New article: «Safeguarding Cultural Rights of Sámi Children and Youth in Finland»

på 18. desember 2019

An article about the cultural rights of indigenous young people that has special emphasis on the linguistic aspect of cultural identity.

Article published in The Yearbook of Polar Law by Tanja L. Joona of U. Lapland and the NUORGÁV project.

ABSTRACT

The article examines the common global phenomenon of indigenous urbanization. In Finland, more than 75% of the indigenous Sámi children are born outside the Sámi Homeland area. The development is fast and poses different kind of challenges for the entire Sámi society and culture. Youth and women are more likely to settle in urban areas and it is their Sáminess that is to survive or die in the cities. Indigenousness is no longer tied with traditional livelihoods or land use but instead requires other forms of cultural maintenance. In the contemporary situation Sámi have started through their own associations and networks require more appropriate services in the cities, including Sámi language learning in the schools and kindergartens. This is not always satisfactory. The article evaluates the existing international and domestic (Finland) legislation in regard to Sámi language, but also the implementation of these rights in practice.

Article homepage here.

New article: «Is an urban Sámi future possible?»

på 13. november 2018

A post-colonial perspective on young and urban Sámi.

In the most recent issue of Norsk sosiologisk tidsskrift, Astri Dankertsen & Christina Åhrén discuss the survival and growth of indigenous identity and culture among urbanized youth. The article is based on interviews with young Sámi in different Nordic states’ urban areas.

The article is available in Norwegian at Idunn.

ABSTRACT IN ENGLISH:

Northern Europe’s indigenous people, the Sámi, experience, like other indigenous people all around the world, an increasing urbanization (Peters & Andersen, 2013). This is relevant especially for the younger generations, where ever more young Sámi grow up in or move to the cities. Concurrently with the increasing urbanization of Sámi, new questions arise regarding a Sámi future in the cities, where Sámi visibility and cultural survival in the city become important issues. We are interested in how colonial relations, representations and practices are reproduced in the present. We have interviewed Sámi youth in selected Nordic cities, representatives of Sámi youth organizations, Sámi civil society stakeholders in general, in addition to relevant authorities. In the article, we explore how Sámi youth, Sámi youth organizations, the majority society and its institutions create new urban Sámi spaces through interaction. Through Sara Ahmed’s (2004) concepts comfort/discomfort, we analyze how colonial structures are experienced on the microlevel in urban societies where there is not always space for Sámi language and culture.

Keywords: sámi, urbanity, indigenous people, colonialism, decolonization

New article: «The governance of urban indigenous spaces: Norwegian Sámi examples»

på 26. april 2018

This article explores different ways of governing urban indigenous social spaces, with an eye to how local indigenous self-government is facilitated or frustrated.

In Acta Borealia‘s most recent issue, Mikkel Berg-Nordlie looks at «urban indigenous spaces»: organized social spaces that enable the practice, preservation, transfer, and development of indigenous culture, language, identity, and community in an urban setting. The article is based on studies of indigenous culture houses and Sámi national day celebrations in the urban areas Alta, Trondheim, and Oslo.

Click here to read the article on Acta Borealia‘s website. A limited number of free copies of the article is available here.

 

Abstract

A major challenge in Norway is the absence of actors that represent the entire local indigenous population. The main Norwegian Sámi NGO is a driving force in establishing and governing indigenous spaces, but is now one of several and often competing organizations due to specialization (new organizations form to promote specific subgroups’ interests) and partisanization (organizations compete in elections to the Sámediggi representative organ). Social media facilitate communication across organizational divides, but do not produce any unified local indigenous “voice”. Private businesses and public cultural institutions take part in establishing and governing indigenous spaces – the former often in complete autonomy from Sámi NGOs, the latter more likely to seek cooperation or coordination. Local and regional state-based actors generally do not take initiatives to establish indigenous spaces, but involve themselves as co-organizers with Sámi leads and as sources of (often unstable) economic support. The state-based Sámediggi is increasingly proactive: financing, facilitating contact between actors, and occasionally participating directly in urban indigenous governance. The Sámediggi provides a unifying representative voice at the macro level that is missing at the local level.

 

KEYWORDS: Indigenous urbanization, Sámi urbanization, indigenous self-government, local indigenous self-government, network governance, Nordic indigenous policy