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reports of stress. This is in keeping with
new findings from Sweden," he said.
Strong Sami women
Although Sami men experience far more
stress than their fellow Sami women,
it was actually Sami-speaking women
who came off worst in the survey, purely
in terms of health - particularly Sami-
speaking women. One out of two women
who live outside of defined Sami areas
report that they have poor health. This
can also be related to discrimination.
"They were asked questions about how
their health is now, and half responded
'Poor / not very good'," says Hansen.
Despite this discouraging result, the
women who reported poorer health still
seemed able to master the negative con-
sequences of discrimination better than
other Norwegian women.
"If we look at the stress levels of those
who are being discriminated against,
Sami women had lower levels than the
Kven and the ethnic Norwegians. The
reason for this may be that Sami women
see discrimination as a result of their
Sami background and not because of
who they are as human beings. Being
discriminated against on the basis of
your ethnicity is perhaps not as personal
for you as a Sami. An ethnic Norwegian
could certainly interpret discrimination
far more personally," says Hansen.
Fewer seek help
There are also big differences in who
seeks help for mental health problems.
The study shows that Sami-speaking
women are less likely to seek help for
their psychological problems compared
to Sami women who have Norwegian as
their mother tongue, Kven and ethnic
Norwegian women.
Nine per cent of all Sami women seek
help, while the figure for ethnic Nor-
wegian women is 15 per cent. There is
almost no difference in this number
among men. Hansen has a theory as to
why Sami-speaking women are less likely
to seek help than other women.
"The Sami people do not have a tradition
of talking about psychological problems,
so they tend to keep these problems
within the family. It may also have to
do with the religiously rooted concept
of 'the evil ear', which means that many
Sami believe that they will become sicker
if they talk about mental or physical
illness. Illness is seen as a punishment
for having done something wrong, which
in turn means that the disease or illness
itself is perceived as shameful. But it
may also be due to the language, simple
communication problems at the doctor's
appointment. It may be that because of
language difficulties, many Sami have a
hard time explaining what is troubling
them. This may mean that they are not
sent onward in the system to receive the
additional care they might need," says
Hansen.
Aggressive debate
Threats, harassment,
word choice, racism
and censorship.
Immediately after the
media take up Sami
issues, the negative
feedback begins.
"We notice that whenever we write
about immigrants, criminals or Sami,
we have to be extra careful in our on-
line debates. The debate heats up very
quickly and may head off in unwan-
ted directions," says Jørn-Christian
Skoglund, executive editor of the online
newspaper iTromsø.
His observations are consistent with
the findings of researcher Ketil Lenert
Hansen, who says that Sami people ex-
perience racial discrimination. Hansen
has observed that when Sami issues are
taken up in the media, readers often
respond with harassing and
aggressive feedback.
Sami signs evoke anger
Tromsø decided in June to join the
"Administrative Region for Sami Lan-
guage," which would require the city to
put up road signs that include the Sami
language, says the former deputy mayor
of the municipality of Tromsø, Gunn-
hild Johansen.
She says that the subject has engende-
red strong emotions among Tromsø
residents, so strong in fact that the
politician who came forward with the
proposal was threatened.
"I hope that this was a one-time event,
but the discussion over Sami signs has
led to loud debate that is not always
factual," she says.
In fact, after the elections in the autumn
of 2011, a new city administration deci-
ded to withdraw the application.
The editorial staff of iTromsø has also
noticed similar strong feelings over the
issue. They have edited and censored
many posts about Sami signs, and
Skoglund says that these online discus-
sions have to be shut down after work
hours - because the newspaper doesn't
have the capacity all night to monitor
the system and the often very harassing
posts.
University of Tromsø –
Labyrint E/11
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Text:
Elisabeth Øvreberg