Sámi Radio

Finnish YLE Sámi Radio celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997, broadcasting its first radio news programme from Oulu, but the station has been based in Inari for the last 30 years.

101.90	1947-1997

However, on the basis of our first contact with the journalist-broadcasters at the radio - Jouni Aikio had already helped us enquire on what day the Orthodox service was in Ivalo - we decide to go back.

We return to ask Nils Pajuranta if we could sit in on one of his Sámi-language daily 1-hour radio broadcasts. He kindly agrees. Among the little flurries of last-minute technics and floor squeaks, Nils prepares for the tick of clock - all sections mapped out like a sundial.

Nils Pajuranta	live

The 'live' light flashes red on. Off, play, speak. He speaks with us in English between the musical interludes, letting us know the general content of the words leaving the station.

radio-1.mp3	radio-2.mp3

Economic reindeer issues: the problems of today, and the same 20 years ago. Now and then, politic and music combines. When the broadcast finishes, we have a dialogue with Nils himself off-air in his office.

We find Jouni again and ask him if it is possible to hear traditional Joiku and Lu'edd songs of the Northern and Skolt Sámi. He hunts out a CD from the archive to listen to: "Le joik san frontiers chants et poésies du pays des sames laponie", recorded and published in 1984 by the Institute Français de Recherché Scientifique pour le Développement en Coopération and the Société D'Etudes Linguistiques et Anthropologiques de France. The accompanying text explains the history and ethno-musical particularities of the CD, written in French, Sámi and English languages.

We are reminded that for centuries Lapland and the Sámi peoples have fascinated and inspired central Europeans, ethnographers, anthropologists, explorers and other creative practictioners. We are currently a link in this chain of observation, listening and learning.

leud-3.mp3	leud-4.mp3

A Lu'edd is based on a different tradition from that of chants by other Sami of the North. The chants are more often interpreted as legends rather than music. However, these are stories based upon personal experiences. It is a living oral culture.

Jouni brings to us Tiina Sanila who is passing through Inari, visiting her friend in the radio station, and travelling from Sevettijärvi to Rovaniemi, where she studies at university. She is the granddaughter of Domna Sanila, a well-known singer of the Skolt Sami Lu'edds. Tiina also sings Lu'edd songs, learnt from her grandmother, who Signe was listening to. It was not for Jouni to arrange but..

Tiina Sanila	tiina-1.mp3	leud-5.mp3	tiina-2.mp3

Tiina commemorates her grandmother Domna, who died only a few months before. She choses one of songs her grandmother sang with a deep vibrato voice.