LEARNING TO LIVE FREE: Peace

Longtime readers of this blog will remember past discussions of?S?mi?heritage, including this old post?from 2006, in which I quote Ruthann Cecil as saying that a family history of Laestadianism is the surest indicator of?S?mi?roots. After all, Laestadius was half-S?mi, and?the movement began in Swedish Lapland, where the OALC still gets direction from "the elders."

I was dimly aware that I was related to some of those elders, who would visit the United States every few years and even come over for dinner (when I was a girl, I asked them for autographs as if they were rock stars! Which I suppose they are in that sphere).?

However, whenever I suggested to my family that we had?S?mi?roots (in addition to Swedish and Finnish), the concept was dismissed.?I was told I was "silly" and that my imagination was "overactive." But the more I looked into our family tree, the more persuaded I became. A cousin who had done some genealogy shared my convictions.

Last January, after seeing this Norwegian?movie, I submitted a saliva sample to FamilyTreeDNA.com. Some of my relatives were less than enthuastic.

"Does she WANT to be a Lapp?," said one. As if it were a bad thing. (For my family, "S?mi" is a newfangled and unfamiliar word.?I have zero hopes of them adopting it.)

"We can't be Lapp. I have no affinity for the cold," said another. That made me laugh.

Accustomed to such nonsense, I was curious about whether some of my family's quirks -- the frequent moves and name changes and distrust of outsiders -- could be explained, in part, by our ancestry. As Cecil and others have suggested, wasn't Laestadianism itself forged out of the pain and yearning of a disenfranchised minority forced to adapt to new places, languages, cultures? But I was wary of confirmation bias, like all the Americans who find an Indian princess in their ancestry (my husband's family is supposedly related to Pocahontas).?

A couple of months later the DNA results arrived. They were confusing at best, but I found that I had many genetic cousins with "S?mi"?indicators. Combined with traditional sleuthing done by a genealogist friend, all signs pointed to?S?mi?roots. Not through one grandparent, not through two, but through THREE, and possibly all four.

Okay, good enough.

I shared the news with my family.?

"Of course we're Lapp," sighed the relative who had denied it just a month prior. (This is what is known in psychological and cinematic circles as gaslighting. It can drive you crazy!)

Then the stories began to trickle out, like honey decrystallized on the stove. Stories I had never heard before.?Not surprisingly, they contained pain and shame . . . and I began to see why they were left behind in the Old Country. This "sudden remembering" is a common phenomenon among?S?mi?descendants, captured eloquently by the scholar Ellen Marie Jensen in her book, "We Stopped Forgetting, Stories from?S?mi?Americans." (Note: Ellen is on tour! Check out her appearances.)

Excited by this confirmation, I began poring over the literature I had collected on the?S?mi. I opened old books and ordered new ones. I began corresponding with DNA-matches in Sweden, distant cousins who were eager to identify a common relative. I learned that 100 percent of my deep ancestry is from the area now known as Finland (despite generations living in Sweden), that my haplogroup is H, and that I need a PhD in genetics to make sense of the rest.

In communication with the organizers online, I signed up to attend the 2012?S?mi-American Siiddastallan in Minneapolis in June, eager to meet many of my Facebook friends, including the great-great-great granddaughter of Lars Levi Laestadius. I was asked (perhaps due to this blog?) to facilitate a forum on?S?mi-American spirituality that would include panelists of various philosophies. Of course I jumped at the chance! What a wonderful opportunity to learn about others' journeys, and to share my own.?

But I was also apprehensive. Would there be a spirit of inquiry or of dogmatism? Would I find respect or suspicion? Would current Laestadians take offense at my having left their faith? Would the neopagans find me woefully uninformed?

I was welcomed warmly in Minneapolis, first at the airport by a lovely woman who fed me lunch and drove me to see my childhood home in Bloomington, then by a group involved with event planning. Over the next few days, I would make many new friends, each with a unique understanding of his or her?S?mi?heritage. We ate like royalty (healthy, fresh food prepared on site) and enjoyed walking and talking in the beautiful woods of Camp Salie. We soaked up?S?mi-related crafts, movies, stories, and an intriguting session on the relationship between the Basques and the?S?mi.?

A highlight of the event was a Skype session with young Forest?S?mi?in Finland. Their excitement at discovering a relative in our audience was incredibly moving. It felt as if we were on a new frontier, discovering -- via satellite -- new ways of building community.

Richard and Anne Tormanen's session on Laestadius' history and geneology was ?informative and interesting. I don't know of ?an easy way to upload their slideshow, which they generously shared with attendees, but if you join?S?mi Siida of North America's?Facebook page, it is available under "Files." It should be required viewing for all Laestadians and communities that include Laestadians, and I hope it finds a wide audience.

For the spirituality session, I had prepared two pages of discussion topics, but we barely scratched the surface. On the panel were a Laestadian (ALC), a pagan, an animist, and an evangelical Christian. They took turns talking about how their?S?mi?heritage informed their current spiritual practice. It was a lively and respectful discussion and provided ample evidence of the syncretism of ideologies. While there may be the temptation in some circles to claim a pure lineage (whether it is "Firstborn" Laestadianism or?S?mi?shamanism), there is no "authentic?S?mi?identity" anymore than there is an authentic Christian or Buddhist or Muslim or Laestadian identity. We all borrow from our ancestors and neighbors, and adapt to our current environment.?

That said, there is a lot of value in exploring what we do know about our?S?mi?past: e.g. the values around respect for nature, elders, and sharing of resources. And there are many important discussions to be had around generational trauma and healing.

As I looked around the table at these gentle people, I had a profound sensation of belonging. Belonging in a deep way, based on something integral, like the rings of a tree. Having left my birth community so many years ago, I didn't expect to feel that sensation, and it wasn't uniformly positive. It came with a sense of responsibility.

Perhaps that is what prompted me to talk about the history of divisions in my peculiar?S?mi?heritage, and how I felt it necessary, for my own health as well as the planet's, to promote the values of diversity and cooperation. I was aware that the SSNA community had been plagued by disputes about ownership. I was familiar with that zeitgeist (aren't all Laestadians?) and hoped the organization could resist a binary approach. Forcing alliances forces schisms.

I remarked that I had grown up hearing a greeting of "Jumalan rauhaa" (God's peace)?given only to others "of like mind," despite the core teaching that love should be extended to all. So acknowledging the irony of an?agnostic quasi-Buddhist cultural Christian giving a blessing,?I closed the session with?"Jumalan?rauhaa." (Afterward, a man who grew up Laestadian thanked me for returning the words to their original meaning. I was happy he understood.)

There is much more to tell about my recent adventures, but my family is begging me to join them on this sunny Saturday. Until next time: Namaste. Pace. Peace. Jumalan rauhaa!

Do you feel a responsibility to "spread peace" in your daily life? If so, how do you do that? I look forward to learning from you.

Source: http://extoots.blogspot.com/2012/07/peace.html

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