Sami Counter-Narratives of Colonial Finland. Articulation, Reception and the Boundaries of the Politically Possible

Abstract

The Sami have articulated two kinds of counter-narratives of their treatment by the state of Finland: the state failing to provide welfare services and as a colonizer of the Sami. The Sami counter-narratives are discussed in light of their evolution and their perception in the interactional context of the Finnish state. The colonization narrative, which replaced the welfare narrative, has proven to be hard to legitimize in a Finnish context. Even though it lacks both external and full internal legitimacy, it is still used because of the international conventions building on the self-imagery of a colonized people. In addition, the most radical post-colonial researchers have chosen to use it, partly for ethno-political reasons. Numerous elements in the master narrative of Finland delegitimize the idea of Finnish colonialism: amongst other things, the idea of natural borders, the idea of being colonized by neighbouring empires, the long history of industrial nationalism and the economic growth and myth-building of the state of Finland as an anti-imperialist “good state”. A critique is advanced concerning the least nuanced academic practices and narratives.

Keywords:

• The Sami movement in Finland
• narratives
• counter-narratives
• Sami policies of Finland
• Post-colonialism

Notes

1. See Aronsson et al (2008), 256, 262. In Nordic countries, the history of the nation is the master narrative of the Nordic countries from the nineteenth century onwards. In the case of Norway and Finland, the Sami were excluded as a folk group possessing neither history nor culture.

2. National Archives of Finland, The Archive of Society for Promotion of Lappish Culture, box 30, Miscellaneous, Heikki Hyvärinen: Saamelaisten ystävät, lecture given in “Syyserotus” in Ostrobotnia, Helsinki 18–20 November 1970; on the impact of Christianity, see also National Archives of Finland, The Archive of Society for Promotion of Lappish Culture, box 30, Miscellaneous, Samuli Aikio: Esitelmä saamelaisten kulttuurin vaiheista, lecture given in “Syyserotus” in Ostrobotnia, Helsinki 18–20 November 1970.

3. The Sami Delegation (Saamelaisvaltuuskunta), a self-governing parliamentary organ for the Sami in Finland, existed between the years 1973 and 1995, before the Sami Parliament was established by the law of cultural autonomy. The Delegation had only an advisory mandate, one of giving statements.