The Sámi national day

The Sámi conference, which has elected delegates from all over Sápmi, decided in 1992 that the 6th of february shall be a common National day for all Sámi people in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia. The day was celebrated for the first time in 1993. The Sámi national day is celebrated in memory of the first Sámi national meeting in Trondheim 6.2.1917. Johan Roska participated from Nesseby, as one of only two northern Sámi at the meeting. He had been involved in the case of reindeer grazing land across the borders to Russia and Finland, and that is why he was sent as a representative. The reason he was a natural choice, was that the first national meeting mainly focused on the reindeer herding challenges. In the southern Sámi area there were constant conflicts with the ever increasing Norwegian farmer settlers, and this was perceived as the biggest threat towards a Sámi substistance. In the north the Sámi political struggle was directed towards the State’s assimilation policy, and was more about the eradication of Sámi language and culture. Isak Saba stood in the middle of this battle. One of his contributions is now considered the Sámi national anthem: The Sámi people’s song. In this song he pays tribute to the Sámi peoples tireless, peaceful struggle for an existence and recognition as a people of their own. Saba considered that Sámi people need to learn how to write and read in Sámi language, to convey their own stories. He made a great effort himself with noting down yoiks (traditional music) and stories from the area around the Varanger fjord, both in northern Sámi and in Skolt Sámi.

The 6th of February 1993 the Sámi national day was officially celebrated for the first time. In the first years the celebration was characterized by seriousness, with speaches for the adults, which often focused on what had been fought for and what was still important to fight for to achieve the basics necessary to exist as a people across four nationstate borders. In time it has become more of a festive day, and is celebrated actively in kindergardens and schools. Often the whole week is set aside escpecially for Sámi topics. The day has since 2003 been an official flagday in Norway, and in Nesseby it has become tradition that the school and kindergarden sing the National song outdoors while the flag is being hoisted.This was also the case in 2011. Even though it was nearly 40 degrees below zero, and the schoolbus was cancelled because of the cold and it was voluntary to attend school. All the same, the whole school stood together outside and sang as the flag was hoisted. Those who have grown up since the day was celebrated the first time, have also grown up with the municipality as a part of the language administrative area, with bilingual signage and other Sámi public services. They have grown up with the Sámi parliament, which was established in Norway in 1989, and which has a local office in the municipality centre.

As we can see from the pictures, there are many ways to dress up. It is customary to wear gákti, and then from the area your family belongs to. It is accepted that all who have affiliation to Nesseby wear Nesseby gákti, also if you are not of Sámi descent. Other alternatives to a festive garment are often inspired by Sámi colours and patterns. Knitted garments are populair, and redesigned outfits with Sámi details and decorations. As it is usually the coldest day of the year, wool garments are preferred.

Many parents are concerned that their children would want to wear the gákti, and that it should be a garment that they can play, eat icecream and ravage in. They also get to put their personal touch on the garment, to underline their ownership. For example they get to choose colour and decoratioin, or even sew their own Angry-Bird mark on it! Sissel tells: “My kids love to wear the gákti. Then we are dressed up, then they are nice looking! It is nice that they can grow up with the feeling that it’s great!”. 1

Isak Saba is in our time best known as the author of the Sámi people’s song, which was decided as the Sámi national song by the Sámi conference in 1986. The lyrics were first published in the Sámi newspaper Sagai Muitalægje in 1906. Saba was running for election to the Norwegian parliament, with a list of Sámi demands. He was also the top candidate for the labour party and made it to the parliament on behalf of a combination of labour- and Sámi-issues1.

Isak Saba was from Reppen in Nesseby minicipality. He grew up in the midst of siblings. His father was the manager of the trade station at Latnæringen, ca. 1o km from their homeplace. Isak was both helping his mother with the small scale farming, as well at lending a hand in his fathers business. The trade involved speaking with the Norwegians, and he soon learned the language in addition to his native Sámi mothertongue.He had a hunger for knowledge, and was granted a schoolarship at Tromsø Seminar, which was the closest teachers education college. At the Seminar he entered at progressive environment, where there was much debate on the case of Norwegian language as opposed to the Danish. He was obviously inspired, and wrote to his Sámi fellow student Anders Larsen about the flourishing past of the Sámi that now should be revived through enlightenment. He was inspired by the nationalist movements both in Norway and Finland. In the Sámi people’s song, there are associations to the Finnish national epos Kalevala. To Isak the study was a time of enthusiasm and faith in the future. The Sámi people also had something to contribute!

His friend Anders Larsen established the Sámi newspaper Sagaid Muitalægje, which became important in the periode Saba was agitating for election to the Norwegian parliament. The newspaper was also an imoportant chanal for expressions against the Norwegianization policy, especially directed towards the teaching methods in school and the practical consequences of the Property act of 1902, which stated that land could only be owned by persons who spoke Norwegian on a daily basis.

At the same time as Saba began working as a teacher, the Norwegianization policy was tightened well harder. A special position of director of schools in Finmark county was created. Bernt Thomassen, who was recruited to the position, was to have close supervision with the efforts to promote Norwegian language in the schools, opposed to Sámi and Finnish, which were prohibited. There was a loud debate between Saba and Thomassen, which to a large degree took place in the papers, and is thus well documented. Saba was clear on his standing. He stated that if Norwegianization meant that Sámi children were to learn to speak, read and write Norwegian, then he was fully into it. But if the precondition was that Sámi children had to abandon their Sámi language and culture, to fully integrate with the Norwegians, then he was no longer a part of it. He thus opposed the assimilation, not rhe bilinguality itself.

Sabas view on bilinguality was way ahead of its time. His argument was that both the pedagogics and the goals of the Norwegianization was wrong. Thomassen was a true follower of the Wexelsen eddict of 1898, which stated that Sámi and Finnish could only be used as assisting languages in teaching when absolutely neccesary. The recommended method was a pedagogic built on demonstrating or miming the words, or draw on the board. Hence it was considered beneficial if the teacher didn’t understand the Sámi language, as they would not be tempted to simply translate. This was in Saba’s view a totally misconceived teaching method for language. The children had to start schooling in the language they knew best, and then gradually acquire Norwegian. It was proclaimed in the Sámi newspaper, that the level of knowledge among Sámi pupils had dropped since Sámi language was abandoned in teaching.

Saba ment the most beneficial would be that the Sámi children should learn to write and read both in Sámi and Norwegian. Thus they would acquire the Norwegian culture, while they simultaneously learnt to appreciate their own culture. This was so far off from the Social Darwinistic ideology which the Norwegianization policy was built on, that Saba was sabotaged and ridiculed. After 2 periods at the Norwegian parliament from 1906 to 1912, representing the labourparty, Saba resigned from politics.

He dedicatet his energy towards collecting Sámi folklore. As he had learned from the Norwegian and Finnish national movements, the road to a peoples pride could be built by enhancing their cultural inheritage. He focused on the Varanger region, but as his mother was of Skolt Sámi origin, he made sure to collect traditions also from the Skolt Sámi area on the borders to Russia and Finland. Thus his own inheritance to posterity has to a great extent fulfilled his vision – that the Sámi people should be proud of their cultural heritage.

The Sámi people’s song is a hommage to the Sámi people, who have prospered under harsh conditions both climatically and culturally. It ends with an encouragement not ever to forget ones special connection and obligation towards the homeland – the Sámi land. He underlines the peaceful attitude which has been of significance in the Sámi history, where selfsubsistance and endurance are the longlasting prerequisites for success.