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Abstract

How does storytelling enable the Sámi to know and reinterpret their territory, and thus engage with the contemporary world as Sámi? For many young Sámi, the relationship with Sámi stories and yoiks (Sámi songs) is a precious source of meaning and personality at a time when industrial pressure on the Arctic territory is increasing and climate change is darkening the horizon. The Sámi are dealing with modernity in an innovative and pragmatic way, in the spirit of Sámi traditions, in order to pursue and renew their territoriality and defend their cultural identity. Sámi oral literature is not so much apprehended by the Sámi as archival documents outside the present time, but rather is actively reinterpreted and rearticulated into the actions of their daily lives and their projects. From oral narratives to Sámi music and yoiks, Sámi oral literature thus feeds into the Sámi’s most current practical and cosmopolitical fields.