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The Silence in Sápmi – and the Queer Sami Breaking It

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The Silence in Sápmi – and the Queer Sami Breaking It Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education The silence in Sápmi – and the queer Sami breaking it Ane Hedvig Heidrunsdotter Løvold Thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies November 2014 The silence in Sápmi - and the queer Sami breaking it A Master Thesis Submitted by Ane Hedvig Heidrunsdotter Løvold Master of Philosophy in Indigenous Studies Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education The Artic University of Norway Desember 2014 I Acknowledgements I first and foremost wish to give my thanks to the eight brave and inspiring informants who made this thesis possible. Thank you for opening up and for sharing your experiences with me. I also wish to give my thanks to my supervisors Bjørg Evjen and Anna-Lill Ledman for the constructive criticism and good discussions, and Marina Pantcheva for proof reading the final results. Thank you to all of my classmates from MIS 12, especially to Liudmilla Nikanorova, Debela G. Amante and Ella Thora, for two amazing years together in Tromsø. It has been a true adventure and I miss you all a lot. Thank you Rachel Issa Djesa for always meeting the students with your open heart. You are a true inspiration for all of us. Thank you Audun, Maren, Cal, Aylin, Ranveig, Elfrida, Sara and Risten Birje. You are all amazing. And finally, thank you Fethawit for all your love and support. Ane Hedvig H. Løvold Tromsø, November 2014 II Abstract This thesis is an investigation of the silence of queerness in Sápmi, and is empirically based on three fieldworks and eight interviews. The thesis will question the silence within a historical perspective, and explore different aspects of the silence in Sápmi today. The main focus will be on queer Sami in Norway, but will also voice queer Sami from Sweden and Finland. I will therefore include a discussion on the silence in the queer community in Norway, but the main focus will be on the silence in Sápmi. My research will also look into what was revealed when the queer Sami in this thesis break the silence. A central finding in my research is the impact of heteronormativity’s position in Sápmi, and I will discuss two of the ideals that this system of norms seems to uphold, the masculine ideal for Sami men and the Christian/læstadian ideal. The thesis will also look into the different strategies that queer Sami use in order to break the silence and gain more visibility and acceptance in Sápmi. One of the strategies is to mirror in, and identify with other indigenous people who don’t confirm the heteronormative Western gender binary, like the two- spirit movement in the US and Canada. I will also look into Stefan Mikaelssons’, the queer major of the Sami Parliament in Sweden, personal strategy to decolonize from the masculine ideal, and the coining of the term “bonju” in the north Sami language. Key Words: Queer Sami, Silence, Sápmi, Queer Theory, Heteronormativity, Intersectionality, Two-Spirit, Decolonization, Visibility, Strategies, Bonju. III Table of Contents Chapter one: Situating the field ..................................................................................... 1 Research questions ..................................................................................................................... 1 Key words in the field of study ............................................................................................... 2 The Sami People ..................................................................................................................................... 2 Sápmi ........................................................................................................................................................... 2 Queer ........................................................................................................................................................... 3 Queer Sami ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Non-gendered pronoun ....................................................................................................................... 5 Methods ........................................................................................................................................... 5 Fieldworks ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Interviews ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Informants...................................................................................................................................... 8 Positioning ..................................................................................................................................... 8 Reflexivity ...................................................................................................................................... 9 Different roles .............................................................................................................................10 Previous research ......................................................................................................................11 Theoretical Framework ..........................................................................................................12 Queer Theory ........................................................................................................................................ 12 Intersectionality and black feminism ......................................................................................... 16 Thesis outline ..............................................................................................................................16 Chapter two: Historical background ........................................................................ 18 Introduction ................................................................................................................................18 The Sami history in Norway ........................................................................................................... 18 Queer history in Norway .................................................................................................................. 21 Queer in a historical perspective in Sápmi.......................................................................24 Roles to fill ............................................................................................................................................. 24 Imagined communities ..................................................................................................................... 31 Summary .......................................................................................................................................33 Chapter three: The silence ........................................................................................... 34 Introduction ................................................................................................................................34 Fieldworks ...................................................................................................................................34 Fieldwork at Luleå Pride .................................................................................................................. 34 Fieldwork at Pride House, Oslo ..................................................................................................... 36 Fieldwork at the Queering Sápmi release in Umeå ............................................................... 38 The silence in the queer community ..................................................................................39 The voices in the margin .................................................................................................................. 42 The silence in Sápmi .................................................................................................................44 A silent people ...................................................................................................................................... 45 The silence as a sanction .................................................................................................................. 47 The silence in the margin ................................................................................................................. 49 Summary .......................................................................................................................................51 IV Chapter four: Breaking the Silence ........................................................................... 52 Introduction ................................................................................................................................52 Heteronormativity in Sápmi ..................................................................................................52 The masculine ideal ............................................................................................................................ 53 The Christian/læstadian ideal ....................................................................................................... 56 Strategies ......................................................................................................................................58
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