Living in two worlds

That is the name of an exhibition, which started today in Kiruna. It was made by young people, from three minoritiy peoples: Sámi, Jews and Roma. It is about what is is to be young and be 100% Swedish as well as 100% Sámi, or Jew or Roma. The exhibition is documentet at http://www.riksutstallningar.se/templates/Exhibition____5691.aspx (in swedish but there are some pics also). It is not about historical issues, not about the classical view of Sámi with reindeer in the mountains, but rather about identity in a modern world. The exhibition is good, and even better to hear the participants, eleven young people, telling about their experiences together. A report (also in swedish) can be downloaded at the website of the exhibition.
The experiences would be much the same I suspect, for young people belonging to other minority peoples in other countries. It would not be bad for Riksutställningar to have some info on this exhibition in English, in fact...
Well if you happen to be in Kiruna during the summer have a look at the exhibition which is in the town hall.

Doing Sámi church

Developing Sámi ways of doing chuch and theology is not so much a theoretical issue, even if that plas a role as well. Sámi ways of doing churh must spring out of living Sámi culture. One way of doing this is by means of a "Sámi church workplace" if that would be an acceptable translation of Samisk gudstjänstverkstad in Swedish.

Last weekend Luleå Diocese of the Church of Sweden organised one together with the church in Vittangi in the Sámi village Badje Sohppar.

Around 30 participants gathered friday evening and Saturday. There were some talks of a practical nature (about symbols in Sámi culture, about yoik in church) and then all split in groups. Working with music, with handicraft to have in church and also a childrens group. Beatiful creative things came out which were used in church that Sunday. The church really was transformed. There was no preaching but in stead some people told a little story from their life, illustrating a short Bible reading. In the evening, some of us sat late and tried to put all different elements into a service.

A weekend like this gives a lot of experiences which can be used in further development of Sámi church life.

Sami national day

Tomorrow is the Sámi national day, celebrated by Sámi in all countries. In Kiruna it will be celebrated at the town hall, in the afternoon, and new for this year, with a Sámi service in Kiruna Church organised by the Church of Sweden, the Mission Covenant Church and the local pentecostal church. You are welcome to join at 18.00. It will be in Sámi and in Swedish. I just finished preparing the sermon, which will focus on Pauls words at the Areopagos in Athens, about all peoples being created by God.
Would you know more - come and listen (if you have the luck of being in town of course :-)

Service in 3 languages

Last Saturday it was time for Sámi church service in Hemavan, in the southern part of Sápmi. This is a special thing in that area, since there are two sámi languages there. The one is a variant of South Sámi, called Ume Sámi. The other one is North Sámi. The speakers of that language are families who have been forced by the state to move to that area in the first part of the 20th century. Then, many Sámi, especially in this southern part, have lost their mother tongue thanks to state policies. South and North Sámi are as different as let's say Swedish and German.

So in this area, we sing hymns and read texts in both languages, and preaching has to be in Swedish. It is quite a challenge to have a service like this, but worth the effort.

How many Sámi are there?

Lars-Niila Lasko has written in his blog about how many Sámi there are (http://lasko.bloggsite.se/post/769/7078). The official figure for Sweden is 17500. This figure was, as he writes, produced many years ago by taking all reindeer herders (a minority among even the Sámi!) go back two generations and calculate their relatives today. This was done in the seventies. The figure is ridiculous. Lets calculate how many Dutch there are by taking all cheese makers and their relatives... Or Swedes: all who work in forestry and their relatives.
(important to know that ethnicity is not registered in Sweden which makes all figures just calculations)
Another research institution calculated some years ago 65000 Sámi in Sweden, and this is more plausible, even if that also may be a rather conservative figure. They also took existing litsts of reindeer keepers, voting lists for the Sámi Parliament etc and calculated their relatives.
One wonders why then, the 17500 number is still used officially as the number of Sámi. Do the authorities not want to have too many Sámi? I don't like to believe it is that bad. But why?
Maybe the best guess today for swedish Sámi would be something between 60 000 and 100 000

Samerna och budgeten

Så kom den nu, regeringens budget. De som har får, de som har mer får mer, kan man kanske sammanfatta det hela. Det finns vinnare och förlorare. Samerna som folk hör inte till vinnarna vad vi förstår. Enligt Oddasat nämns inte ens Sametinget i budgeten. Sametinget har fått nya uppgifter som de har tagit över från landstingen när det gäller rennäringen. Men resurser för att kunna klara dessa kommer inte. Inte heller pengar till sametingshuset, som man redan har lagt både pengar och energi på.
Det är naturligtvis en skam av stora mått för landet Sverige att dess Sameting tvingas ha sina plenum än här än där, och stå utan ändamålsenliga lokaler. Den faktiska situationen ger en bild utåt av hur staten ser på det samiska folket och dess rätt till viss självstyre. Vilken annan statlig myndighet, vilket annat folkvalt organ tvingas ha det så. Landet som så gärna kritiserar andra när det gäller hur man handskas med sina minoriteter går verkligen inte före med gott exempel.
Vi får väl hoppas att de styrande inser vilken signal de faktiskt sänder och ändrar sig till nästa budget.