KIRSTE PALTTO – The First Sami Woman Writer
Kirste Paltto was born on the Finnish side of the Deatnu River (Tana) in Vuovdaguoika village (Outakoski), one of the strongholds of Sami oral tradition. The Deatnu Valley is the birthplace of many storytellers and writers.
Paltto grew up in a family of seven children. Her parents were farmers who raised cows and sheep and fished for salmon from the Deatnu River. The family was a typical Sami household that received its livelihood from several different sources during the year – lotnolasealáhusat, a Sami word for combination subsistence economy. Lotnolasealáhusat reflects the annual cycle of various livelihoods and living in a balance with the seasons: receiving livelihood from what was in season: salmon fishing, cloudberry picking, ptarmigan hunting, reindeer herding, and so on. They also made and sold or traded various types of duodji such as reindeer boots, mittens and other clothing in the nearby market place at Kárášjohka.
Storytelling and oral tradition played a central role in Paltto’s childhood. Particularly her father told continuously stories about events, local people and also figures of the oral tradition in the midst of various daily activities but particularly during the hey making in the summer. Paltto attended a boarding school where as an oldest daughter of her family, she felt lonely because she did not know other children. She learned to read and write quickly and found solace to her loneliness and silence in writing.
Like many others of her generation who were born just after World War II, Kirste Paltto as a young adult, left her home village to attend school in southern Finland. She enrolled in a teacher training college and graduated in 1971. That same year, her first collection of short stories, Soakŋu (Marriage Proposal) was published. The collection was based on the rich oral tradition in which she grew up.
After graduation, she worked as a primary school teacher for four years, after which she became a full-time writer. ”I wrote in Sami,” she says, “because I didn’t want the Sami language to disappear from the world. I also wanted to use stories that I heard as a child growing up in the Deatnu valley in my writing. I realized how important and rewarding it was to write in my mother tongue. I could give words to those innermost feelings that are sometimes difficult to express in speaking.”
Paltto, among a handful of other artists and writers such as Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (1943-2001), was one of the key figures in the Sami Cultural Reawakening at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s. She is the founding chair of the Nordic Sami Writers’ Association, established in 1979 and she still actively participates in its work.
More recently she was involved in establishing the Sami Artists’ Organization of Finland made up of artists of various fields and duojárs (duodji is traditional Sami crafts and art). The mandate of the association states: “For the Sami, art is a way of life, a way of receiving a livelihood from the land and the environment as well as a way to enrich the everyday life. … It has been common to combine several jobs throughout the year in order to earn a living in a harsh environment. In the Sami art this is reflected in the holistic view according to which art forms do not need to be separated into different categories. Sami artists do many things at the same time: they paint, write, yoik and act and make crafts. The Sami Artists’ Organization in Finland respects these views.”
Paltto has written and published 19 books, including poetry, children books, novels, plays, short stories and a pamphlet titled Saamelaiset (1973), the only book written in other than the Northern Sami language. It was a critical look at the circumstances of the Sami people at the time and it called for awareness and attention of the dominant Finnish society of the concerns and issues that were threatening the existence of Sami language and culture such as the pressures of assimilation, diminishing opportunities for traditional Sami livelihoods, racism and stereotypical views about the Sami and their culture – in other words, the general, predominant lack of recognition of the Sami as a distinct people with certain rights.
Paltto’s first novel was Guhtoset dearvan min bohccot, published in 1987 (Pasture in Peace, our Reindeer). It was the first part of a trilogy describing the impact of WWII on Sami society.
The Sami were evacuated to Central Finland when large parts of Northern Finland was burned down by withdrawing German army. Sami families were temporarily relocated in small towns such as Alavieska and Ylävieska at Finnish homes. The reception of the Sami by the Finnish families was in many cases quite hostile and they were often made feel inferior because of their ‘peculiar’ culture, clothing, language and habits. Upon returning home, many families found their homes and houses burnt and they were forced to start from the scratch. In many ways, WWII and the evacuation marked a radical rupture in Sami society and culture, characterized by a rapid modernization, loss of aspects of traditional culture and livelihoods and also, the internalization of the colonial mentality according to which the Sami were inferior to the Finns and other people of dominant societies.
Guhtoset dearvan min bohccot was translated into Finnish (by Eino Kuokkanen) and nominated for the Finlandia Literary Prize in 1987. This was the first time a Sami writer was nominated for this prestigious award. She also received the Literary Prize of the Finnish Sami Parliament (1995) and the international Helen Prize (2000) that recognizes the work of exceptional women in their own fields and their contribution to their communities. Paltto was recognized particularly for her commitment for maintaining and sustaining the Sami culture and language through her writing but also other engagements with Sami cultural politics. Her recent short story collection Suoláduvvan [Stolen] was nominated for the Nordic Literary Prize (2001) and the following year, she received the Sami Council Literary Prize for the same book which is also translated into Norwegian.
In 1994-2003, she was in charge of the Sami theater group Rávgoš based in her home village. She also founded her own publishing association Gielas in 1989 to counter the difficulties and challenges Sami writers are constantly faced with: it is very difficult to get Sami literature published due to the lack of appropriate structures of support and funding. In this sense, contemporary Sami literature is in a crisis. One of the greatest challenges for Sami literature has always been that for the most part, it continues to be written in the Sami language and thus, the readership will always remain limited. This is also an aspect which differentiates Sami literature from many other contemporary indigenous literatures which for example in North America is written mainly in English and thus is available for a much broader audience.
More recently, she has started to make unique art of reindeer leather and fabric. She has also woven beautiful wall rugs. Her installation work is called Gieddegeas-gálggu goahti.
The Nordic governments have passed Sami Language Acts but lack political will to allocate necessary funds and resources to implement these acts and policies. Sami politicians do not fare much better in this regard – they like to give speeches about the importance of maintaining the Sami language but at the time of decision-making, they view these concerns through a very narrow lens which tends to prioritize what is considered ‘traditional Sami livelihoods’ and not Sami literature. Sami writers, together with other artists and cultural workers, however, are our offelas, our pathfinders. They are also our visionaries who are rooted in oral and other forms of tradition and who use that knowledge not only to reflect our current realities but also create new realities and visions for the future in the way that grounds it in the past.
Kirste Paltto lives in Ohcejohka town (Utsjoki), but spends her summers at her birthplace by the Deatnu River.
When questioned about being a Sami writer, she replies: “You must believe (almost foolishly) in the importance of your work if you are going to write in the Sami language, otherwise you run out of motivation and energy. It is difficult to get much feedback from the Sami audience and I guess one of the reasons is that Sami read so little because many, especially older people, have not learned to read Sami. Sami culture is also still very much an oral culture – there are many people who more likely tell stories than pick up a book. On the other hand, it is wonderful to write in your own language about everything between heaven and earth. But you have to trust in your work.”
One of Paltto’s books will soon come out in English by Sami publisher Davvi Girji. The White Stone (Vilges geađgi, 1980), is a story of a young Sami girl, told from her perspective, who finds a new friend in Saija, a gufihtar girl (in the Sami tradition, gufihtars are people who live underground). Together, the girls travel to Saija’s world where Elle experiences many adventures and learns important lessons about the significance of her language and cultural heritage.
More on Kirste Paltto and her views on literature, writing and culture can be found in the book No Beginning, No End. The Sami Speak Up, edited by Elina Helander and Kaarina Kailo (1998).
