Harald Gaski

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.

JOHAN TURI was more than a writer. The main purpose of this article is to offer a glimpse of Turi's artistic production alongside his prose. In addition to the images originally published in Muitalus samiid birra, Turi produced a number of other pictures as well. None of these had ever been published until the anniversary edition of Turi's work in 2010 although it appears that Emilie Demant Hatt may have organized an exhibition of Turi's artwork at some point. (1) Turi's first pictures were intended as fairly straightforward clarifications of points covered in his text, but gradually, he seems to have grown more expressionistic in his handling of visual genres. His artwork has received little critical attention to date, but it is rather obvious that Turi was influenced by trends in modern art. These he would have come in contact with during his visits to the home of Hjalmar Lundbohm (discussed in Kristin Kuutma's article within this collection), Turi's good friend and an avid collector of art. It is also likely that Emilie Demant, an active artist herself, would have brought Turi to the Danish National Museum during Turi's visit to Copenhagen after the publication of Muitalus in 1911. At the National Museum, Turi had the same opportunity as Picasso to be inspired by foreign artworks like African masks. His images, as we shall see below, have a strong narrative component and reflect much the same approach to knowledge and storytelling evident in his text. The main intent of this paper is to provide an interpretation and analysis of Turi's artwork based on his own way of thinking, his words, and his observations. It is thus important to provide details regarding the time and context in which Muitalus--as well as Turi's other works-were produced. My references in the following are to images and page numbers as they occur in the 2010 anniversary edition of Muitalus, although some of the most pertinent images have been reproduced in the pages of this journal as well. (2) The renowned Sami multimedia artist, recipient of the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature, Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa, (3) describes Turi's method of writing as stream of consciousness and places him in a distinguished and international cadre of writers. Valkeapaa wished to honor Turi by writing a book about him based primarily on the decades-long correspondence that survives between Turi and Demant Hatt. It is also clear, however, that Aillohas/Valkeapa found in Ovles Juhan Turi a kindred soul. Valkeapaa's book Boares nauti Johan Thuri [the old wolf Johan Turi] is a markedly personal examination of the first multimedia artist of Sapmi by perhaps the most famous Sami celebrity of the modern era. From the point of view of Sami literary history, Valkeapaa's tribute holds great significance both as a compilation of original materials related to Turi's life and relations, and as an aesthetic response paralleling in a certain sense the tribute Turi received from the pen of Knut Hamsun in the immediate aftermath of the original publication of his book, a review that appeared in the Oslo newspaper Verdens Gang in January, 1911 (Hamsun). Like Valkeapaa, I believe that Johan Turi was much more than simply a producer of ethnographic descriptions and depictions--he aimed at being an artist. This I hope to demonstrate in the following discussion, despite the rather limited archival evidence left to us. I believe that the artwork included in the 2010 edition of Muitalus--and formerly completely overlooked by scholars as well as publishers--attests clearly to Turi's artistic ambitions. But, as we shall see, Turi's interlocutors, Emilie Demant Hatt and Hjalmar Lundbohm, showed little support of Turi's expressionistic side. I also hope to dispel the notion that Turi's drawings and paintings were somehow naive or simplistic: they are, in fact, sophisticated contemplations that tread a fine line between realism and expressionism, depicting--as I hope to show below--more than would be possible to see from a single vantage point and reflecting Turi's understandings of the world and of the activities that he sought to present in his book. …

The Sami are an ancient Arctic culture struggling for existence while adjusting to a modern way of life. They represent values that have enabled them to survive for thousands of years in a harsh northern climate. Here Sami scholars investigate the manifold experiences of an ethnic minority in the welfare state of modern Norway.This collection of articles covers a wide range of topics in present-day Sami life. It deals with some of the problems connected to the modernization of traditional livelihoods, such as reindeer husbandry, and it also delves into the ever-recurring question of how to maintain the identity of a threatened minority. The new roles of education, health care, mass media, and literature are discussed, as well as Sami history from a frontier perspective.

"The Áltá Action (c. 1978–82) radically shook the course of history in the Nordic region. Its call to ‘let the river live’ rallied against the construction of a large dam across the Álttáeatnu river on the Norwegian side of Sápmi, the Sámi homeland. The Action catapulted the demands for Indigenous sovereignty to the forefront of the politics of the time, and grew into an unexpectedly broad movement of solidarity in which Sámi artists played a central role. Many key questions raised by the Áltá Action pertinent in the region and beyond remain unresolved today. Let the River Flow makes essential reading for any discussion regarding how governments, artists and citizens will act upon these questions within the frame of today’s worldwide call for decolonisation and Indigenisation. New essays by 24 leading Indigenous artists, writers and scholars as well as allies, together with key existing texts, focus on the significant political and artistic reverberations of the Action past and present." -- Publisher's website

Verket Beaivi, áhčážan (Solen min far) utgjør på sett og vis en egen trilogi. Trilogien består av ei bok med dikt som er nummerert og to CD-sett. Den ene CD’en (CD 4) er musikk som Nils-Aslak Valkeapää og Esa Kotilainen laget til Dalvadis-teaterets oppsetning Beaivi, áhčážan, basert på et utvalg tekster fra boka. Dalvadis-teateret var lokalisert i Karesuando i Nord-Sverige. De turnerte med stykket Beaivi, áhčážan i store deler av det nordsamiske bosetningsområdet i 1988. De sier selv om stykket at det er en forestilling unnfanget av sola, født av sola, en strøm i livets sirkel, en forestilling som forsvarer retten til eksistens for sårbare kulturer. Det andre CD-settet (CD 10) består av fire CDer hvor Valkeapää selv leser opp diktene i boka. Framførelsen er ispedd musikken fra CD 4. I denne artikkelen ønsker jeg å se nærmere på samspillet mellom musikken og opplesningen av dikt fra boka som omhandler ulike tildragelser under et samisk marked. Diktene fra 381 til og med 395 i Solen, min far er interessante som eksempler på Nils-Aslak Valkeapääs innlevelsesevne i hvordan det kan ha vært på markedsplassene i gamle dager

This paper will explain the concept of double perspective and the impact that this cultural understanding may have on the health of the Indigenous peoples of Scandinavia. In inter-cultural communication, one set of meanings may be discernible to the outsider while a whole extra set of restricted or underlying meanings are only accessible for those people who have the cultural knowledge to discern them. These different sets of meanings embody a double perspective. It is not dual perspectives on the same reality but rather seeing two separate but overlapping realities. We will discuss the layers of meaning which are involved in the interactions between public healthcare institutions, clinicians and staff, and Indigenous people including the Sámi. These interactions are influenced by the impact of colonization and the ongoing epistemicide of Indigenous thought. By realising the improved resilience that a double perspective brings to Indigenous peoples, an awareness of the inclusion and...

The goal of this article is to explain the concept of double perspective and the impact this may be having on the health of Indigenous people. In inter-cultural communication, there are sets of meanings that are discernible to anyone, and an extra set of underlying meanings that are only accessible for people who have the cultural knowledge to discern them. These different sets of meanings embody a double perspective. We will discuss the double perspective involved in the interactions between public healthcare institutions, the clinicians and staff of these institutions, and Indigenous people. By realising the potential for improved resilience that a double perspective brings to Indigenous people, an awareness of the inclusion and exclusion of Indigenous persons, cultures and histories should become established in healthcare institutions and health research. A double perspective carries resilience, and as such it should be understood as a key to support individual health and the col...

Hakan Rydving was the one who first made Sami researchers aware of Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s groundbreaking book Decolonizing metho­dologies. Much has been written, both before and after, about research on indigenous peoples’ own terms. For years, Hakan himself had already practiced the principle of learning indigenous peoples’ languages and returning the results of the research, so in many ways, Smith’s book became a confirmation of the legitimacy of what Sami researchers were doing, and of the necessity of having good allies in the execution of this practice. This short essay presents a Sami variant of indigenous research, namely daajmijes vuekie, which is a proper aesthetic based on Sami uses of concepts and Sami understanding of this aesthetic on our own terms. This aesthetic is part of a larger movement, which in an international indigenous peoples’ discourse contributes to the merging of tradition and innovation through the revitalization, rethematizing, and academizing of knowled...

I GAZED UP AT THE STARRY HEAVENS last night to see whether a new star was shining there. I was almost certain that this was where Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa had gone, that the Sun--a father figure in Sami tradition--would want to have his son nearer to himself. In the myths, Gallabartnit, the Sami ancestors, were elevated to the heavens after death because they had established such a positive reputation for themselves on earth. They were highly accomplished moose hunters and the inventors of skis and, therefore, instead of being buried in the traditional Sami fashion--wrapped in birch bark and laid in flagstone graves--they were taken up to the night sky where they are found today in the constellation Orion's Belt. The Gallabartnit are the direct descendants of the Son of the Sun and the Giant's Daughter, and the Sami can, therefore, trace their ancestry directly back to the most powerful force in the universe, the sun! Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa used these myths in his writing allowing the authorial voice to say toward the end of Beaivi, Ahcazan [The Sun, My Father], the book for which he received the Nordic Council's Prize for Literature in 1991: roadda boadan, Beaivi, ahcazan boadanhan mun, boadan (558) (The heavens glow I'm coming, The Sun, my father I'm coming soon, coming.) And this is what he has done now, he has stepped over to the other side of life, the Sun has called him back. That is why I scanned the night sky to see if a new star had appeared in Orion's Belt. Nils-Aslak's accomplishments for his people were so great that he will come to be regarded by all posterity as a modern-day mythical being among the Sami. He spoke directly to the heart transmitting a message that an indigenous people must never forget, namely that it is our obligation to care for the Earth, our mother. Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa tied the past and the future together. He wanted us to derive knowledge from our traditions, to know the past in order to be able to create a secure future. But he was also, nevertheless, uncertain about that which lies ahead: ihttin juo eara giella dolasnai ihta bovccuin odda johtolat, gedggiin ieza vierut amas aigi aiggis amas (558) (Tomorrow another language also around the fire new migratory routes for tomorrow's reindeer, the stones have other habits a distant time in time distant) Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa was first and foremost the poet of the Sami--a poet in the broadest sense of the term since his art must be regarded in its totality: from the association of words emerged music that created pictures, which again informed the words--not merely the choice of words, but also their placement on the page. Typography is also an aesthetic expression, and Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa--Aillohas--could never praise the musicality of the Sami language enough. …

The Sami are an ancient Arctic culture struggling for existence while adjusting to a modern way of life. They represent values that have enabled them to survive for thousands of years in a harsh northern climate. Here Sami scholars investigate the manifold experiences of an ethnic minority in the welfare state of modern Norway.This collection of articles covers a wide range of topics in present-day Sami life. It deals with some of the problems connected to the modernization of traditional livelihoods, such as reindeer husbandry, and it also delves into the ever-recurring question of how to maintain the identity of a threatened minority. The new roles of education, health care, mass media, and literature are discussed, as well as Sami history from a frontier perspective.

Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (1943–2001) was the greatest Sámi multimedia artist. He made his debut as an author in 1971 and is so far the only Sámi who has been awarded the prestigious Nordic Council's literature prize, for his book of poetry and old photographs Beaivi, áhčážan (1989) (The Sun, My Father [1997]). In this article Harald Gaski provides an analysis of two of Valkeapää's most renowned pieces of lyrical writing. Both are long-poems; the first one is a tribute to indigenous peoples’ values and philosophy while the other one is only available in its Sámi original and thus a linguistic and cultural manifestation. It is a challenge, therefore, for the author of this essay to explicate for a foreign reader why and how the poem represents a migrating reindeer herd and why the content of both poems is relevant and important for indigenous peoples today.

inspired by a great deal of work on indigenous methodologies,1 i feel it appropriate to start by positioning the perspective from which i write this essay. the task i have undertaken is to reflect over the more or less institutionalized concept of an “indigenous elders’ approach.” i will do this from the combined perspective of a Sámi elder (at least one who is approaching the age of becoming an elder) and from an academic vantage point in which indigenous scholarship has been a key instrument in my university practice over the last 3 to 4 decades. although age is not the only qualifying criterion for achieving the status of an elder, in my case, i feel, on the one hand, that the experiences that come along with age in addition to growing up in a traditional Sámi community, and, on the other hand, that my role as a longtime instructor of Sámi students in the academy and as a devoted researcher in the field of transindigenous Studies and a commentator on cultural and societal development within the Sámi communities, together should grant me a position from which it is fitting to say a few words about the position of elders, an issue that has been essential in indigenous scholarship.

... 4. Conf., eg, M. Johnson, ed., LORE, Capturing Traditional Environmental Knowledge (Hay River, NWT, Canada: Dene Cultural Institute ... A Norwegian Archaeology and the People without 'Prehistory,"' Archeology Review from Cambridge 5:11(1986); Odner, "Sami (Lapps), Finns ...

The article is an overview of Sami literature, past and present, with a specific emphasis on the connection between tradition and innovation, in which literature is regarded in a broader sense than only limited to the written word. Thus the relationship between the traditional epic yoik songs and contemporary poetry is being dealt with, as is the multimedia approach that several Sami artists have chosen for their creative expression. It is almost more the rule than an exemption that Sami artists express themselves through the use of more than only one medium. Through the introduction to Sami literature, the reader also gets acquainted with the history and the culture of the Sami, who are the indigenous people of the northern regions of Scandinavia, Finland and the Kola peninsula in Russia.

<p><em>The text on Sami shamanism in Caspar Peucer’s </em>Commentarius de praecipuis divinationum generibus<em> (Wittenberg 1560): Critical edition, with translation and…