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Abstract: The Fellman family’s Lapponica fonds at the heart of the Saami Written Culture
In this presentation, I will introduce the Saami Written Culture, which is a new area of study in Finland. I catalogued retrospectively the Lapponica fonds of the Fellman family based on a cultural and historical approach, where I examined each material according to the Saami research framework. This also helped me to shape my PhD research on the Saami books history in Finland, which I defended in 2017. The Saami books history ought to be called the Saami Written Culture. Indeed, during my doctoral research, the archival documents related to the collection were very useful: they gave me a better understanding of how the fonds items were acquired and how the pioneers of the Saami Written Culture worked. As David F. McKenzie argued in his work on the Sociology of the text […] (1999), book history is not only about books and other written texts bounded in covers, but rather the analysis of the interaction of a large network of writers, decision-makers, printers, readers and others. For the study of Saami Written Culture, the method proposed by D. F. MacKenzie is very valuable, because he has shown the reading history of the Maori by analysing the Waitangi treaty in the light of contemporary articles published in Great-Britain; this analysis is very similar to the one of the Saami Written Culture.
The Saami written culture, as an Indigenous Written Culture, should be examined with a broader range of archival sources. The study of the fonds that include both archival documents and marginal notes is very valuable. This kind of study on an Indigenous Written Culture is rare in Finland, where the book history research is mostly focused on the dominant national history. The term Finnish Saami written culture may be ambiguous, because the first texts translated into Saami languages in one Nordic country often came from those used in neighbouring countries since the 17th century. It should be noted, that the first Saami literary works written by Saami-speakers were published in the early 20th century in Sweden, in Norway and in Finland.
The Saami Written Culture reflects the colonial policy pursued in Finland while it emerged, which improved when native speakers had more active participation in it. This aspect is even more relevant in the context of the ongoing Truth and Reconciliation process in Finland, which began in 2018. I plan to showcase the results of both the catalogue creation and my PhD research. These results should be complemented by a presentation of Saami books collections scattered in the Nordic countries, considering their provenance history, as several institutions have done by developing databases for this purpose.
The Saami written culture, as an Indigenous Written Culture, should be examined with a broader range of archival sources. The study of the fonds that include both archival documents and marginal notes is very valuable. This kind of study on an Indigenous Written Culture is rare in Finland, where the book history research is mostly focused on the dominant national history. The term Finnish Saami written culture may be ambiguous, because the first texts translated into Saami languages in one Nordic country often came from those used in neighbouring countries since the 17th century. It should be noted, that the first Saami literary works written by Saami-speakers were published in the early 20th century in Sweden, in Norway and in Finland.
The Saami Written Culture reflects the colonial policy pursued in Finland while it emerged, which improved when native speakers had more active participation in it. This aspect is even more relevant in the context of the ongoing Truth and Reconciliation process in Finland, which began in 2018. I plan to showcase the results of both the catalogue creation and my PhD research. These results should be complemented by a presentation of Saami books collections scattered in the Nordic countries, considering their provenance history, as several institutions have done by developing databases for this purpose.