#this is not exposing people to Sámi culture

[shivasdarknight]

@koopytron

Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't a set like this help expose people to cultures that they might not have known about? What about players that live in that country and want to dress up in their traditional clothes, are they not allowed to?

I’m responding over here mostly because my reply got a bit long.

First off, I’m no authority on the Sámi.  I want to make that very clear - I’m just echoing what has been said so far by people who have a vested interest in this gear’s removal.  And again, I want to reiterate by pointing out that for information your best bets are the initial letter to Square Enix, as well as this thread by a Sámi player.

The argument for exposure looks nice on paper, but usually isn’t ever executed well - especially in the case of the Far Northern attire.  FFXIV isn’t set up to teach people about cultures (unless it’s Stormblood and the two different fantasy Japans), it’s set up to use cultures as an aesthetic to give each nation a bit of flavor.  Thavnair is India, Ul’dah is your typical desert city, the elves are French, Ala Mhigans are Kurdish and Armenian, Xaela are Mongolian etc etc.  And how much care that goes into representing and educating players about these cultures varies depending on who it is and if Square cares about them.  And every instance of an indigenous culture has been the exact opposite.  Even their treatment of the Xaela and Ala Mhigans are extremely demeaning, but that’s a different topic altogether.

If Square had any interest in exposing people to Sámi culture, they would have contacted the tribe for a collaboration and make them have more of a presence in game than just a glam item that costs $18USD.  They would’ve also done research into what gákti actually look like, and maybe named each piece appropriately.  Instead, we have an offensive caricature that costs $18USD, doesn’t have any cultural presence in the game, and is nothing but a disconnected costume meant to line their paychecks.  And as a reminder: the Sámi were never contacted, Square has not reached out after this demand, and they’ve received no money for Square using their material culture for profit.  What’s sad is Disney did better than them after Frozen, as they similarly appropriated their regalia and even took their music.  Frozen 2 saw them collaborating and the film was even released in one of the Sámi languages, though I’m not entirely sure if they ever saw any amount of the film’s revenue - if someone happens to see this and they know, feel free to correct me.

I think the more important thing here is: do we even want Square to be exposing players to Sámi culture?  Because they do not have a good track record when it concerns portraying indigenous cultures.  Anyone can feel free to add in stuff I’ve missed, but there are plenty examples through the entire Final Fantasy franchise - including, but not limited to: including monsters that have roots in nativist imagery (anthropophage) but naming them after a particular spirit in Algonquin folklore that people keep asking to not be named or included in media; the entirety of Red XIII’s character (even the name he’s introduced by, despite him actually being named Nanaki); the initial portrayal of the Ronso in X (that then got “sophisticated” into the suddenly Icelandic Hrothgar); and the palewashing of Viera (mesoamerican indigenous coded in XII) in the jump to XIV by only focusing on the palest of individuals and making most of them white-looking.

And then there’s the stuff in XIV.  Most of the Tribes (which up until recently were literally known as beast tribes) up until Stormblood are based in some racist depiction of indigenous peoples - like Square did all of their research through racist American movies from the past century.  Many speak in the stilted English you’d see in racist advertisements and media (eg. the Vanu Vanu, and the yoda-like speak of the Ixal), they’re all anthropomorphized animals to some degree and not at all...y’know, human; you spend a significant amount of the game hunting them and being rewarded for doing so (especially if you do daily Clan Centurio marks), many are based on real cultures (Ixal are clearly meso-/south american, Vanu Vanu literally have totems and everything), and the Amalj’aa embody the entire Noble Savage trope to a T (only source for this is unfortunately Wikipedia because everything else was paywalled or didn’t touch on how racist this is).  We only saw this shift in not calling them “beast” tribes anymore around Stormblood because we suddenly got the Kojin (respected merchants based on Kappa), and the Namazu - techincally also the Lupin, but the shared factor is that they’re all predominant Japanese cultures that they’d never bastardize because the entire Doma half of Stormblood is them drinking the Japanese Imperialism kool-aid (again, another topic altogether and best discussed by someone like the journalist, Kazuma Hashimoto - who goes into it a lot on streams).  After that, we saw a deemphasis on indigenous cultures in the tribe quests and the removal of the name once Dwarves, Pixies, Arkosodara, Loporrits, and Omicrons were added.  Qitari are loosely here because they are the First equivalent of the Qiqirn, but they’d still “fit” in the old category by Square’s measure.

And then of course the Whalaqee, the entire New World nonsense, how they portray the Mamool’ja (who are from the “New World”), and the entire racist premise of the BLU questline.  Which is literally just “White Savior is the only one who can save this dying native tribe from evil oil ceruleum barons who brought diseases over, and your main reps are two animal looking guys and a very pale native boy like the tropes from the old movies”.  And yes, this is where the racist New World gear comes in, because that’s the clothing every single member of the Whalaqee wear despite it being a disgusting caricature of ceremonial gear with the war bonnet and everything.  The Mamool’ja are also frequently depicted as unintelligent and only suited for war, and are extremely sexual and there’s a fate where one gets kicked out of the Camp Bronze Lake baths for being too sexual.  Which again: nativist stereotypes that don’t just apply to indigenous tribes of the Americas, but also Japan’s own indigenous peoples - especially the Ryuukyuuan!

The New World gear wasn’t put in there to expose players to indigenous cultures.  They included a racist caricature so people could play dress up with those pieces, and locking their (racist) context behind a side quest most people skip or ignore.  And what ends up happening is whenever I do see players wearing it, it’s almost never people of those cultures doing it “for their own sake” - as it’s a racist caricature and not actually their cultural clothing or what they’d wear - it’s instead people playing out the racist caricatures.  I’ve seen white catgirls with neon pink war bonnets and bikinis, I’ve seen literal red-skinned players in the full get up, and many other offensive costumes that’s come as a result of this set being in the game.

But that set is obtainable through normal gameplay.  The Far Northern set is paywalled, making this especially egregious that it’s a racist caricature of Sámi regalia that they’re making a load of money off of.

There is no in game “Far Northern” culture - it’s just a racist costume for players (and they’re designing this for the majority white, and Yamato Japanese player base) to play dress up with.  They design the game with dominant cultures in mind (hence why everything is so heavy handed with European and Japanese aesthetics and gear, but there’s a suspicious lack of Korean and SWANA names, material culture, etc. when both exist in the game in their own ways through “Far Eastern” attire and Ala Mhigan stuff).  If they’d had any intention on exposing the players to Sámi culture, they would’ve contacted the Sámi for sensitivity or even just copyright issues.

But they didn’t.

Exposing and teaching other people about cultures varies depending on who you’re talking about.  It’s especially sensitive when you have a matter of appropriating not only a minority culture, but one that’s being suffocated by colonization and majority culture appropriation.  It’s why it’s not really an issue that places like Ishgard are a few mixes of European stuff, or that Hingashi is based in Japan pre-border opening, but it’s a major issue for them to bastardize Mongolian, Armenian, Kurdish, and the various indigenous cultures that they have in their inclusion through the Xaela (described as barbaric, and “will eventually be their own extinction” according to the Namazu quests), the Ala Mhigans (who are not treated with the same level of dignity or respect as the Domans, and are portrayed as aggressive and lower class), and the ARR-HVW tribe quests + the Whalaqee (see the above).

It’s fine to want to expose people to other cultures.  You just have to do it on the terms of the cultures themselves.  And going behind the backs of the Sámi people and creating a racist costume that costs $18USD isn’t exposing anyone to their culture (if they did, it’s through discourse like this); it’s just Square making money off of a racist costume so people can play dress up with regalia that isn’t theirs.

[feretra]

All the smoke in the air is really wreaking havoc on my lungs today, which is frustrating as I wanted to get some writing done. In the interim, since I’m working on her entry on the carrd? Have some Eivor facts:

Her full name is Eivor Eleanora Fjallstrom. You might think this name would make her stand out a great deal — and perhaps in other parts of the country she would — but Scandinavian names are extremely commonplace in Minnesota, especially rural areas and in the North Country.

Her nickname is “Nell,” and obviously comes from her middle name. You mostly hear it out of her family. You’re welcome to call her this, but if she’s not expecting it or if it’s because your character has dirt on her, expect a raised eyebrow.

She’s 5’2”, which makes her the shortest of her family. Being chided about being vertically challenged will expose that she, like most of her height, suffers from Small Spitfire Syndrome. Her small stature, however, allows her to be able to able to ride select members of her reindeers as mounts.

She was born in Taconite, Minnesota. She grew up outside of Hibbing, which may be familiar if you are a Bob Dylan fan. She still lives in this area. There’s a lot of reasons why, but one of the strongest is that she’s a bit bewitched by Lake Superior. Long periods away make her feel a bit… itchy. Haunted things often create life beyond themselves, I suppose.

Her father’s name is Bjorn, and her mother is named Anna. The latter is deceased due to a car accident and has been for a number of years, and her father is currently suffering from late stage terminal cancer as a result of working in and around the iron mines of the Mesabi Iron Range. She keeps her farmstead away from his home for reasons I’ll talk about later, but she is very close to her father and is one of her caretakers. Every morning and evening she goes to take care of his needs — flushing IVs, connecting his TPN, etc — and she often spends “down” days with him.

An ISTP, Reformer, and Neutral Good. Her tarot card, as of right now, is Temperance.

Much to my chagrin — how is it that only my immortal hell spawn clan recognize the danger of cancer sticks — Eivor smokes. Considering she’s asthmatic and her father is dying of a form of lung cancer, I actively encourage your muses to fucking drag her for this.

She is somehow a vague, amorphous bisexual and yet also asexual creature. I think it really depends on who she’s played against, and her mood. Most of the time she leans the latter, but sometimes she’s capable of being a terrible, corny flirt.

Eivor is mostly of South Sámi (with some Finnish/Kven) descent. Her clothing and culture and language all reflect this. The Sámi are found in parts of far northern Scandinavia (along with parts of Canada, Siberia and Alaska!), but are an Indigenous Arctic people. They have much more in common with the Indigenous populations of America, Canada and Siberia than with your typical Norwegian or Swede. So remember that I will write Eivor wearing traditional garments, speaking her Native language, and using traditional tools (she will absolutely serve you coffee in a guksi — a wooden type of mug she probably made herself), and the like.

So just to parrot the above: she is not Nordic. She does not practice Old Norse anything, and her understanding of historic Norse culture exists within the vein of it interacting with her own.

Eivor, however, does honor the Old Gods. By Old Gods, I mean the deities of the Sámi. If it’s ever warm enough — or she’s undressed enough — her entire right arm is a sleeve dedicated largely to Beaivi, the Sámi goddess of the Sun, though the design is heavily based on the motifs of the sacred South Sámi drums. Most of which were burned by missionaries throughout history.

Remember when I said up list that she keeps her farmstead away from her father’s home? Yeah. It’s because she is a noaidi. This is a concept that is hard to define to people who don’t already understand the term innately — a noaidi just is — and “shaman” doesn’t feel adequate enough. What does that grant her? Power over elements (she can manipulate some better than others, with water/ice/snow being the strongest because she’s just innately done it since she was young.) The ability to communicate between realms. Other things. It’ll get its own post. Probably shortly.

Being a noaidi attracts all kinds of things, though. Spirits, jotünns, strangers who sense something being a bit off, etc. As a defense, she keeps sheep and rabbits close to the house (easy targets), reindeer in a safer place, and her father even safer yet. That way things she’s particularly close to don’t get murdered.

She has a herding dog, his name is Grim.

The reindeer she rides the most? Is named Elsa. Is she named for that Elsa? Yes. Yes, she is. And because people will think otherwise: female reindeer grow antlers as well, and for far longer than males do!

[namidanoondowa]

In the enchanted forest of the movie "Frozen II"

the native "Northuldra" is based on the northern European native Sami . Faced with all kinds of language, cultural oppression and land plunder, Sami overcome their fear with awe of the spirit of nature,  and faced one after another "into the unknown" adventure with the native people everywhere, trying to protect the snow scenery and protect the climate justice.

Just like the scene in the movie where people live closely with reindeer, the Sami in the real world, like the movie, also face unfair treatment, but so far, people still try their best to protect their homes for the final pure land.

Marine carols: Global conventions like water run quickly "Politicians say they want to reduce their carbon emissions, but they don't stop pumping oil!" said Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen, a Norwegian youth environmental activist who has been a "natural and youth" of the Norwegian youth environmental organization, and has remained a full-time musician until last year. she still not forgotten that repparfjord, a breeding mine of marine species threatened by the copper mine project, is always polluted by about 2 million tons of mining waste dumped every year. Together with more than 2 million ocean guardians around the world, the United Nations is striving to reach the goal of protecting at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 through the global ocean convention. On world environment day on June 5 this year, she put on the Gákti (SAMI traditional costume) made of her mother's old curtains, and sang a traditional yoik movement for the ocean on a cliff in Iceland that integrates geothermal power generation(Speaking earth), continue to search for environmental intimate with songs.

Caribou Man representative Jussa Seurujärvi said,"The Arctic railway will put an end to our tradition and our daily life. It will run through grazing areas, pollute clean water sources, and cut through beautiful nature. Its threats are always there, crushing my past, my future, and the identity I deserve,"

In 2016, Sofia Jannok, a Sami artist from Sweden, went to the headquarters of nordea bank in Sweden to ask the other side to withdraw from the Dakota access pipeline project, which was strongly opposed by the Native American tribes to protect the rights and interests of precious water resources and land. In 2018, the Sami people launched a red line action symbolizing "no surpassing" to oppose the industrial development to destroy the natural environment. They were also supported and participated by Aboriginal representatives from Canada and New Zealand. They all felt the same and decided to fight with each other.

In 2013, Josefina Skerk, a member of the Sámi Parliament(elected by the Saami people to defend the rights and interests of the ethnic group), and his team members risked the freezing temperature of - 31 ℃ to express their appeals to the president of the Arctic Council as a member of the green peace Arctic Expedition team aurora. Unfortunately, even the opportunity to express their appeals failed

Four ambassadors including Josefina including actor Ezra Miller, Canadian Dini native Kiera Kolson, and Renny Bijoux from Seychelles in Africa, insisted on going to the North Pole, a time capsule containing the signature of 2.7 million Arctic guardians and the flag of "hope, unity and peace", including the records of more than 10000 joint Arctic guardians in Taiwan, is expected to emerge as a historical witness when people keep their promise to save the Arctic in 2050 and sink into the sea bed without any damage to the Arctic ecology.

Josefina said"In the face of climate change and corporate greed out of control, our resistance sometimes seems impossible, but the endless sunshine of the Arctic summer will eventually drive away the dark winter. The unity among the indigenous people gives me hope that the dawn is coming," 

Even without magic blessing, the Sami people insist on doing the right thing: finding the truth, exposing crimes and fighting against interest groups. With the lingering sound of nature, reindeer gallop in the snow, polar bears can sleep, and people and the environment can coexist and prosper: at that time, you and I will be able to hold up the chorus and enjoy the quiet years.

Data source: Taiwan Greenpeace

[callsignbaphomet]

Ok, so, originally this was gonna just be a million fuckin questions, and it'll prooooobably turn into one of those question chains from several months ago. BUT to start I think I can do just like, three. First, tell me ALL about the area in Norway where Jelani was growin up, absolutely anything and everything you can think of about it. Secondly, tell me ALL about babby Jelani! Again just anything and everything you can think of! Lastly, how exactly do those magic weapons work? :o Like, once they're made can anyone grab them? Can he only have one at a time? Stuff like that! Basically just use this as a chance to talk about all those things! :3

❤️❤️❤️

So Jelani was born and raised near what is known as Hammerfest today (woohoo subarctic climate!). Honestly he’s been everywhere and just about seen everything but nothing compares to when he was growing up in that area and watching the Aurora Borealis with family and friends in a comfortable silence while just taking it all in, ya know? Being born in 870 CE meant there was no light pollution so every night the sky always lit up and the stars were so shiny and there were millions and millions of them which was absolutely insane to see and had a lot of significance because of his mom’s culture and their relationship to the stars.

They were close to the coast so there was a lot of fishing and sailing. He was also partial to that area because it was close to the sea and close enough to the mountains where it felt like a happy in between. He’s not a fan of being too far from some source of water. That place was perfect as he could see all kinds of sea dwelling animals like whales and seals, squids though he’s not a fan, he’s kind of scared of squid especially the really big ones he saw every once in a while. He especially liked puffins as a kid since he thought they were kinda silly. Inland he saw his fair share of reindeer, foxes, bears, wolves and otters which he completely fell in love with and still loves as an adult. Show him pictures or videos of otters and he’ll melt, if he sees one irl he’ll practically die from the amount of cute. There were also the more supernatural creatures though he mostly grew up around a lot of werewolves.

Oh! And sure, he’s not a big fan of the sun but even he has to admit that the midnight sun is pretty impressive and beautiful in its own right. It was gorgeous to see it and he did enjoy walking around in the middle of the night and still see the sun out.

Also, despite the location, he was exposed to a lot of different people as the village was flagged as a safe area which saw a ton of traders and all were welcome regardless of who you were or if you were human or non-human. He saw everything and interacted with all sorts of people from the local Sámi People, Middle Eastern, Asian and even other African people. And after his mom found out her family were still alive and well they’d also visit each other when they could. Honestly, his upbringing was kinda fairy tale like.

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qasdxcfgbhn well, Jela as a little kid was always hanging around his parents, grandparents and especially his brother. Since Loke’s 13 years older than him Loke often watched him and played with him a lot, he wasn’t even asked to he just did it because baby brother. Like the instant Lo first saw him it was like love at first sight type of shit. He learned to speak clearly very early on which surprised everyone at how clear and structured his speech was for a kid so young and then they learned he was a very fast learner and really smart and was always curious and asking tons of questions.

Even since he was little he really loved animals so he was always seen chasing after them or somehow petting them and playing with them. Learned to ride and care for horses pretty fast and when he got his own it was like fireworks went off in his head. Even in present day he sees a horse and it’s like instant childhood memories flooding him. Btw his first horse was a mare he named Dagny, just like his ball python in modern times lol, it was a Fjord with a grey coat and a two tone mane and he loved her to bits. Aside from that there was the family dog named River because she loved to swim. He also liked cats but they didn’t have a cat because Loke was scared of them and Sanaa (for different reasons related to another creature) wasn’t fond of them. They don’t hate cats but they’d rather just keep ‘em at arm’s length.

Then teen Jelani who was...I don’t wanna use the word difficult because he wasn’t but let’s just say different for lack of a better word. It was around this time that he was realizing he wasn’t like his family and it actually hurt ‘im a lot. Especially since his mom was an arcane berserker and it was like a huge deal so they all thought he was gonna be one too. So in come the feelings of alienation and the doubts and the semi angst and the moodiness. He was never disrespectful to anyone but he was often moody and often felt down. Around this time he was also learning he had some unique abilities of his own that no one else had and since no one else had them he learned to control them but not without incidents. Not to mention that since he was very little he could see and hear and talk to things that no one else could really see. Some were friendly and others weren’t. Mix in the regular hormonal shit teenagers go through during puberty and it made for a bit of a mess. This kind of “weakened” him and his old self (which he nor anyone else knew of) was starting to rear in and it was kind of scary. He was actually fluctuating between his old personality which was chaotic af and his present self and both seemed to clash a lot. Once this started happening the migraine attacks and the nosebleeds began as well as the sleep paralysis, night terrors, insomnia and the nyctophobia and they all seemed to hit him really hard and suddenly. So all of that mixed in made the ages of 13 through 17 really, really fucking messy.

But family and friends were with him through it all and at 17 and a half he chilled out and learned to control himself and managed to suppress his old self. He’d learned to use and handle his abilities responsibly, still felt a little out of place but his family was sure to always let ‘im know they loved him no matter what and his grandfather especially let him know that his differences weren’t a bad thing and that they made ‘im special. By 18 he was back to his cheerful old self though sometimes he still felt bad about being different but didn’t let it get him down. However, he now had to cope with migraine attacks, night terrors, nyctophobia, random nosebleeds, insomnia and sleep paralysis which he still has even in present day.

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Okay so berserkers are non-humans that have the ability to summon powerful weapons and very sturdy armor from nothing thin air. The armor can take a beating but if they get targeted by a barrage of attacks the armor can break and they’d have to summon the armor again but there’s a cool down of about half an hour so it’s better to hang on to the armor even if broken or get your ass to safety. The weapons don’t break though. Oh and if an armor broke and they summon it again it’ll show up as good as new. Berserkers can summon up to two different weapons so which ones they summon depends on the person’s taste and comfort level.

These weapons can be summoned and dematerialized at will and have no cool down. Anyone can grab them if the berserker it belongs to doesn’t mind though why would a berserker use another one’s weapon unless they wanna be offensive and kill ‘em with their own weapon? It’s not offensive, more like yikes.

Now, since Jelani isn’t a berserker he managed to figure out a way to mimic berserkers’ ability to summon a weapon from thin air though unlike grown up berserkers he isn’t limited to just two types of weapons. For example Loke is able to summon a two headed axe and a bow, nothing more nothing less. Jelani can summon whatever he wants as he can manipulate the shape. His mom’s tribe are partial to glaives so he mainly uses a glaive. His weapons however are made of an unknown material that’s insanely hard and impossible to even crack. His weapons can’t be wielded by anyone other than himself bc as soon as someone else touches them they dematrerialize. It also looks weird, like it’s so dark it swallows all light and no light bounces off of it. He can’t summon armor though so that’s where the blacksmith comes in. His uncle Jørgen made his look like his dad’s and his mom’s.

[falufritimes2k19-blog]

Sweden’s Sámi history with Capital punishment

Today the Human Rights committee are going to be discussing resolutions concerning capital punishment. The practice of death sentencing and executing people, sanctioned by the state/regime as punishment for crimes, is something that has been carried out for thousands of years, and still is actively used in many parts of the world to this day. Actually, only 106 of 195-200 countries (depending of which states are to be seen as independent) have completely abolished capital punishment. China is the world’s leading nation whereas executions are concerned, with over a 1000 deaths warranted by the state in 2016, followed by Iran with 550+ and Saudi Arabia with 150+. Something that is interesting and suiting to discuss is the host nations, Swedens, own history with capital punishment, specifically regarding their indigenous people, the Sámi.

The Sámi people are the indigenous people of Sápmi, an unwell-defined area that stretches over the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola peninsula of Russia. They have their own distinct culture from the majority people in respective country with their own languages, traditions, crafts, clothes, religion and way of living. Unfortunately, their history is clouded with oppression, prejudice and colonial violations.

Today, Sweden is a secular country and most people are non-religious, but in the past, the church was one of the ruling powers. When the state expanded their territories more and more north on Sámi land, christianity was used as a tool to assimilate the people that lived there. Hence, the Sámis traditional ancestral nature religion was banned and the people who refused to abandon it could face punishments such as heavy fines, prison, torture and even death.

During the 1600s, many Saḿi were burned at the stake. A group of people that were particularly vulnerable and exposed to this within the sámi community were the shamanic religious leaders, called “Nåjd”. This was the case with Aike Aikesson, who was widely known for being a great nåjd. He was sentenced to burn at the stake during a witch trial that took place in Pite “lappmark” (lapp or laplander was a word historically used for the Sámi, but today considered racist and outdated) in today's northern Sweden. Also in Pite, the nåjd Lars Nilsson was sentenced for witchcraft and executed by burning.

There are countless other historical cases like this, not just related to the Sámi but also other non-indigenous minorities, for example the Roma and the Jews. Unfortunately, most Swedes today are unaware of the violence used by the Swedish state to gain power, territories and riched that was used and how intolerant the regime used to be against their minorities. In the majority of schools, none of this is thought or discussed in class

-Maja Nordström