The sami

The Sami people live in the north of Europe, in 4 countries: Russia, Norway, Sweden and
Finland. Total population in these four countries is estimated about 80 000 of whom around
half live in Norway.

Language

Slightly under half of these people talk Sami. The Sami people speak a language that is a
member of the Uralic linguistic group along with languages such as Finnish, Estonian and
Hungarian. Norwegian and other Indo-European languages are not related to the Sami’s
tongue. Sami language is created from nine different languages, which are spoken
throughout the Sami area.

In the presentation, I named them individually, but now I don´t remember how they are
called.

Traditional ways of live

Most Sami people have supported themselves through their living from herding reindeer,
fishing, livestock farming and hunting. They have also traditional Sami clothing which is
called „gákti“. It´s another unbroken, living tradition, but mostly used for celebrations or
parties. I would say, it looks kinda like our folk costume, but for colder conditions. Clothes is
mainly made from colors red and blue. Both genders have dress, but man have also belt for
tigten it under belly. Women wear hat which looks like our “čepiec” and man wear hat that
looks like jester´s hat (if someone don´t know, is king´s clown in fairy tale). Women have
something that looks like a poncho, but it´s only on their arms and it has lots of fringes. On
the feet, they have typical Sami boots or shoes that look like shoes for elves. In every
country, this typical costume looks different, so it´s hard to describe it in general.

They have also many traditions of craftsmanship such as tin embroidery, pearl embroidery,
weaving shoelaces, jacket seams, wood carving, and knife-making. The are all assiduously
maintained.

Their Sami boots filled with blister sedge will keep your legs warmer than the latest
developments and are used diligently when the temperature drops below -40.

Their traditional way of housing is „lawo“ – big tent, wooden beds which are covered with
fur from reindeers, stone floor, stone fireplace

The Joik

It´s one of the oldest song traditions in Europe. This type of song can be deeply personal or spiritual
in nature, often dedicated to a human being, an animal, or a landscape and the harmonies reproduce
the qualities of the object. Joiks have short lyrics or no lyrics at all.

In presentation i have video as exaple of joiking.