Today, the Sami People celebrate their national day. To honor their heritage and culture, I thought I’d share a couple of beautiful joiks sung by a Swedish/Sami artist, Sofia Jannok. For those of you who have never heard this music genre, you are in for a treat!
The following song, Aphi (Wide as Oceans), addresses the struggle over Sami land, culture, identity and the future – issues indigenous people worldwide have in common. It moved me to tears.
Everyday life in the North Cape & North of Norway 
Beautiful and moving. Thank you, Erica, for sharing Sofia’s music and expanding my understanding of our adopted country!
Thank you, Cindi. And thank you for re-blogging the post…. great for others to hear Sofia’s beautiful music.
Reblogged this on An American in Norway, a Citizen of the World and commented:
Today is Sami National Day.
From Visit Norway’s website:
The Sami people(‘s) … culture has been developing in Northern Scandinavia since the arrival of the first people 11,000 years ago. The Sami were at one with nature, and lived in tents … and turf huts whilst they followed the reindeer … Reindeer herding is still central to Sami culture, even to this day, and crucial to the subsistence of the Sami, providing meat, fur and transportation … For a long time the Sami were an oppressed people and their culture was in danger of dying out. Today the Sami stand stronger than most other aboriginal people in the world. They have their independence day, and their own flag and parliament … Other important elements of the Sami culture are its language (the various Sami languages are very distinct from Norwegian) and the joik, the Sami traditional song.
Although I’ve lived in this beautiful country for seven years and had far-ranging and deep conversations about the land, people, and culture with my Norwegian husband, I’ve only scratched the surface of its history and environment with my local real-life explorations.
A couple of months ago I got to know Erica through her blog. She’s an American living in the far north of Norway. She brings the “top of the world” alive through her photos and words, and understands the culture and people of the far north much better than any other expat I know.
I invite you to read her post about today.
Reblogged this on ARCTIC GRUB and commented:
Had to reblog this beautiful post by Experience North Cape, in honor of the National Sami Day which is celebrated today, February 6th. The Sami people are our indigenous people who live across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, and they have their own language and music genre (the joik). These two videos showcase how beautiful it can sound!
Ughh. Can’t open this. Will be back when we maybe have reliable internet.
Hope you have a better internet connection. They music is beautiful.
Beautiful!
Glad you enjoyed it, Allison.