Workshop - Joik, storytelling and art as decolonizing tools

Session Nr.1: "Sámi, celebrities and joik. Representing the indigenous, addressing the majority in NRK Sápmi’s “Muitte Mu”

Research on indigenous people often either focuses on how they are presented in media by the majority, non-indigenous people, or on how indigenous people present themselves. This other perspective involves counter-images and the indigenous media institutions want to tell their own stories on their own terms. NRK Sápmi is the Sámi indigenous division of Norway’s largest media company, NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. NRK Sápmi’s main mission is to provide programming for the Sami people. The main obligation is to broadcast a wide range of programs and services that will maintain and strengthen the Sámi language, culture and identity. However, it is also a goal that the country’s general population acquire a greater knowledge of Sami and the Sami culture and society.

In this paper, I use the program “Muitte Mu” (Remember me), produced by NRK Sápmi, as a case. Muitte Mu is a program where famous Norwegian musicians come to Sápmi and learn how to joik. Joik is a traditional Sámi form of song. I use research on representations and indigenous journalism and argue that the program shows how NRK Sápmi employs a majority perspective, including Sámi iconography, and that the channel, as many other television channels, use celebrities in order to attract the Norwegian non-indigenous population. However, to discuss whether a program produced by NRK Sápmi is sámi or not is in itself problematic if the researcher is not indigenous. Thus, in a reflexive process, I also problematize the insider/outsider perspective

Session Nr.2 "American Indian Women of Proud nations: Telling their Stories in Life Transitions and Saced Places"

American Indian (AI) Women in Southeastern North Carolina are from tribes, some with federal, state or non-recognized status. These tribal people share the history of dis-enfranchisement, removal, legalized segregation and finally full citizenship. Throughout these historic periods in NC, tribal peoples relied on kinship, faith and place. Today these indigenous peoples remain in their homelands in NC and have the rights of full US citizenship, but kinship, faith and place are still grounded in the stories that shaped them and the stories they tell about their lives. The presenting authors discuss the struggle of linking together academic work and traditional story telling from the American Indian Women of Proud Nations (AIWPN) organization workshops and the members, respectively. The first volume on the AIWPN was a collection of academic articles on AI history, language and education. The second volume takes on the stories that shaped these AI women’s lives and the stories that AIWPN women tell about their lives. The authors will present papers on bridging academic and traditional story-telling, documenting stories from the AIWPN women, and the need to create sacred space through story sharing

Session Nr.3: "Yoik experiences and possible positive health outcomes"

Yoik is an old vocal music tradition of Sami, the indigenous people inhabiting Northern Fennoscandia and Kola peninsula in Russia. Studies of music therapy (MT) and especially singing have documented improvements in social and overall functioning in people with severe mental disorders and positive effect on depressive symptoms and sleep quality. Possible connections between yoik and health are so far underexplored.

Objectives: The overall aim of this study was to explore whether yoik may have the potential to positively influence people’s health and well-being. The research questions were: 1. What are different persons’ experiences with yoik? 2. Can yoik experiences be related to health outcomes?

Method: Explorative, qualitative interviews with 13 participants were conducted in the Norwegian counties Finnmark, Troms, Nordland, and Trøndelag.

Findings: The findings suggest qualities in yoik that are comparable to positive effects of Music Therapy (MT) in general. Yoik may contribute to emotion management, i.e. processing negative emotions and inducing positive ones in people acknowledging yoik as something positive.

Conclusion: Yoik may be considered an important marker of social and cultural belonging for many Sami people. Yoik seems to have an underresearched potential as an intervention in culture sensitive healthcare and health promotion work that deserves to be further investigated. 

Session Nr.4: "Learning Language through yoik and music. A study on Sámi ethnic identity and language"

An English-language version will be published after Easter

Mitt prosjekt fokuserer på sammenhengen mellom musikk og etnisk identitet. Jeg ønsker å utforske om det er mulig å bruke kunstneriske virkemidler som musikk for å styrke samisk etnisk identitet - både personlig og kollektivt. Er det mulig å "finne din samiskhet" eller gjenvinne din samiske identitet gjennom kunstneriske aktiviteter som musikk og joik?

Målet er å utarbeide og videreutvikle en metode for de som jobber med barn og unge som målgruppe, der man bruker musikk og kunstneriske virkemidler for å fremme og styrke samisk etnisk identitet. Jeg ønsker å se på hvordan man kan bruke musikalske virkemidler og joik for å lære barn/unge samisk språk og i sosialfaglig perspektiv skape en trygg personlig og sosial identitet som kan være nøkkelen til ditt indre landskap.

Stadig færre barn og unge bruker samisk i det daglige, og opplæringen på grunnskoler har ikke vist positive resultater, særlig i utkanten av samiske kjerneområder. Hvordan kan man bruke virkemidler som musikk og kunstneriske aktiviteter for å styrke samisk etnisk identitet, språk og kultur ut i fra samiske verdier og grunnprinsipper. Prosjektet bygges også på en sosiokulturell tilnærming til blant annet læring - hvor læring som deltakelse i sosiale praksiser står sentralt (Lave og Wenger 1991). Læringen foregår som en overføring av kunnskap ved modellæring, prøving og feiling.

Musikken blir stadig viktigere i dagens samfunnsliv. Det er et lydspor i hverdagen. Den knytter oss til tid og sted, andre mennesker og opplevelser. Musikk sprenger grenser, musikk er språket som alle forstår, det er helende, det gir strukturer og forutsigbarhet, det skaper trygge rammer og det skaper opplevelser, musikk er til trøst og til glede og det skaper identitet og tilhørighet. Noe av de første minner i et menneskes liv er knyttet til rytme og musikk. Med mitt prosjekt ønsker jeg å finne ut om musikk, joik og kunst kan bli en identitetsmarkør og lydspor.  

Motivasjon for prosjektet er blant annet min egen bakgrunn og erfaringer som samisk musiker og korleder for barn og unge der målet har vært å bruke det samiske for å bevare og etablere samiske sangere og joikere. Gjennom samsang, rytme og joik både individuelt men også i grupper har jeg kommet frem til temaet i dette prosjektet: Med musikk og joik styrkes den etniske samiske identitet: «Vis meg din tone og jeg skal fortelle deg hvem du er»

Session Nr.5: "The Mabu liyan procjet" 

A partnership project between health and education services was undertaken in Broome Western Australia to foster cultural safety and destigmatise mental health services.

This innovative venture has culminated in the design and installation of a collaborative mural art-piece on the facia of the Broome Mental Health Services building.

Mental health consumers and community members were engaged in this six month public art project that has transformed the appearance and ambiance of this major regional mental health facility.

The theme for the mural art-piece was “Mabu Liyan” which in the local aboriginal language means “strong spirit”. A core group of ten artists developed this theme to create a strong and colourful story-line around Mabu Liyan and how people in the Kimberley keep their spirit strong.

Upon completion of the project participants have reported improved self-esteem and self-efficacy. They have also expressed a higher sense of pride and achievement.

Positive feedback was received from local key organisations and community leaders. The project has also been endorsed by the local Nyamba Buru Yawuru Aboriginal Corporation.

The challenge for Mental Health Services is to continue to foster and promote the organisation as welcoming, understanding and a place of cultural safety for the aboriginal people of the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia.