"Finland's Sami Fear Assimilation"

Thu Apr 10 12:31:29 UTC 2008

Don's post led me to trying to find a video I used as a teaching tool in
sociolinguistics classes. I found the following excellent videos on YouTube
from Galdu.org: The first one is particularly good on language issues. I've
also included a few of other sources I found which you may find useful.
Regards,
Dr Maggie Canvin
SIL
videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkG7psgdl1o We are the Sámi. Author:
galdu.org Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Harry
Johansen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyspUNQ-l70&feature=related We are
the Sámi introduction: Author: galdu.org Resource Centre for the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples and Harry Johansen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN-Guz5Zlg4&feature=related We are the Sámi.
Author: galdu.org Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and
Harry Johansen   Infopdf file of Multilingual matters article:
*The* Sami *Language*(s), Maintenance and
Intellectualisation<http://msxml.infospace.com/prodege.feed.jars/clickit/search?r_aid=629DA46E6CEF448F902A9B05EAA3E350&r_eop=3&r_sacop=3&r_scoid=239171&r_spf=0&r_cop=main-title&r_snpp=3&r_spp=0&qqn=G-3Xn6Y%2B&r_coid=239138&rawto=http://www.multilingual-matters.net/cilp/003/0028/cilp0030028.pdf>Tove
Bull
University of Tromsø, Norway
This article gives an overview of the current sociolinguistic situation of
the Sámi
language(s) in Northern Scandinavia, focusing on the situation in North
Norway in
particular.After a brief description of the historical development, the
article discusses
issues, problems and practises relating to Sámi language politics and
planning. Active
and conscious Sámi language planning is a rather novel activity; since Sámi
as a school
language and an official language has only existedfor a fewdecades.The
history of the
language as a regularly and frequently used written medium is indeed very
short.
Consequently, planning for the language to occupy a place in the
intellectual life of the Sámi speech community is an even more novel
activity.
http://www.multilingual-matters.net/cilp/003/0028/cilp0030028.pdf

http://www.samitour.no/english/9-1-historie.html
This site has a good introduction to the history of the Sami including a
good section on language.

Amoc is rapping the Sámi language onto the map ? Virtual
Finland<http://msxml.infospace.com/prodege.feed.jars/clickit/search?r_aid=B349ACD61999465CAAFF9AFFE2BCA150&r_eop=7&r_sacop=10&r_scoid=239171&r_spf=0&r_cop=main-title&r_snpp=10&r_spp=0&qqn=1hf%27lmnA&r_coid=239138&rawto=http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=55407>

Rap artist Amoc alias Mikkal Morottaja, 21, who is an *Inari* Sámi, ... He
was, however, educated at school in the *Inari* Sámi language and took his
...
http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=55407<http://msxml.infospace.com/prodege.feed.jars/clickit/search?r_aid=B349ACD61999465CAAFF9AFFE2BCA150&r_eop=7&r_sacop=10&r_scoid=239171&r_spf=0&r_cop=main-title&r_snpp=10&r_spp=0&qqn=1hf%27lmnA&r_coid=239138&rawto=http://virtual.finland.fi/netcomm/news/showarticle.asp?intNWSAID=55407>

Inari Sami<http://msxml.infospace.com/prodege.feed.jars/clickit/search?r_aid=B349ACD61999465CAAFF9AFFE2BCA150&r_eop=3&r_sacop=5&r_scoid=239171&r_spf=0&r_cop=main-title&r_snpp=5&r_spp=0&qqn=08ImV%21%27b&r_coid=239138&rawto=http://www.ling.canterbury.ac.nz/personal/toivonen/sami/>

*Inari* Sami (*Saami*, Sámi, Lappish, Lapp) is spoken by 300-400 people who
live around Lake *Inari* in Lapland in Northern Finland. *Inari* Sami is one
of the Sami ...
http://www.ling.canterbury.ac.nz/personal/toivonen/sami/<http://msxml.infospace.com/prodege.feed.jars/clickit/search?r_aid=B349ACD61999465CAAFF9AFFE2BCA150&r_eop=3&r_sacop=5&r_scoid=239171&r_spf=0&r_cop=main-title&r_snpp=5&r_spp=0&qqn=08ImV%21%27b&r_coid=239138&rawto=http://www.ling.canterbury.ac.nz/personal/toivonen/sami/>

On 10/04/2008, Don Osborn <dzo at bisharat.net> wrote:
>
>  The Traditional Knowledge Bulletin blog has a link to this IPS article at
>
> http://tkbulletin.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/this-week-in-review-finlands-sami-fear-assimilation/. The full article and link to it are below:
>
>
>
>
>
> Inter Press Service News Agency
>
> http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=41887
>
> RIGHTS:  Finland's Sami Fear Assimilation
>
> By Linus Atarah
>
>
>
> HELSINKI, Apr 7 (IPS) - There are growing concerns among the Sami people
> in Finland that their traditional way of life as an indigenous people is
> under threat.
>
>
>
> "The difficulty facing us is that we are facing comprehensive and complete
> assimilation all the time," Pekka Aikio, former president of the Sami
> Parliament told IPS.
>
>
>
> The Sami are recognised in the Finnish Constitution as an indigenous
> people. They have an elected parliament that handles their affairs, and have
> the right to receive services in their own language. But parts of the state
> administration do not pay attention to the constitutional recognition, says
> Martin Scheinin, professor of international law at the Åbo Academy in Turku
> city, 170km from capital Helsinki.
>
>
>
> "They keep treating the Samis as a linguistic minority," Scheinin told IPS
> following a meeting on the rights of the Sami organised by the Finnish
> League for Human Rights last week.
>
>
>
> The Sami are an indigenous people of Northern Europe inhabiting mostly
> Sweden, Norway and Finland, with an estimated population of about 100,000.
> About 8,000 of them live in Finland.
>
>
>
> Hundreds of Sami families are involved in reindeer herding, their
> traditional source of livelihood. But the process of assimilation means many
> of the Sami have taken on the lifestyle of other Finns.
>
>
>
> Scheinin says the Sami way of life is threatened significantly by
> competing usage of land -- often by the government itself -- through cutting
> down forests. This destroys pastoral lands of the reindeer, and besides the
> harm done to reindeer herding, brings social and emotional stress.
>
>
>
> A central issue, according to Scheinin, is that the Sami have no secure
> land rights in Finland. Large areas of land in the north where many Sami
> live is state-owned. "Nobody knows how the government got this land, from
> whom they bought it. They simply took it," said Prof. Scheinin.
>
>
>
> The Reindeer Act protects the rights of the Sami people. "Nevertheless, it
> is the government that decides, and over and time again the state forestry
> agency decides that they can continue cutting the forest while claiming that
> it is a small project that would not negatively affect Sami reindeer
> herding. But when you look at the totality, it has huge impact," Scheinin
> said.
>
>
>
> Aikio says reindeer herding is a general right. "It means others can own
> that land and we can be there with our reindeer but we have no right to
> complain if others are harvesting their timber or if they are starting a
> mining project or they are constructing a lake. In such circumstance we lose
> the pastoral lands almost without any compensation. Samis can use the land
> insofar as it is not being used."
>
>
>
> In Norway, Aikio says, where a majority of the Sami people live, the
> situation is better because the government has given joint land ownership to
> the Sami and other local people. Norway has also allocated more money for
> the Sami than other countries have, he said.
>
>
>
> The land usage rights of the Sami people is complicated by the fact that
> Finland has not ratified International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention
> 169 on land rights for indigenous and tribal peoples. The Convention was
> adopted in 1989 and came into effect in 1991.
>
>
>
> Article 14 of the Convention says: "Governments shall take steps as
> necessary to identify the lands which the peoples concerned traditionally
> occupy, and to guarantee effective protection of their rights of ownership
> and possession."
>
>
>
> ILO Convention 169 would require Finland to start demarcation of land that
> belongs to the Sami either through ownership or through protected usage
> rights.
>
>
>
> According to Prof. Scheinin, the resource rights related to land are
> crucial to the maintenance not only of the nature-based way of life of the
> Sami people, but also their language and culture.
>
>
>
> "The Sami language lives and dies with the Sami way of life because the
> social activities around reindeer herding and in the nature-based forms of
> livelihood really keep up the living language. If it is isolated to a museum
> piece I think there will be no future for the Sami language," Scheinin said.
>
>
>
> Finland's Minority Ombudsman Johanna Suurpää says the government is not
> pursuing a deliberate assimilation policy. "The situation in the northern
> part of the country is not very simple because there are also non-Sami
> people who are engaged in reindeer herding, and so there are no simple
> solutions that would be fair for all parties," Suurpää told IPS.
>
>
>
> Suurpää acknowledged difficulties over language. "The law provides that
> Sami people have the right to receive services in their own language but
> what is received is inadequate," she said. This is because there are no
> civil servants in the north who know the Sami language well enough. The
> usual focus is on land rights, but the language issue is becoming a
> "crisis", she said.
>
>
>
> "It is only the artificial support that they are receiving across the
> borders from their brother and sisters that in way has enabled the
> continuation of their way of life," said Scheinin. "If it were the question
> of Finland alone, it would have resulted in destruction of the Sami way of
> life if not earlier, then during the last two decades." (END/2008)
>
>
>
>
>
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