“Ii idja nu guhkki ahte beaivi ii boađe”

“The night is not so dark that the day never comes:” How to read a Sámi wooden cup

Troy StorfjellPacific Lutheran University

storfjta@plu.edu

Sámi aesthetics, Sámi ethics

• dáajmijes vuekie • What is beautiful is also

functional, and made in an ethical way.

• dáajmijes voete • The most functional,

beautiful and ethical• This is the ideal Sámi way

to behave, but it demands knowledge.

Lena Kappfjell, Romssa universitehta (University of Tromsø)

Inside out: Tromsø’s season of hate

Sámi agency and response

Elsa Laula, 1917 Sámi protesters, 2011

My home is in my heartit migrates with me

The yoik is alive in my homethe happiness of children sounds thereherd-bells ringdogs barkthe lasso humsIn my homethe fluttering edges of gáktis the leggings of the Sámi girlswarm smiles

My home is in my heartit migrates with me

You know it brotheryou understand it sisterbut what do I say to strangerswho spread out everywherehow shall I answer their questionsthat come from a different world

How can I explainthat I can not live in just one placeand still livewhen I live among all these tundrasYou are standing in my bedmy privy is behind the bushesthe sun is my lampThe lake my wash bowl

How can I explainthat my heart is my homethat it moves with meHow can I explain that others live there toomy brothers and sisters

What shall I say brotherwhat shall I say sister

They come and ask where is your homethey come with papers and saythis belongs to nobodythis is government landeverything belongs to the StateThey bring out dingy fat booksand saythis is the lawit applies to you too

What shall I say sisterwhat shall I say brother

You know brotheryou understand sister

But when they ask where is your homedo you answer them all thisOn Skuolfedievva we pitched our lávvuduring the spring migrationČáppavuopmi is where we built our goahti during rutOur summmer camp is at Ittunjárgaand during the winter our reindeer are in Dálvadas

You know it sisteryou understand it brother

Our ancestors kept fires on Alllaordaon Stuorajeaggis’ tufts on ViidesčearruGrandfather drowned in the fjord while fishingGrandmother cut her shoe grass in ŠelgesrohtuFather was born in Finjubákti in burning cold

And still they askwhere is your home

They come to meand show booksLaw booksthat they have written themselves This is the law and it applies to you tooSee here

But I do not see brotherI do not see sisterI cannotI say nothing I only show them the tundra

All of this is my homethese fjords rivers lakesthe cold the sunlight the stormsThe night and day of the fjeldshappiness and sorrowsisters and brothersAll of this is my homeand I carry it in my heart

– Nils-Aslak Valkeapää,Trekways of the Wind, 1994

Putting dáajmijes vuekie into practice: Indigenous methodologies

Linda Tuhiwai SmithWaikato University, New Zealand

• Indigenous methodology1. Whose research is this?2. Who owns it?3. Whose interests does it serve?4. Who will benefit from it?5. Who has designed its

questions and framed its scope?

6. Who will carry it out?7. Who will write it up?8. How will the results be

disseminated?

Jelena Porsanger

• Applying Linda Tuhiwai Smith to Sámi-related research.

• Drawing on Maori concept of whanaungatanga (relationships).

• Creating a Sámi-centered academic institution in Guovdageaidnu.

Rector, Sámi allaskuvla/ Sámi University College

Rauna KuokkanenUniversity of Toronto

• Accepting the gift of Indigenous epistemes

• “Mainstream” Indigenous philosophies and worldviews, not students.

• Failure of the university in its main objective: to produce knowledge

• epistemic ignorance• Liberal complicity in

colonization

Kristin (Kikki) Jernsletten

• Reclaiming stories, knowledge, language

• Fellism• Ságastallan• Transforming the academy

by “stealing back the river”

Shawn WilsonNorthern Rivers University,Australia

• Relational responsibility• Research as ceremony• Critique of “objectivity”

and abstraction• “There should be no need

for us to constantly justify, validate or change our work in order to fit foreign research paradigms. We have our own standards” (127).

Harald Gaski• Pan-Sámi cultural identity• Anders Fjellner’s Beijjien

baernie epic (The Son of the Sun)

• Sámi Indigenism• The right to represent

oneself• The need to Indigenize the

academy• Survivance—survival

through resistance

Romssa universitehta/ University of Tromsø

Lena Kappfjell• Back to dáajmijes vuekie

and dáajmijes voete• If the aesthetic, the useful,

and the ethical are connected, how can we be useful in an ethical and aesthetic way?

Romssa universitehta/ University of Tromsø