The Sami people have come very far in their struggle for rights and recognition. Nevertheless, Sami identity is still under under pressure in many ways.
What are the threats to Sami identities?
Language is one hotly debated issue. The question of how to maintain Sami as a living language that can be used, learned and taught is one that is beginning to emerge across Sami languages. Furthermore, young Samis are coming across a very unique issue. Indigenousness is sometimes regarded as something frozen and carries the expectation of “tradition.” However, as young Europeans and Samis many people often have problems with “carrying their heritage and trying to be Sami and modern youth at the same time”. (Hernes)
Saami Revitalisation Project
Theater and Film
The revitalisation of Sami culture through theatre and film is a relatively new movement. The first cultural works emerge in the mid 1960s when the National Theatre toured Sami areas with a puppet show and used a Sami language in cooperation with Sami cultural workers.
In the year 2000 a separate South Sami Theatre with origin in Hattfjelldal was established. The theatre aims at touring in the South Sami villages with locally arranged plays as well as shows based on traditional South Sami material in order to spread knowledge about their own cultural history.
Just before Easter, 2001 the Nordic film festival was held for the first time in a Sami area, viz. Kautokeino on the Finnmark plateau. Sami filmmakers are known for their work on the genre of short films, having made a name for themselves by winning prestigious Nordic and international prizes. This led to an increased interest in Sami cultural production and at the festival several Sami short films were shown.
Press and Broadcasting
The first Sámi-language newspaper, SagaiMuittalægje, started as early as 1873. It published 33 issues in all and had as its main concern popular education. In 1898 the religious newspaper Nuorttanaste began to come out.Sagai Muittalægje (1904-11) was supposed to bring enlightenment to the Sami, and at the same time it was supposed to work toward Sami political goals. The newspaper was central to the Sami political mobilization at the beginning of the 20th century. In the middle of the 1950s the newspaper Ságat began as a Norwegian-Sámi newspaper. The idea was that the newspaper should have material in both Norwegian and Sámi, but today Ságat prints almost nothing in Sami.
In addition to these newspapers several attempts have been made to get stable publications of Sami language reading material for children and young people. for example, the periodical Gába is a socially conscious periodical magazine written from a woman’s perspective and with broad coverage of cultural and social questions. It came out with its first issue March 8, 1996.
Broadcasting of Sami radio programs have been used for a long time to maintain the usage of the Sami language. They began right after the Second World War and constitute the main source of news in Sami and for Sami listeners.
Popular Culture’s Importance in the Sámi Revitalization Project
There is no doubt that Sami popular culture has played a role in creating interest for the Sami revitalisation project. The emerging popularity of the nordic region as well as LPs, CDs and concerts have contributed to re-evaluating the question of Sami identity and value.
Sami Music Festivals
The Sami music festival Riddu Riđđu in Kåfjord in Northern Norway has had an enormous ability to assert itself as one of the most exciting and creative music festivals in Scandinavia the last ten years. The festival was started and is still run by enthusiastic Sami young people from Kåfjord. Having demonstrated large creative abilities when it comes to obtaining financial support, this event continues to take place every year in a little fjord Sámi village in Northern Norway.
Another festival that has helped put Sápmi on the international aboriginal people’s festival map is Davvi Šuvva. It was held for the first time in 1979 and again early in the 1990s. Davvi Šuvva is entirely an aboriginal peoples’ festival with participation from many of the same countries that Riddu Riđđu gets its artists from. In light of this overlap, the organisers of the next Davvi Šuvva are contemplating finding another concept for the festival.
Reference
Nordin, J. M., & Ojala, C. G. (2018). Collecting, connecting, constructing: Early modern commodification and globalization of Sámi material culture. Journal of Material Culture, 23(1), 58-82.
Khazaleh, L.,(2015) “Globalisation positive for Sami struggle”, Available from: https://www.sv.uio.no/sai/english/research/projects/overheating/news/2016/hernes.html(Assessed: 30 May, 2019)
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