#sami oppression

[norsesuggestions]

so what did King Gustav Vasa (1496-1560) of Sweden do?

a while back a got a ask about what Gustav Vasa did. while trying to reply to it right now, tumblr ate it though.

but! that won’t stop me to answer the question!

Gustav Vasa did too much.

a list of some of the deeds of Gustav Vasa, one asshole king of sweden

rebelled against the danish rule and crowned himself the king of sweden with the support of the peasants of dalarna. later though, when they started to protest against his tyrannical rule, he sent his forces to kill every single person who complained about his rule. put all their heads on poles and similiar every day happenings of gustav vasa rule. being a ally of gustav vasa, sure do not pay off!

wrote a decree were all romani people who did not leave the borders off sweden after the law were put in effect, were going to be executed on sight (btw despite this they were romani people who survived and kept living in sweden ever sense the 16th century. but this were the offical law. also ps i am having some difficulty to tell from sources of gustav vasa wrote the law of execution on sight, or if that were later than him. but he did order the exile of the romani people, and the laws about execution were in effect during the 17th century. and laws with similiar sentiments of execution of all romani people within swedish borders were created during the rule of gustav vasa. and clearly need to do some further reading about this dark chapter of swedish history of romani oppression).

declared the part of sapmi that were roughly within the region that today north sweden, to be a swedish colony and that the swedish state owned all the lands and recources of the region. thereby a key figure in starting a swedish politics with the goal to colonize and seize all the recources of the sapmi region within what he now suddenly a declared were the swedish borders, and to push out the saami people from their lands and recourses. aka Gustav Vasa were one of the swedish historical figures who were key in enforcing sami oppression and the exploation of their lands by the swedish state.

forcing sami people to pay even more double tax to the swedish crown. double taxing off sami people were common through the history of the nordic countries. sami people would often, depending on where they lived, be forced to pay tax to several different kings at the same time (forexemple paying both the norwegian and swedish king). but gustav vasa wrote and signed laws which made this often inhumane high tax pressure on sami people, a offical part of the swedish state appartus.

made swedens state religion lutheranism instead of catholicism. were, hmm, pretty brutal in this. the biggest reason he made the lutheran church swedens state religion were. firstly to become in control of the power of the church. in gustav vasa view of lutheranism, a view that btw is still semi-still in effect, the monarch of a nation were the head of the church. this meant that all the power of the church fell to him! (this is also why swedish monarchs are still, to this very day, legally obliged to be protestants).

secondaly he were in a desperate need of money after his rebellion against the previous king over sweden, king kristian II of denmark. he had hired swords to pay! now when sweden were lutheran, he could melt down all the catholic art made off precious metalls, and then sell it! practical, but…. erm a bit brutal. also monastries, cloisters etc etc of the catholic church were closed, and all of the clergy that would not convert got exiled (although there will be some civil war about the catholic/lutheran issue later, but that is for another post!).

thanks alot gustav vasa for our tyrannical and strict lutheran church, were no joy were ever found, and all the priests wrote down your sins in a book, and then rapported them to the state as some kind off secret police. THANK YOU SO MUCH GURRA! *sarcasm*

in general because gustav vasa really needed money after his rebellion against the danish king (who to be clear were the king of sweden before gustav vasas rebellion) he had a very high tax pressure on the population. this led to rebellion, which he all struck down with cruelty and much blood shed. gustav vasa were very into those brutal tyrannical rule methods, and many people heads were stuck on poles as warnings of what would happen to rebel makers. 

jewish people were forbidden to exist within swedens borders without converting to christianity (that being said, there were jewish people during this era in sweden too, but offically according to the state they did not exist, and needed to keep their jewish identity and religion secret).

and that is just some of Gustav Vasas crimes! there are so much more. all readers free to add more awful facts about King Gustav Vasa of Sweden.

Sources

“the history of jewish people in sweden.” published by a swedish high school history education recource [in swedish] https://www.so-rummet.se/fakta-artiklar/judarnas-historia-i-sverige

Finnman, Johannes. 2014. “Gustav Vasa i skolböcker- En fallbaserad moralfilosofisk analys av historiebruk i skolböcker”. Linköping University Electronic Press. full text via https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:690214/FULLTEXT01.pdf

“a time line of the sami peoples history - paying taxes to the state”. published by the sami council in sweden [in swedish] http://www.samer.se/1228

“a time line of the sami peoples history- the dream of never ending riches in the north”. published by the sami council in sweden. [in swedish] http://www.samer.se/1229

“the history of the romani people in sweden”. published by the sami council in sweden [in swedish]. http://www.minoritet.se/romer/historia

[my translations of the titles of some of the sources from swedish to english. did an attempt to translate the titles of the sources because i thought it could give an idea about the topic of the articles for non-swedish speakers!]

[norsesuggestions]

Sofia Jannok- This is my land (official)

  Intro translation:

“The State is of the opinion that the claim put forward by the Sámi reindeer herding community with regards to their long tradition of being engaged in reindeer husbandry, hunting and fishing in the area is of irrelevance to the case. In order to be eligible to claim immemorial prescription, said claim has to be based on a 90 years long use of an area. Any additional use for a longer period of time is of irrelevance to the legality of the claim.”

“Because of the claim that it is of importance that the Sámi have been using this area, the State is of the opinion that it is of utmost importance to define what is meant by the term Sámi, and how specific such a definition really is. This is what the following material is meant to do.” (Excerpts from the State Attorney’s intervention during the hearing in the court case between the Sámi reindeer herding community Girjas - from whence Sofia Jannok’s grandmother came - and the Swedish State. Gällivare Lapland District Court, June, 2015.)

LYRICS

This is my land, this is my country and if I’d be the queen you’d see that I’d take everyone by hand and sing it so it’s out there

that we’ll paint this land blue, yellow, red and green

If you say that this girl’s not welcome in this country, if she must leave because her face is brown

Well, then I’d say you go first ’cause frankly this is my land and here we live in peace, I’ll teach you how 

This is my pride, this is my freedom, this is the air that I breathe and you’ll find no kings, no queens, here everybody’s equal - men, women and all who are in between 

This is my home, this is my heaven, this is the earth where I belong and if you want to ruin it all with big wounds in the mountains then you’re not worthy of listening to this song

This is my land, this is my country, these lakes, rivers, hills and woods If you open up your eyes you’ll find someone is lying

I’ve always been here, welcome to my hoods

this is a music video by the sami artist Sofia Jannok. the song is written as a response to the court case between the Sámi reindeer herding community Girja and the swedish state.

attempts by the swedish state to restrict the sami people rights to their own lands has been an ongoing colonial project through several centuries. and it has in no way stopped in modern times. right now, several sami communities are holding trials against the swedish state and corporations. the trials are about the sami people right to remain in control of their own land, while the state and the corpration want to strip these sami communities claim to their lands with the goal to exploit the resources of these lands.

[norsesuggestions]

WE ARE STILL HERE (Official) - Sofia Jannok feat. Anders Sunna

Intro (Translation of Excerpts from the State Attorney’s intervention during the hearing in the court case between the Sámi reindeer herding community Girjas - from whence Sofia Jannok’s grandmother came - and the Swedish State. Gällivare Lapland District Court, June, 2015.):

“From the onset on, it is of importance to state that: The Sámi have not been subjected to discrimination by the State.” ”The question then is what is meant by the concept of ethnicity, if it is to be claimed that the Sámi is an ethnic group. And then it becomes clear that ethnicity as a concept is a highly debated one.” ”The ethnic aspect has been of no relevance from a historic point of view, when a distinction was made between nomads, in other words Lapps, and settlers.”

“[...] The entire archaeological evidence put forward by the Sámi reindeer herding community is of no relevance to the case in question.” ”The State consistently disputes the claim that the Sámi have been present in the area on a large scale basis [...] before the 17th century.”

one more music video from the sami music artist Sofia Jannok. This one is produced in cooperation with the sami visual art artist Anders Sunna, who is the one who make the art pieces in the video.

This video is made in response to the colonial and racist way the State Attorney’s behaved during the hearing in the court case between the Sámi reindeer herding community Girjas and the Swedish State.

The l-word used by the State Attorney during the case is a slur towards sami people, which should not be used. that it were constantly said by the lawyers of the swedish state during the court trial, were just a part of the very colonial language used by the the swedish state during the trial.

the Swedish State were critized by several sami rights fighters for how the State still used the very same colonial language that has been historically, and as the sami rights fighters pointed out, is still in use by the Swedish State when they speak to and about the sami people and their rights.

An example of this criticism of the Swedish States behaviour during the trial is in this debate newspaper article with the title is  “Rasbiologiskt språkbruk i statens rättsprocess mot sameby”- translation “the language of race biology is used by the Swedish States during their trial against a  Sámi reindeer herding community”. click for link 

lyrics under read more

Kill the bison, dig out the reindeer’s land

Gold and iron, blood on greedy hands

Drown the lávvu, burn the tipi down

We raise new ones, survivors we are now

We are still here, we are still here

We are still here, we are still here 100 years back in the USA

Killed my sisters, cut their breasts away

In Peru my brothers always stayed

Shot down at home, but this was yesterday

We are still here, we are still here

We are still here, we are still here

Steal our mother, thieves are not to blame

That’s when laws are written by the same

We are still here, we are still here

We are still here, we are still here