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A review by theoverbookedbibliophile
The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi by Elin Anna Labba, Fiona Graham
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Meticulously researched, vividly descriptive and beautifully written, The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi by Elin Anna Labba (translated by Fiona Graham) is a powerful read.
The award-winning author, whose grandparents were among the sirdolaččat (“the displaced”) paints an intimate portrait of the Bággojohtin,-the forced displacement of the Indigenous Sámi community between 1919 to the 1930s. The author states that approximately three hundred people were displaced during this period and the displacements continued even until the 1950s in Sweden as people were moved from one herding community to another.
“One of the most frequently quoted Sámi proverbs says that the downy birch doesn't break in two; It merely bends. You bear your hurt alone, for breaking down want to make your daily life any easier. Your tears should fall unseen on your shawl. The philosophy of life revolves around the word birget- surviving and coping. Each year the reindeer must survive the winter: that is what matters not people's feelings.”
Traditionally, the Sámi reindeer herding community divided their time between the Norwegian coast in the summers and then migrated inland to their winter pastures in Sweden. The Reindeer Grazing Conventions of 1919 signed between Sweden and Norway restricted the number of reindeer crossing the border, which marked the beginning of the displacement of the community for whom reindeer herding was their way of life. The Norwegian government wanted the land for agriculture and more importantly, wanted a country for Norwegian citizens and they viewed the Sámi as “a red rag to the Norwegian state” whom they believed didn’t belong despite having lived there for generations.
Considered a “burden on the country” and “a race on its way to extinction”, the community not only lost their land and homes, many were continuously displaced for years on end, forcibly separated from their extended families and those they left behind and their herd and made to settle on land where they had to struggle for their livelihood and were subjected to discrimination and humiliating “racial- biology examinations”. Children were stripped of their names, language and heritage, and sent to boarding schools where the main goal was assimilation. With the Lapp Bailiffs appointed to oversee the deportations, the Sami had no say in the matter, their appeals falling on deaf ears. Though financial incentives were offered, they were barely enough to sustain families who lost loved ones and large numbers of their herds en route to their appointed destinations. Those unwilling to move were coerced, fined, forcibly removed and threatened with slaughter of their herd if they did not comply.
The author not only shares her experiences from her travels to the land that was once home to her ancestors but also explores her own connection to the same and how a history of displacement and loss impacts the generations that follow. The author draws from several sources - through personal accounts from families and their descendants, pictures, joiks (traditional songs) and poetry as well as archival documents, and newspaper articles, in giving a voice to her people and sharing their history with readers across the globe. This is an insightful, emotional and heart-wrenching book that sends a strong message, emphasizing how important it is to preserve and share the stories of those who came before us and have been ignored and deliberately erased from history books, so that they are not forgotten.
“For many, recounting the tale is a way to heal. In the language I love best, to remember and to tell a story are almost the same word: muitit means to remember, and to tell or to recount is muitalit. We remember those whose story we retell.”
Many thanks to the University of Minnesota Press for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
The award-winning author, whose grandparents were among the sirdolaččat (“the displaced”) paints an intimate portrait of the Bággojohtin,-the forced displacement of the Indigenous Sámi community between 1919 to the 1930s. The author states that approximately three hundred people were displaced during this period and the displacements continued even until the 1950s in Sweden as people were moved from one herding community to another.
“One of the most frequently quoted Sámi proverbs says that the downy birch doesn't break in two; It merely bends. You bear your hurt alone, for breaking down want to make your daily life any easier. Your tears should fall unseen on your shawl. The philosophy of life revolves around the word birget- surviving and coping. Each year the reindeer must survive the winter: that is what matters not people's feelings.”
Traditionally, the Sámi reindeer herding community divided their time between the Norwegian coast in the summers and then migrated inland to their winter pastures in Sweden. The Reindeer Grazing Conventions of 1919 signed between Sweden and Norway restricted the number of reindeer crossing the border, which marked the beginning of the displacement of the community for whom reindeer herding was their way of life. The Norwegian government wanted the land for agriculture and more importantly, wanted a country for Norwegian citizens and they viewed the Sámi as “a red rag to the Norwegian state” whom they believed didn’t belong despite having lived there for generations.
Considered a “burden on the country” and “a race on its way to extinction”, the community not only lost their land and homes, many were continuously displaced for years on end, forcibly separated from their extended families and those they left behind and their herd and made to settle on land where they had to struggle for their livelihood and were subjected to discrimination and humiliating “racial- biology examinations”. Children were stripped of their names, language and heritage, and sent to boarding schools where the main goal was assimilation. With the Lapp Bailiffs appointed to oversee the deportations, the Sami had no say in the matter, their appeals falling on deaf ears. Though financial incentives were offered, they were barely enough to sustain families who lost loved ones and large numbers of their herds en route to their appointed destinations. Those unwilling to move were coerced, fined, forcibly removed and threatened with slaughter of their herd if they did not comply.
The author not only shares her experiences from her travels to the land that was once home to her ancestors but also explores her own connection to the same and how a history of displacement and loss impacts the generations that follow. The author draws from several sources - through personal accounts from families and their descendants, pictures, joiks (traditional songs) and poetry as well as archival documents, and newspaper articles, in giving a voice to her people and sharing their history with readers across the globe. This is an insightful, emotional and heart-wrenching book that sends a strong message, emphasizing how important it is to preserve and share the stories of those who came before us and have been ignored and deliberately erased from history books, so that they are not forgotten.
“For many, recounting the tale is a way to heal. In the language I love best, to remember and to tell a story are almost the same word: muitit means to remember, and to tell or to recount is muitalit. We remember those whose story we retell.”
Many thanks to the University of Minnesota Press for the digital review copy via NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.