Afbeelding auteur
3 Werken 33 Leden 3 Besprekingen

Werken van Elin Anna Labba

Tagged

Algemene kennis

Geboortedatum
1980-11-30
Geslacht
female

Leden

Besprekingen

The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow gave me more insight into the Sami people's history, which is unsettling to read. When the Northern countries of Sweden and Norway wanted firm boundary lines, the Sami were no longer allowed to cross country borders to take their reindeer herds to their traditional winter and summer lands. The reindeer herds caused damage to the farmer's crops.

The Sami were considered to be inferior in culture and as humans. The name Lapps came from a slur referring to their poverty. The governments instituted policies that limited where the Sami could live and how many reindeer they could own. Families were forced to move without regard to community and family connections, regardless if the new land was familiar or useful to reindeer herding, uncaring if these policies impoverished the Sami whose wealth was their herds.

Elin Anna Labba uses interviews, documents, photographs and the stories of specific people and families in her heart breaking history. It is an all too familiar story of indigenous people at the mercy of governmental powers who devalue their way of life, view them as lesser humans, instituting laws that amount to the destruction of a people and their culture. Most of the Sami endeavored to follow the laws, their appeals rejected. Pregnant women and small children were unspared, forced to walk to their assigned locations. They were measured, photographed naked, to prove their inferiority. Assimilation was forced with bans on speaking their language while they were also banned from moving into houses. No one defended their rights.

The time after that is a vacuum. They never wanted to talk about it. Now I know that my family is not the only one like this; the Sapmi where I grew up is full of people who have bound their wounds with silence.
from The Rocks Will Echo Out Sorrow by Elin Anna Labba

This is a deeply personal book for Labba who had family members displaced by these laws. "We remember those whose story we retell," Labba writes. "This is the joik I sing for you."

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
nancyadair | 1 andere bespreking | Feb 28, 2024 |
I knew almost nothing about the Sami peoples from Northern Scandinavia. I knew there had been forced displacements, but only a vague high-level idea of it. This book explores the history of the authors family and many others, and is told through archive images and documents as well as numerous interviews and collected stories and letters. It gives the history of forced displacements in the 1920s through the stories of individuals who lived through it and experienced it, and the recollections of their descendants. An important addition to First Nations history and literature available in English, for all of us to learn more about the history, politics, and current struggles.… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
amckie | 1 andere bespreking | Feb 8, 2024 |
Hade gärna sett en mer detaljerad genomgång av historien bakom och som ledde fram till tvångsförflyttningarna. Som det är nu känns det som om författaren utgår från att det är allmänt känt.
 
Gemarkeerd
pelo75 | Dec 31, 2020 |

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Statistieken

Werken
3
Leden
33
Populariteit
#421,955
Waardering
4.0
Besprekingen
3
ISBNs
5
Talen
2