays in a society with oral cultures and traditions ures in Sami literary history, which, in addition that are no longer practised: eventually they are to textual material, also includes orally trans- forgotten and disappear. Therefore people like mitted myths and epic yoiks. Olaus Sirma’s Fellman, Just Knut Qvigstad, Otto Donner, INDIGENISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM 121

J. A. Friis, Bjørn Collinder, T. I. Itkonen and written down, that it would not die out, but others are important fi gures to include in Sami would live on—exactly in the same way that we literary history because they did important col- fi nd a sadness in Turi’s book in contemplating lecting work, even if their frame of reference a Sami future, even though Turi, too, sees an was different than that of today’s Sami. The opportunity of educating the world through his old ethnographers—the Lappologists—wanted book. Another Sami parallel is found in Nils to record dying Sami traditions, while today we Mattias Andersson’s melancholic memoir-yoik are concerned with traditions because we don’t Åvlavuelien ålmaj (The Man on Oulavoulie; want them to die out, or because we want to Arnberg, Ruong, & Unsgaard, 1997). The yoik, reclaim them. in this case a Sami elegy, contains a tiny hope for Therefore the recording of the South Sami tra- continued existence in that the yoik was being dition bearer, Kristoffer Sjulsson’s Minnen (The recorded on tape and would be published on LP, Memoir of Sjulsson; Bäckman & Kjellström, and later on CD. “The Man on Oulavoulie” is 1979) ends up in the same category as Johan perhaps the most beautiful example we have of Turi’s (1910/2010) book Muitalus Sámiid Birra Sami improvisational art. The yoik is a vuelie, (An Account of the Sami) for the Sami, and can and thus represents another tradition within be considered as a parallel to the well- known yoik aesthetics than a North Sami luohti. The book Black Elk Speaks (Neihardt 1932/1972) terms refer to two completely different yoik among the Native Americans of North America. traditions, each as important as it is different. Black Elk Speaks is actually the observations The internal differences between different types of a Plains Native American medicine man, an of yoik throughout Sápmi are probably as sig- Oglala Sioux (Oglala Lakota), but the book has nifi cant as the differences between the various garnered status and meaning among broader languages/dialects. groups of Native Americans in the United States. Whether we choose, for the sake of termi- In Sápmi we still like to emphasize the local con- nological clarity, to speak of different Sami nection. Therefore, Turi’s book is considered languages or Sami dialects, is not simply a lin- fi rst and foremost as a North Sami classic, Anta guistic question, but perhaps just as much a Pirak’s (1937) book Jåhttee Saamee Viessoom cultural- political question: Do we want to focus (A Nomad and His Life) as a Lule Sami variant, on differences or on similarities? Can we speak and Kristoffer Sjulsson’s Minnen as the South of both/and, or would we rather accentuate an Sami classic. either/or position? Must one always exclude Turi’s book from 1910 was published in the other, or could it sometimes be practical, a new English translation in 2012 that was desirable, and even politically correct to look made directly from the Sami original, unlike at that which binds together more than point- the previous editions which were based on the ing out that which divides? My attitude is, I Danish rendition of the book. In a forthcoming would think, implicitly expressed in the title of study by the American literary scholar Arnold this article. The main point is to ask the ques- Krupat (in press), John Neihardt’s (1932/1972) tion, and to think it over, rather than to be book containing Black Elk’s story is analysed solidly and categorically committed to just one as an elegy, as a book that describes the prairie answer. Native Americans’ traditions as they once were with sorrow in mind because the traditions were already then in the process of disappearing after the incursion of foreign values. There was hope in the old Native American chief’s story precisely in the fact that his story was being 122 H. GASKI

Sami parochialism or more translations between different Indigenous cosmopolitanism? peoples’ literatures. Unfortunately this is an under- prioritized area. Translations, and It has been very interesting, as part of my especially good translations of high quality scholarly and mediating activity, to work in literature, are generally a benefi t for language parallel in North and South Sami, Norwegian development. There is a long tradition of trans- and English. This is something I have done in lating world literature into as many languages multiple books, in translating Sami texts, and as possible; yet here too the Sami national in a series of articles. One of the projects that authorities have chosen a different policy—to could be brought up in this context is my work give priority to the publication of original lit- with Sami proverbs (Gaski, 2010). Proverbs are, erature. We need, however, to be honest enough in many ways, a culture’s wisdom, gathered to admit that we do not have that many world- over time, and they represent knowledge that in class authors writing in Sami, if any, and that today’s world can be found in fi elds like peda- it would therefore be benefi cial to the develop- gogy, philosophy, folklore and anthropology. ment of our languages to have more books Since anthropology deals with relationships translated into Sami. In the Nordic region there between cultures, including views of neigh- is a discussion that has gone on for as long as the bouring peoples, it is amusing to register how Nordic Council has existed about the need for, the Sami have understood their Norwegian and value of, translating between each other’s neighbours, as expressed in the adage: Dáža languages, and it has always been an expressed lea dáža juohke beaivvi—a Norwegian is a premise that it is benefi cial to the development Norwegian every day. It is, in other words, a of the receiving language, to have literature sigh of resignation over the fact that nothing can translated into it. change (read: improve) a Norwegian’s opinions For Sami literature, and for a positive Sami and behaviour. self- image, it would be especially important, in I will, nevertheless, let the proverbs lie, and addition to translation between our languages, instead comment on some remarks I have heard to be translated into other languages as well. about the book Åvtese jåhta, claiming that it is In a global Indigenous context, in the cosmo- hardly a South Sami anthology, because it also politan perspective that I have mentioned, it is includes texts from the other Sami areas. The obviously completely necessary that Sami litera- book was never meant to be a purely South ture be translated into Spanish and English, so Sami anthology, any more than the collection that our voices, too, can be heard in the great, in North Sami, Ivdnesuotna, was ever meant global chorus of Indigenous voices from all to be a purely North Sami anthology. On the over the world that make use of these colonial contrary, both books are Sami anthologies— languages in the present day. edited on the basis of a nationalist perspective Traditionally we are quite familiar with on Saminess. I am absolutely convinced that how, within the same language family, one we need more books of the same type. I belong has always made fun of and ironized the neigh- to those who have very little enthusiasm for bouring dialect. In the Sami case this has so focusing—or over- focusing—only on one’s far mostly been an example of good-natured, own language; we know that this leads to internal teasing within the larger group; but if narrow- mindedness and actually to a sort of we were to begin restricting ourselves defen- ethnocentrism, even within the minority itself. sively to only our own language, from among Instead, I believe that we should have more the different Sami languages, then we would be translations between the Sami languages, just on the wrong track. What I refer to as good- like on the global level we should have had natured internal teasing is really of a different INDIGENISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM 123 character because, in spite of it, the minority language and culture at the group has always stood together in the face of time when the Sami still were the majority population; the internal ironizing called Lapps; parallel to the has rather been intended to contribute to mak- use of the term Eskimo instead ing the group stronger in its confrontation with of Inuit, and the research the states’ attempts at assimilation. branch that used to be named In this article I have tried to be representative Eskimology. of the pan- Sami within Sami literary scholar- Lule Sami The Sami language in Norway ship. Those who research Sami languages do and Sweden is divided into not focus only on one dialect, but instead have three main dialectal groups: a knowledge of the similarities and differences North Sami, Lule Sami and within the different Sami languages, as well as South Sami. The languages are within the fi eld itself—something that is com- not mutually understandable pletely natural, because Sami scholarship is a without any previous study. part of, and has to maintain a relationship with, The naming of the language Nordic and international scholarship within its groups has to some extent also scholarly disciplines. resulted in a cultural division. We should, as Sami, be proud of having man- The Lule Sami are the people aged to preserve our Sami languages through in the middle, between the thousands of years of interaction with the North and the South Sami, majority societies around us. That is the best concentrated in the Tysfjord affirmation of the meaning of language—as area in Norway and the an aesthetic medium for play with words and township of Jokkmokk in expressions, as a medium for communication, Sweden. and, not least, as the most important medium for luohti The main denomination for preservation of Sami identity through history. North Sami yoik. Sápmi The cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sami people. Glossary vuelie The main denomination for South Sami yoik. Biejjien The Son of the Sun. A mythic yoik Yoik is the original and baernie fi gure in Sami oral tradition. traditional music of the Sami. He courted the Giant’s The concept of juoigat (to daughter, and their offspring, yoik) exists over the entire the Gállábártnit, are regarded Sami region, but yoik itself is as being the ancestors of called different things in the the Sami. After their death, diverse Sami dialects. Yoik was the Gállábártnit became the traditionally also part of the star constellation that, in the shamanistic religious practice, Western world, is known as and therefore banned by the Orion’s Belt. missionaries. Today, yoik Lappologist Ethnographer who used to enjoys a revitalization as part specialize in the study of Sami of world music. 124 H. GASKI

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