Facts: Moa Backe Åstot
Born: 1998.
Lives: In Jokkmokk.
Background: Studied creative writing at Umeå University and the project course at Jakobsberg folk university’s writer’s school. Debuted in 2021 with “Himlabrand”, which won her the Studieförbundet Vuksenskolan’s Author Award 2021, Slangbellan and Norrland’s Literature Prize.
Occupation: Studying the B-course in Sami at Umeå University, author.
What happens if you didn’t take the Sami language with you from home and if the family’s Sami anchor – grandfather – dies of a heart attack before he could pass on his knowledge?
Vilda doesn’t even care about the funeral. When the classmates say that she does not look Sami, the crisis deepens.
— Vilda is proud to be Sami. But she is ashamed of not being able to speak Sami, while the generations before her have instead been ashamed of being Sami. There is a lot of shame connected to the Sami, and a lot is based on how the Swedish state has treated us, says Moa Backe Åstot.
Homosexual reindeer herder
In her debut novel, Himlabrand, she portrayed a young reindeer herder, Ánte, who struggles with being Sami and gay. Now she writes about a teenage crisis that deals with the Sami on top of everything else.
— I think a lot about what it means to be a young Sami today. It is a question that is not raised very often and which I want to join in telling about for the sake of young Sami people, but also for others.
In order to be able to vote for the Sámi Parliament, it is required, among other things, that Sámi has been a language in one’s own home or in that of previous generations. But there is no regulatory framework for who can call themselves Sami, says Moa Backe Åstot. For those who discover their Sami family heritage but can neither speak the language nor have a natural introduction to the Sami, it can be difficult, she emphasizes.
— It is complex precisely because many have lost parts of the Sami culture due to the Swedish state’s long-term oppression and Swedishization process.
Brought back the language
TT: Have you felt secure in your Sami identity since childhood?
— I’ve always known and felt that I’m Sami, but despite that I thought about things like this in my teens. I too have taken back my Sami language, just like Vilda. The difference was that I had relatives around me with whom I could speak Sami. What would have happened if I hadn’t had it? It was from that idea that the story was born.
TT: Who is Sami according to you?
— I would never say that a person who carries the Sami heritage and identifies as Sami is not. I don’t think anyone has the right to do that.