“The Forest Sámi people have been forgotten in Finland,” says Samuli Antilla in the museum in Salla. In addition to the history of the war, the museum also focuses on the history of the Forest Sámi. "We are a small minority in our country. Even the other Sámi peoples don't recognize us," he points out. The main reason: "We have lost our language. I know from stories that my great-great-great-grandfather Olli Herman, who lived from 1824 to 1919, spoke Sami." In other words, we have lost our language within 100 years. “But culture and identity are not lost along with the language.”
This is precisely the concern of the 26-year-old, who is working together with other people in Salla and other regions of the Sami forest to rediscover their language. Officially, the language is called Kemisami.
Samuli cites several reasons why the culture and language have fallen into oblivion. In the 19th century, many Finns settled in the densely wooded region, as wood became a valuable raw material. The churches also made a decisive contribution. They referred to the language of the forest Sámi as the language of the dogs. They also fought against the nature religion often practiced by the Sámi. Only Finnish was taught and spoken in schools. And so the last people who spoke Forest Sámi died at the beginning of the 20th century. The following decades were characterised by the turmoil of war, flight, expulsion and evacuation to other regions of Finland. The houses in Salla were completely burnt down twice during the war and most of the memorabilia disappeared. The old culture was forgotten. ‘But the culture of the Forest Sámi never completely disappeared from people's minds,’ Samuli now knows. Even in his parents' generation, there was renewed interest in the history of their ancestors. "But now the younger generation is particularly interested.
Samuli tries to describe what makes up his identity as a forest Samuli: "It's the history of my origins, my ancestors and the culture in my community. He describes the Finns as an agricultural society that tries to control nature. A marshland is to be turned into a field. A forest should also become a commercial forest. "We Forest Sámi see it differently: we don't have to change nature. We can live with it. A forest is good as it is."
The Forest Sámi traditionally lived from hunting and fishing, picking berries and herding reindeer. Although many people today earn their living from modern sources of income, the above-mentioned livelihoods are still part of everyday life for the Forest Sámi. ‘However, the reindeer herds here were not as large as those of the Sami further north.’ Samuli suspects that this is why the image of his people is not so good.
Until Samuli moved to the Finnish university town of Oulu after school to study IT, he hadn't thought about his culture at all. "I wanted to get away from Salla and get to know the world. The big city of Oulu was a shock for me." He couldn't relate to the busy lives of people who never had time. ‘I just wanted to be, sit by the fire and enjoy the forest and nature.’ Samuli is currently writing his master's thesis on ‘Interactions between information worlds and the Sámi identity of non-status Sámi’.
Sami activist spends as much time as possible in Salla, his homeland, the home of the Forest Sami. He has also recently acquired a ‘mááccuk’, the coat-like garment of the Forest Sami with typical regional borders and decorations. He had it tailored from old photos. Together with others who identify themselves as Forest Sami, he is fighting for the Forest Sami to be recognised as a minority like the Sami living further north. However, they live south of the official borderline of the recognised Sámi territory. And the other decisive criterion for being recognised is their own language. ‘That's why we are working hard to resurrect our own language ‘Kemisami.’ This is being done using songs, word lists, religious texts, inscriptions and old place names, for example. "We also have the support of linguists. It's all voluntary work at the moment. But we hope to receive financial support for our research work in the future." Samuli is optimistic: ‘In ten years at the latest, there will be language courses for Kemisami.’
As unrecognised Sami or non-status Sámi’, the Forest Sámi are also not registered on the electoral roll for the Finnish Sami Parliament, which means they are not allowed to vote and cannot stand for election. This means that the interests of this people are not represented at a political level. Samuli is very interested in fighting for the rights of the Forest Sami in the Sami Parliament. However, as this is currently not possible, he is involved in the ‘Association of the Indigenous Sámi of Finland, an organisation of the former Lapland villages of Kemi Lappmarck, which represents the indigenous Forest Sámi people.’ ‘We are trying to get political representation or recognition of indigeneity and we want to get funding for language and our culture work. In the moment we are called fake sámi and they are denying we ever existed.’
Kemi Sámi means something like: The people of the forest live here now and still do. Samuli hopes that all Sámi peoples will work better together in the future. ‘We could achieve so much for ourselves, for our culture and our rights if we all worked together and not against each other.’
