Sami female traditional costume collar with silver

is the Northern Sámi word used by non-Sámi speakers to refer to many different types of traditional

clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, garments, dress, apparel, or attire) is any item worn on a human human body, body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin s ...

worn by the Sámi in northern areas of

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and the

Kola Peninsula The Kola Peninsula (; ) is a peninsula in the extreme northwest of Russia, and one of the largest peninsulas of Europe. Constituting the bulk of the territory of Murmansk Oblast, it lies almost completely inside the Arctic Circle and is border ...

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. The gákti is worn both in

ceremonial A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin . Religious and civil (secular) ceremoni ...

contexts and while working, particularly when herding

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

. The traditional Sami outfit is characterized by a dominant color adorned with bands of contrasting colours, plaits, pewter embroidery, tin art, and often a high collar.

Characteristics

The colours, patterns and decorations of the costume can signify a person's marital status and geographical origin. There are different gákti for women and men; men's gáktis are shorter at the hem than women's. Traditionally the gákti was made from reindeer skin, but in modern times, wool, cotton or silk are more common. The gákti can be worn with a belt (pleated, quilted or with silver buttons), silver jewellery, traditional leather footwear and a silk scarf. Traditionally, if the buttons on the belt are square, it shows the wearer is married. If they are round, the person is unmarried.

In other Sámi languages

"Gákti" is the

Northern Sámi Northern Sámi or North Sámi ( ; ; ; ; ; disapproved exonym Lappish or Lapp) is the most widely spoken of all Sámi languages. The area where Northern Sámi is spoken covers the northern parts of Norway, Sweden and Finland. Geographic distr ...

term for the clothing. The following terms in other Sami languages do not refer to the Northern Sami gákti, but to their own clothing: * South Sámi: * Ume Sámi: * Pite Sámi: * Lule Sámi: * Inari Sámi: ' * Skolt Sámi: * Kildin Sámi: * Ter Sámi:

Fake gákti

The Finnish tourist industry is notorious for displaying fake "Sámi" culture for tourists in order to make a profit. Ethnic

Finns Finns or Finnish people (, ) are a Baltic Finns, Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland. Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these cou ...

dress up in fake "gáktis" and perform fake "traditional rituals". This activity has been met with criticism both from the Sámi since it creates a false image of and appropriates Sámi culture, diverts tourist industry money from ethnic Sámi to ethnic Finns (thereby exploiting the Sámi and Sápmi, land the Sámi are native to, without giving anything back) and is dishonest towards tourists.

External links

Clickable map of information about the traditional clothing of various Sámi groups

References

Fra hverdagsplagg til kulturelt kjennetegn
Norwegian Digital Learning Arena / Norwegian News Agency {{DEFAULTSORT:Gakti Sámi clothing Sámi-language terms

Characteristics

In other Sámi languages

Fake gákti

See also

External links

References