Indigenous Voices from Opposite Hemispheres: A Comparative Analysis of Sami and Māori Literature

Literary analysis provides a powerful lens for understanding Indigenous cultures, which are often marginalized in global discourse. Elin Anna Labba’s The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sami and Patricia Grace’s Potiki provide crucial insights into the experiences of two Indigenous peoples separated by vast geographical distances yet united through shared struggles against colonialism. The northern Sami of Scandinavia and the Māori of New Zealand possess rich cultural traditions and histories of resistance, yet their specific circumstances, spiritual practices, and relationships to land reveal significant differences shaped by their unique environments and colonial encounters.

While both cultures have faced systematic displacement and cultural suppression, their responses and forms of resilience have evolved differently. The Samis’ relationship with reindeer herding and Arctic landscapes contrasts with the Māori’s deep connections to New Zealand’s forests, rivers, and coastal environments. Similarly, their oral traditions—Sami joiks versus Māori whakapapa and karakia—reflect distinct worldviews while serving comparable functions in cultural preservation.

This comparative study examines how these literary works illuminate both convergences and divergences between Sami and Māori experiences. It reveals how the impact of colonialism manifests differently across cultures while highlighting each group’s distinctive strategies for maintaining cultural identity. Through close textual analysis, this essay demonstrates how Indigenous literature serves as artistic expression and a vital tool for cultural continuity and resistance against ongoing colonial pressures.

The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sami is a remarkable non-fiction book and the author, Elin Anna Labba, highlights the experiences of Northern Sami and their encounters with colonization, loss of land, and tradition. Labba often pays homage to her ancestry, specifically when discussing Sami traditions, many of which are no longer practiced in the same capacity. Most notably, Labba incorporates the Sami language and dialects into her writing. Many of these words, most readers will be completely unfamiliar with, but they are an important aspect of her creative work, nonetheless. In chapter nine, Labba goes on to focus on the Sami tradition of Joiking. Joiking is one of many traditional practices in Sami culture. The act of Joiking centers around song and ceremony. That being said, Joiks are not simply a singing performance, but rather a spiritual and ritualistic expression that is specific to the Sami culture. Elin Anna Labba skillfully showcases Sami culture through her writing by incorporating multiple perspectives of what it means to belong to the Sami culture by completely different stories in each chapter, to allow readers to gain sufficient knowledge on Sami culture and how displacement impacts every person and family differently.

Labba also highlights the importance of reindeer herding throughout her book. “By the early hours of the morning, the ice crust is so hard that it gleams at first light like a silver spoon. The reindeer begin to forage for lichen hanging from the fir trees, spreading out when they reach a clearing” (Labba 121). This specific passage highlights details of Sami culture. Readers are immediately made aware of the climate that the Sami people come from, one that is frigid and icy, where the reindeer are a crucial aspect of daily life.

Patricia Grace’s approach in Potiki is similar to Labba’s in many ways, except that instead of Sami culture, Grace speaks on the experience of the Māori people in New Zealand. Potiki also follows a more standardized approach to storytelling in which the story follows only one family and their different experiences. Where Labba utilizes many different familial stories as inspiration in each chapter of her book, Grace focuses on one specific group and the multiple points of view the story includes. Potiki follows a family as they navigate a society that is not tolerant of their culture. This specific method of storytelling, where readers follow one specific group, allows for a more intimate account of Māori traditions. In Māori culture, there is a significant amount of importance placed on the meeting houses of the Indigenous people. “Meeting houses, termed whare nui (large houses) or whare whakairo (carved houses). Typically, they represent the ancestors of iwi (tribes) and local hapu (sub-tribes) and are said to embody their mana. Hence, stories about the construction, ownership, location, and relocation of these buildings feature frequently in the oral histories of Māori communities” (Sissons 36). These structures are symbolic and sacred in nature throughout the book, especially when it comes to themes surrounding forced relocation. The Māori people throughout the book refuse to abandon their land. When the fire destroys these meeting houses, the pain the characters experience is largely influenced by the sacredness of their now destroyed meeting houses. “Before the burning of the house we had known and felt our own strength, which had come from knowing ourselves, and from knowing a direction. But after that time, the time of the fire, we began to really live with fear, and with a question in our minds as to what else could happen, what else could be done in an attempt to destroy us” (Grace 147). This passage showcases the importance of these structures, especially by highlighting the connection between the structures and Māori tradition. Since the meeting houses are not simply physical structures but instead are symbolic of the spiritual connection to their culture, thus making them sacred spaces.

The theme of displacement amongst Indigenous groups is a common topic of discussion when analyzing these two Indigenous texts. Unfortunately, forced displacement is an all-too-common occurrence amongst Indigenous groups throughout history, regardless of their original geographical location. Colonization and displacement were interconnected, with the displacement of Indigenous groups often being enforced by the group that possessed privilege within society to make executive decisions, with the government even enforcing these rules. The colonization of the Sami people has resulted in a near-complete loss of culture, which Labba certainly highlights in her text. Specifically in Chapter 9: “How the Joiking Faded Away”, Labba follows a family through their forced displacement and how the trauma that accompanies being forced from one’s home contributes to a loss of identity, “In the years that follow, he often wonders why they meekly obeyed the bailiffs when they assigned people to other areas” (Labba 129). The characters’ despair in this chapter is evident, ultimately feeling a level of guilt regarding their family being stripped from their home, when in reality, displacement occurred due to a massive power imbalance and an intolerance for the Indigenous Sami to practice their own culture and traditions independently from other groups in Norway and Sweden. Even so, the Sami felt guilt for leaving their traditional lands. Because culture and geographical location are often highly connected, the Sami lost their culture since they were no longer able to practice their traditions freely. Despite the colonisation process in Norway technically ending in 1980, the discrimination against Sami people certainly persevered despite this (Ness and Munkejord 2). This is important to acknowledge, especially for individuals who are not Indigenous, since there is often a misconception that once laws are put into place in order to protect Indigenous culture, this means that discrimination and social exclusion come to an end, but this could not be further from the truth. In fact, a multitude of Indigenous groups are still facing discrimination and injustices regularly in society today because of the ongoing discrimination and power imbalances in society, even continuing at a federal level.

In chapter 10 of Potiki, Grace structures the chapter to follow Hemi’s point of view. This chapter is crucial to understanding the issues that surrounded Māori discrimination and displacement. Though Potiki certainly discusses these concepts at length, the approach is much different than that in The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sami. In Chapter 10 of Potiki, Hemi’s focus is more on the fact that their land has not been taken, though it very well could have been. “He’d always known that one day he would return to the land, and that the land would support them all again. And they still had their land, that was something to feel good about” (Grace 56). Hemi was able to recognize and cherish the fact that their land was not stripped from them, but this does not mean that they were immune to the disastrous effects of colonization and land disruption. In the twentieth century, internal colonialism and constitutional changes drastically impacted the Māori people. The Māori were continuously being deprived of adequate resources, and ultimately included the forced sale of specific plots of Māori land (32 Pool).

Although forced displacement can manifest in various ways, such as the aggressive impact on the Sami or the more subtle effects on the Māori, the outcomes remain consistent. Forced displacement is deeply rooted in colonization and has proven to fracture Indigenous cultures, resulting in drastic changes in cultural identity on an individual and systemic level. This has proven to be a complex issue that cannot be rectified instantly and instead requires an immense amount of collaborative efforts to evoke necessary change.

When considering the immense amount of trauma resulting from forced displacement and colonization, the Sami and Māori people have encountered, it will likely come as no surprise that their culture and traditions have suffered as a result of ongoing systemic discrimination. Both Elin Anna Labba and Patrica Grace have contributed to a more tolerant society when it comes to different cultures, as well as helping in the revitalization process for their respective Indigenous cultures. Language revitalization is crucial to re-establishing a strong cultural foundation. Learning and understanding one’s native language is incredibly important, especially for children. Since one’s cultural identity begins and develops at a very young age, having a connection to language will inevitably impact how they evolve within their culture (Rameka and Peterson 308). “Conversely, one’s inability to speak the language can impact negatively on the development and maintenance of a sense of belonging, identity, and acceptance. When languages are lost, world views and cultures are also lost” (Rameka and Peterson 308). In terms of revitalization, one of the most pressing issues for the Sami people would certainly be their language. Unfortunately, the Sami languages have dwindled over time. When Sami children were sent to boarding schools in order to integrate them into the Christian way of living, the only acceptable language to be spoken was Norwegian (Lie 279-280). The Sami language is vast and can be more appropriately described as a multitude of dialects rather than one formal language. Nevertheless, speaking in their native tongue was not accepted once the Sami were displaced and forced into communities that did not appreciate their culture. Once again, this makes Labba’s choice of specific Sami words to be used in her book  that much more impactful for readers once they become aware of Sami history and colonization. “The Sami people of Norway have established heritage language programs in an attempt to revitalize their once-dying language. Similar revitalization efforts have been implemented by some other Indigenous and cultural groups throughout the world as well” (Lie 273). One of these Indigenous groups, also forceful in their attempts for revitalization, especially surrounding language, is  the Māori people.

The Māori people are not immune to loss of culture due to colonization. Over time, the Māori language has become less common, yet there is an ongoing effort and initiative to rectify this problem. There is a multitude of Polynesian languages, but Te Reo Māori is the language that is primarily focused on when discussing revitalization (Rameka and Peterson 309). It was not until 1987 that Te Reo Māori became an officially recognized language in New Zealand, one that possessed the same legal status as English, and the efforts to sustain the language outside of the Indigenous people of New Zealand has not been very strong. This is likely due to ongoing oppression and discrimination towards Indigenous cultures. So, in an effort to combat the swift decrease in Māori speakers, in 2016, the Māori language act was created in conjunction with the Māori people and the crown. The act aims to have one million proficient Māori speakers by 2040 (“Revitalising Te Reo Māori”). Having legislation in place to protect the Māori language is undoubtedly impactful when attempting to elicit revitalization efforts.

Despite the abundance of intricacies that accompany each culture, whether that be on an individual, familial, or systemic level. Both The Rocks Will Echo Our Sorrow: The Forced Displacement of the Northern Sami by Elin Anna Labba and Potiki by Patricia Gracesufficiently outline the tender aspects of the Sami and Māori cultures, thus allowing the audience to gain better insight into Indigenous cultures, specifically regarding cultural traditions, displacement, and revitalization. Both Labba and Grace were able to tell the stories of their Indigenous culture while also providing necessary historical information so that readers can gain the maximum amount of knowledge as possible from their writing and hopefully remain curious enough to do further research. Above all else, both Labba and Grace are reaching more readers who can hopefully aid in spreading the message that they are ultimately trying to convey—that Indigenous cultures are resilient, and despite the atrocities many of them have encountered due to systemic oppression, there is an overwhelming resilience that is still being observed today.

Conclusion

This comparative analysis reveals that while the Sami and Māori have faced similar colonial pressures—forced displacement, cultural suppression, and land dispossession—their responses reflect the unique characteristics of their respective environments, spiritual systems, and social structures. Labba’s documentation of Sami displacement emphasizes the profound connection between reindeer herding and cultural identity, while Grace’s Potiki illustrates how Māori resistance draws strength from ancestral ties to specific landscapes and waterways. Both literary works demonstrate that Indigenous resilience cannot be understood through universal frameworks but must be appreciated through culture-specific lenses. The Sami joik tradition and Māori oral histories serve similar functions in preserving cultural knowledge, yet their distinct forms reflect different worldviews and environmental relationships. These differences underscore the importance of recognizing Indigenous cultures as unique entities rather than homogeneous groups sharing identical experiences. Ultimately, these texts remind us that Indigenous literature serves multiple purposes: preserving cultural knowledge, resisting colonial narratives, and educating global audiences about often-overlooked histories. By examining these works together, we gain a deeper appreciation for both the diversity within Indigenous experiences and the common threads of resilience that connect Indigenous peoples across continents. Understanding is essential for developing more nuanced approaches to Indigenous rights, cultural preservation, and decolonization efforts in our contemporary world.