Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North

Digital mediaGIFs, films, TED Talks, tweets, and morehave become integral to daily life and, unsurprisingly, to Indigenous peoples strategies for addressing the historical and ongoing effects of colonization. In Sámi Media and Indigenous Agency in the Arctic North, Thomas DuBois and Coppélie Cocq examine how Sámi people of Norway, Finland, and Sweden use media to advance a social, cultural, and political agenda anchored in notions of cultural continuity and self-determination. Beginning in the 1970s, Sámi have used Sámi-language mediaincluding commercially produced musical recordings, feature and documentary films, books of literature and poetry, and magazinesto communicate a sense of identity both within the Sámi community and within broader Nordic and international arenas.

In more contemporary contextsfrom YouTube music videos that combine rock and joik (a traditional Sámi musical genre) to Twitter hashtags that publicize protests against mining projects in Sámi landsSámi activists, artists, and cultural workers have used the media to undo layers of ignorance surrounding Sámi livelihoods and rights to self-determination. Downloadable songs, music festivals, films, videos, social media posts, images, and tweets are just some of the diverse media through which Sámi activists transform how Nordic majority populations view and understand Sámi minority communities and, more globally, how modern states regard and treat Indigenous populations.