In the 20th century, Catholic missionaries and state-sponsored biologists have meticulously documented the customs and dress of the Sámi, even if they try to suppress them. Church and state even plot to dig up and desecrate sacred sites and graves of Sámi, measuring their skulls and skeletons in pursuit of evidence for an “uncivilized” proto-Aryan race.
Recently, Sámi has been depicted in blockbuster movies such as Klaus and Frozen 2, where they were often auxiliary characters assisting in settler missions. In these depictions, the Sámi are almost always historic, in traditional nomadic and formal attire.
The actual Sámi identity is much more complicated. To begin with, their traditional territory was divided by four colonial powers (Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia), nine living native languages, and four non-native languages. Forced Assimilation Programs in those countries promote further divisions, between the nomadic reindeer herders and the settled “forest” or village of Sámi, who were stronger hand than stripping them of their traditions.
By selecting a history setting, Skabma: It’s Snowing It is possible to allude to these effects without fully describing them — for example, a cruel French naturalist spoke too much of his welcome in the village of Ailu. But even depicting historical Sámi can be problematic.
“Determining what is traditional and what is not is also shrinking the image of Sáminess,” Outi Laiti, a Sámi game designer and researcher, wrote in an email to WIRED. Reindeer herding, traditional crafts and the worship of nature are all part of the Sámi cultural heritage. But most of the Sámi are Catholic, many do not know the traditional crafts, and few know much about what to do with a herd of reindeer. Calling these things traditional might imply that those people are somehow less Sámi.
That has presented Sámi artists like Auranen with a tenuous task. “There needs to be a clear line between negative prejudice and prejudice,” she said. “People don’t know about Sami culture. They don’t know who we are. And in that sense, stereotyping helps.”
“But… we are fighting against those stereotypes at the same time we own them,” she said. “People expected us to be at this showcase in the museum, and they were disappointed… that we weren’t as weird as they wanted to be.”
But one benefit of letting Sámi people like Auranen drive the development of Sámi games is that the creators are free to shape the design based on their point of view. Auranen knows that she’s not providing an exclusive version of Sáminess — instead, she’s offering her own interpretation, drawing from her own exploration and development experience.
A crash course in cultural heritage
The main theme of Ailu’s journey is “loss and gain,” Auranen says, and it’s a theme close to home. Auranen’s father was one of the “lost generation”, the Sámi grew up without access to their traditional language or culture. As a result, Auranen himself was deprived of that education. “All those little details, they never passed on to me,” she said.
