ERIC Number: EJ1463787
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019
Pages: 31
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: EISSN-2691-8633
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Overcoming Silence and Sorrow: Sami Language Revitalization in Sweden
Patricia Fjellgren; Leena Huss
International Journal of Human Rights Education, v3 n1 Article 4 2019
Our paper focuses on new ways to address silence and feelings of sadness surrounding language and cultural loss in Indigenous contexts, sometimes resulting in deep inter-generational trauma. As a consequence of two Council of Europe conventions ratified by Sweden, Indigenous and minority language maintenance and revitalization was included in the Human Rights commitments of the Swedish state in 2000. Work in these fields led in 2010 to the establishment of the Sami Language Center with the assignment to find new ways to ascertain that all the Sami languages spoken in Sweden would survive and develop as part of the Swedish national heritage. We discuss methods used at the Center to tackle large-scale community language loss, mixed feelings, and emotional blocks resulting from a history of stigmatization and forced assimilation. We provide examples of how these methods have affected local communities and individual people, leading to deeper reflection on the revitalization process and what is needed to strengthen it. We also discuss new kinds of efforts needed to deal with emotions surrounding revitalization, and conclude that revitalization should be seen as a holistic task involving body and mind. Furthermore, the consequences of the fact that language revitalization is considered by some a "women's issue" (while there is a great need of including more men in revitalization efforts) are also discussed in this article.
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Indigenous Populations, Language Maintenance, Languages, Language Minorities, Language Attitudes, Cultural Maintenance, Trauma, Civil Rights, Language Planning, Public Policy, Language Skill Attrition, Social Bias, Acculturation, Gender Differences, Native Language, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction
International Journal of Human Rights Education. 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, CA 94117. e-mail: ijhre@usfca.edu; Web site: https://repository.usfca.edu/ijhre
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Sweden
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A