Welcome to my blog nr. 2

TOPIC: Project ICH North - passing on our musical heritage

Working on projects gives me access to inspiring topics and people. The ICH North project explores intangible cultural heritage in the field of music. The project aims to explore how communities are carrying on traditions today. ICH North is an Interreg Aurora-funded project (around €1.2 million) that brings together partners and communities from the northern regions of Finland, Sweden, and Norway for a three-year exploration. You can read more about the project and our activities here at ICH North and on social media (Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn). Here's a picture from our working meeting in Tromsø a few weeks ago. Michael Strobelt represents our partner, the Arctic University of Norway, and is a lecturer in pedagogy there. Just look at the view! Photo credit: Ann-Christin Hellberg-Sågfors

As one part of the project, we are looking at the musical traditions of diaspora minorities and how these traditions are part of the life of communities today. Examples of migrant minorities and their traditions/languages include the Kven of Norway and the Meänkieli (literally “our language”) of the Torne River Valley in Sweden.

Meänkieli is a group of distinct Finnish dialects, or a Finnic language spoken in the northernmost part of Sweden along the Torne River Valley. In Sweden, Meänkieli is recognized as one of the country's five minority languages. The Institute for Language and Folk Memory in Sweden gives information about the recognized minority languages. There is even a dictionary for Meänkieli, which is fun to read for us Finns! Institutet för språk och folkminnen. Unfortunately, this page gives information only in Swedish and each minority language.

According to Wikipedia, the Kvens are a Balto-Finnic ethnic minority in Norway. They are descended from Finnish peasants and fishermen who emigrated from the northern parts of Finland and Sweden to Northern Norway in the 18th and 19th centuries. Read more about the Kvens here: Kven Society in Norway.  

The Sámi people, the indigenous people of Europe, are widely spread in the northern regions of Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Russia. I snapped this picture from an exhibition when I recently visited the Arctic University Museum of Norway in Tromsø. There are nine living languages in the entire Sápmi area.

The Institute for the Languages of Finland states: “The Saami languages are autochthonous to Europe and the closest relatives to the Finnic languages. The Saami population is 60,000–100,000; approximately 10,000 live in Finland. Three different Saami languages are spoken in Finland: Inari Saami, Skolt Saami, and Northern Saami.” Read more about the languages here: Institute for the Languages of Finland

By the way, I get confused with the many different spellings - Saami, Sámi, Sápmi, but the spellings differ in each country (Finland, Sweden, and Norway). I try to use one way of spelling in one text. Sápmi is the original name for the traditional territory used by the Sámi people.

How about music in the Sápmi area?

Today is National Sámi Day (Feb 6^th), and it seems like a good opportunity to think about their musical heritage. An interesting and diverse tradition is the musical tradition of the Sámi people, especially joik. A joik or yoik is a traditional form of song in Sámi music performed by the Sámi people of Sápmi area in Northern Europe. Joiking is a highly personal and spiritual form of expression. A performer of joik is called a joikaaja (Finnish), a joiker or jojkare (Swedish).  There are many styles of joik, three in Finland (Luohti, Liđvi, and Leu´dd).

Joiks are divided into person joiks, animal joiks, and place joiks.

In the case of traditional person joiks, it is not the composer or performer who owns the joik, but the person of whom the joik is made. Later generations retain ownership. The joik reflects the personal relationship the joiker has with the person they are joiking. Even today, when a Sámi descendant researches the roots of a joik, they may find a connection to their own family. No wonder ownership is difficult to establish - the process is ongoing. Understanding the concept of ownership is important and a part of the discussions around cultural appropriation.

Here are some examples I picked up from a lecture given by Anna Näkkäläjärvi-Länsman November 2023: 

https://youtu.be/J19FIf3l5ZU?si=gI9BRkLE1HjU_9U2

https://youtu.be/sL2HOx1zimo?si=e4uVmyT2F1fY_785

https://youtu.be/RVX_ws_MP3M?si=1TpmrAEQW4Gw0UUF

https://youtu.be/LKFTK9RHZ8U?si=Rszqmou7sg5Qf5S3 – this one is interesting as the singers have the autonomy to joik in their own way, own key and express their personal relationship to the same person – in this case Bekka-Inga.

As an example of new, Joik-inspired music commissioned from a Sámi-born composer and shared with the general public is the theme song “Vuelie” for the movie Frozen, which was written by Norwegian-Sámi composer Frode Fjellheim.  

What do I think of all this? I feel I have entered a most interesting “rabbit hole” as a researcher while learning how to research. 

What kind of musical heritage do you recognize in your family or community?