
6 February 2023
The Sami national day was celebrated
Sami National Day on 6 February is common to all Sami in Sweden, Norway, Finland or Russia and is an official flag day at Luleå University of Technology. To mark the day, universities invited to an event at Vetenskapen hus. Now also the university's Sami-related research and education is gathered on one website.
"Sami-related research conducted from a Sami perspective is important for Swedish democracy, and for us as a research nation. As a state authority and knowledge-producing institution in Sápmi, Luleå University of Technology has an important responsibility to spread knowledge about the Sami's special position and history", Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn, said, in her speech on the Sami national day.
Birgitta Bergvall-Kåreborn, pointed out that today is thirty years since the Sami national day was celebrated for the first time. The date 6 February honors the memory of the Sami national meeting held in Trondheim in 1917. It was the first time hundreds of Sami gathered across national borders to discuss common issues.
About the joik and the Sami drum
Ola Stinnerbom, Sami jojkartist, told us about the jojk, which he called an "ancient sound communication style". He said that when you sing a song, you sing about something, but when you sing a jojk, you become that jojk, and if you sing a jojk about an animal, the jojk is about how the animal moves. He also talked about the Sami drum, how it was banned in Sweden and that they are still looking to get the confiscated drums back. Of course, he also offered both singing of jojks and music, including a hip-hop jojk that he made during a trip to New York.
Visual and literary depictions of national minorities, above all the indigenous Sami people
Åsa Bjuhr, Lena Manderstedt and Annbritt Palo, researchers in Swedish and Education, at Luleå University of Technology, described some of their research projects. One project dealt with how Sápmi are portrayed in Swedish picture books for children, where recurring themes are oppression, resistance, the importance of the Sami languages and their loss, the reclaiming of the Sami culture and the importance of family and kinship.
Duv gábdde, du gákti, you colt
To sew up colts that can be rented, it is a project for increased sustainability and to enable Sami people who have lost the link to their people to find a way back. The people behind the project, Anna Kajsa Aira and Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, have had 18 different children's colts sewn up for children that can be rented and returned when the children have outgrown them.
To teach student teachers in Sami history, culture and tradition
May-Britt Öhman, former working at Luleå University of Technology and now a researcher at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Racism, Uppsala University, told about why it is so important that student teachers at Swedish universities learn about in Sami history, culture and tradition.
Language immersion increases language proficiency
Pia-Maria Holmgren, chairperson, and Ingela Jannok Öhlund, treasurer of the Lule-Boden Sami Association, highlighted their activities, including trips to get "language immersion", that is, going to places where the Sami language is particularly strong, to increase language proficiency.
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