An international expert seminar on traditional knowledge will be arranged in Inari in connection with the indigenous peoples’ music festival Ijahis Idja, FennoUgria Asutus reports. The theme will especially be examined from the point of view of northern peoples. The seminar will be held in the auditorium of the Sámi Museum Siida on Saturday, 21 August 2010. The presentations of the “Silent Knowledge” seminar will examine a range of cultural spheres in the North from reindeer herding and hunting customs to the music tradition. A connecting link in the presentations will be the indigenous traditional knowledge that has been created in the midst of snow and ice, as well as its significance for the community. The presentations will also deal with the passing down of such knowledge from one generation to another and the role of this knowledge in life today.
Simultaneous interpretation between Sámi, Finnish, English and Russian will be provided at the seminar. The seminar starts in Siida at noon on Saturday 21 August. It is arranged together by the Sámi Museum, the Sámi Education Institute and the Giellagas Institute of the University of Oulu, which specializes in Sámi language and culture. The seminar is free and open for everybody.
Later the same day, in the evening of August 21, there will be the Ijahis Ija Concert, which is the main event of the music festival Ijahis Idja. At the concert, the audience can listen to the top musicians of today’s Sámi music; there will also be music and performances by the indigenous groups visiting the event.
The 2010 Ijahis Idja focuses on the indigenous peoples’ sense of shared community, which is reflected in the motto of this year: "Oappážan, vieljažan!" - “My Sister, My Brother!”.
Welcome!
SEMINAR PROGRAM
Session I: SNOW
12.00 – 12.30
Dmitri Horolya, President of Russian Reindeer Herders’ Association, Salekhard, Yamalo-Nenetsia, Russia “The Sense of Snow and Ice on the Tundra”
12.30 – 13.00
Peesee Pitsiulak-Stephens, Dean, Arctic College, Nunavut, Canada “The Inuit Traditional Knowledge on Ice and Snow. The Northern Hunting Traditions in the Arctic”
13.00 – 13.30
Vera Tserkasova, Rector, Taimyr Vocational Institute, Taimyr, Russia “The Nomad School of Taimyr”
Session 2: MUSIC
13.30 – 14.15
Elli Maaret Helander, Artist, Utsjoki/Sodankylä, Sápmi/Finland “Sámi Drums: Telling a Story”
Presentation takes place at the exhibition “The Mother of Drums: Artistic Drums by Elli Maaret Helander”. Location: Siida, 1st floor, the exhibition room by the auditorium. Coffee and tea available during the performance.
14.15 – 14.45
Mai Britt Utsi, Rector, Sámi University College, Kautokeino, Sápmi/Norway “A Yoiking Story-Teller: Sámi Chanting as Part of Sámi Heritage”
14.45 – 15.15
Igor Nabok, Professor/Vice Rector, St. Petersburg Institute of Northern Peoples / Ethno-Cultural Science, St. Petersburg, Russia “The Traditional Music and Dance of the Northern Peoples: To Be Maintained or To Be Modernized?”
15.15 – 16.00
Petra Hartikainen, M.Phil., Ethnomusicologist, Cooperative Uulu, Finland “From Rapapallis to Lepenelautas: What Do Ancient Finnish Instruments Tell about Finns?”
Further information about the seminar: Arja Hartikainen, Head Curator, Sámi Museum Siida, tel. +358 (0)40 579 3313, arja.hartikainen(at)samimuseum.fi
, www.siida.fi
Further information about the indigenous music festival Ijahis Idja: Anna Näkkäläjärvi, Vice Cultural Secretary, Sámi Parliament, anna.nakkalajarvi(at)samediggi.fi, tel. +358 (0)40 840 0383, and www.ijahisidja
