Ten Perspectives of the Gáppte: Materializing Different Ways of Being Sámi

Abstract

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among the Lulesámi, a subgroup of the indigenous Sámi of northern Fennoscandia, this article explores the relationship between indigenous identity and dress. The gáppte, traditional dress, is a central visual marker of the Sámi, yet on a personal and everyday basis this symbolism enters into dialogue, and sometimes conflict, with people’s life experiences, emotions, interests and expectations. Understandings and experiences of the gáppte are placed within a context in which the Sámi community at times is experienced as fragmented and where a history of colonialism and discrimination has left lasting imprints. As shown in the article, narrations of dress unfold how relationships that for long have been marked by oppression and discrimination raise specific forms of awareness as well as questions around what constitutes the self, and how such self can or should be expressed. Through ten different perspectives of the gáppte, the article reveals how different ways of being Sámi become negotiated and materialized through dress.

Keywords:

• dress
• Sámi
• circumpolar North
• indigenous identity
• postcolonial context

Acknowledgements

The author thanks all who participate in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All personal names are fictional. As the research was done in a small community I have further edited personal details in order to protect people’s anonymity. More precisely I have used a similar method to that set out by Banjerjee and Miller, in their anthropological work on the Indian sari, by often quoting dialogues and statements verbatim, but at other times drawing “together shared comments and perspectives into a single notional spokeswoman or dialogue” (2008, 4).

2 The regional differences of the gáppte roughly correlate with the different Sámi language groups.

3 See Haugen (2006) for an overview of the different regional garments.

4 The rise of nationalism correlated with Norway’s independence from Denmark, with which it had been unified between 1389 and 1814. Although Norway joined a union with Sweden in 1814 it was more or less autonomous. In 1905 Norway became a state in its own right after a large Norwegian majority voted for independence in a referendum, thereafter Norway and Sweden negotiated and signed the dissolution of their previous union.

5 Many also ceased to speak the Lulesámi language and changed their personal names and surnames to become less Sámi and more “Norwegian-sounding” (e.g. from Gælok or Gintal to Andersen and Johnsen) in order to manage their relations with others and avoid discrimination.

6 Gaski (1997) argues that the Sámi never aimed to establishing their own nation, but that their goal has been to gain constitutional recognition and rights to self-determination within the Fennoscandian states.

7 Gaski (1997, 10) writes there was no term for “culture” in the Sámi language prior to the political movement. The Lulesámi word kultura derives, quite evidently, from the Norwegian word kultur.

8 A non-profit organisation that advocates freedom of expression for musicians worldwide.

9 Laestadianism is a revival movement that swept across the north from the mid-1800s. Its founder, Lars Levi Laestadius (1800–1861), worked as a priest in Swedish Sápmi during the 1800s. Laestadius, who had Sámi ancestry on his mother’s side, employed the Sámi language in combination with Christian teachings. His religious doctrine created strict guidelines for what it meant to be a good Christian and emphasised confession and absolution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Gustafsson

Dr. Anna Gustafsson is a researcher in Social Anthropology at Stockholm University. She is also an academic associate of the Center of Cosmopolitan Studies at the University of St Andrews. In 2014 she completed her doctor studies at the Department of Social Anthropology, University of St Andrews. Her research interests include craft, gender, old age, rural living conditions, the everyday, social change and ethnographic writing. [email protected]