LGBTIQ+ and Traditions
Sipping Coffee
Poet Timimie Märak is Sámi and a gender queer lesbian. In their poem, Timimie processes the different facets of their identity.
By Timimie Märak
What we want
To be acknowledged as a people treated as an equal
What they do
They cut our hair and our forests
They say they are doing it for us
Always ignoring the chorus crying out facts and feelings
Let's face it we are dealing with the rootless
The old ways become paved ways
Love is seen as the strange way still treated as an illness
Let's face it we are dealing with the ruthless
They are breeding us to be kneeling feeding greed leading everyone to thinking healing is hiding behind face masks and productivity
The ones without future can afford to be truthless
Let's face it we are dealing with a useless
system. It is working with them
but because of us.
Digging coal drilling oil missing daybreak
Blood money paycheck
Here the poem in North Sámi
Maid mii háliidit
Dohkkehuvvot olmmožin geat meannuduvvojit ovttadássásažžan
Maid sii dahket
Sii čuhppet vuovttaid ja min vuvddiid
Sii dadjet sii dahket dan min dihte
Álo badjelgehččet joavkku mii čuorvu duohtavuođaid ja dovdđuid
Dovddastednot ahte lea sáhka mášuhemiid birra
Boares geainnut asfalterejuvvojit
Ráhkisvuođain gehččet ipmašiin ja ain gieđahallet dávdan
Dovddastednot ahte lea sáhka goavvi olbmuid birra
Sii bággejit min čippostallat, biebmat daid vuovdnáid geat midjiide buohkaide sárdnidit ahte buorádus lea ámadaju hámaid duohken ja buvttadanmunis
Sis geain ii leat boahtteáige, sáhttet leat duohtavuođa haga
Dovddastednot ahte lea sáhka dohkkemeahttun
vuogádaga birra. Dat bargá sin ovddas
muhto min geažil.
Bohkat koallaoljju, das ii leat iđitguovssu
Varraruđat bálkálihppun
About this editorial
This article was contributed as part of the interdisciplinary, cross-border project The Right To Be Cold*, which focuses on the ecology and sustainable living conditions of the Arctic and Boreal regions. Voices from different perspectives are heard on issues dealing with climate change and subsequent, dramatic changes in northern living conditions. The Right To Be Cold negotiates questions of indigenous rights, ecology, climate justice and culture.
* The title of the project comes from the long battle of Inuit to have their rights linked to climate change. The book of the same name by Sheila Watt-Cloutier (2015, Allen Lane Publication), testifies of her pioneering work in connecting climate change to human rights. Okalik Eegeesiak, Former Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) used the expression in her discourse at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change COP 21 December 3, 2015 in Paris, France.