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NauenThen

What I'm reading

The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sámi, by Elin Anna Labba, translated from the Swedish by Fiona Graham, is the first book I've starred of the 32 I've finished so far this year. In case that title makes it sound dull or academic, it's not, although built on extensive research & consulting of government papers; it also includes photos, songs, personal testimony.

 

Along with heavy sadness, the book made me feel fury & outrage: not only were the Samí pushed out of their ancestrral lands a hundred years ago, in many instances they were made to pay for guides, transportation, & delays. All too similar to the treatment of Native Americans in the U.S. & Canada.

 

In Sweden, Labba writes, this is "hardly ever documented in history books. ... Samí history is considered to be a Samí matter, not an integral part of Swedish history." Ditto in Norway. Labba goes a long way towards pushing this tragic & infuriating story into our consciousnesses & consciences. 

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