A Sámi song by Mari Boine, remixed by Henrik Schwarz.

From the album “It Ain’t Necessarily Evil – Mari Boine Remixed Vol II”

And below is my remix of the translation from a language once banned:

Sami languages, and Sami song-chants, called yoiks, were illegal in Norway from 1773 until 1958…in Russia, Sami children were taken away when aged 1-2 and returned when aged 15-17 with no knowledge of their language and traditional communities.

language and song were considered such a risk that they were banned for centuries.

The Sami chant, the yoik, traditionally had a dual function. On the one hand, it was, and still remains, the distinctive musical expression of the Sami. The yoik is used “to remember people”, to characterize individuals, animals and landscapes. It can be described as a melodic-rhythmic lecture, in which rhythm is paramount and less emphasis is put on the verbal description of the lyrics. The yoiker’s task is to use music and images to create an emotion or atmosphere that then evokes the person, animal or place yoiked. In the pre-Christian religion, the yoik formed an important part of religious ceremonies. In such ceremonies, the shaman added a rhythmic accompaniment to the yoik by beating his drum. This dual function is the reason why some people even today see the yoik as sinful and therefore incompatible with Christian religious life.

As early as the 17th century the yoik was banned by law. Anyone breaking the law was to be punished severely. The reason the yoik was banned and condemned at this time was that the period saw the beginning of Christian missions among the Sami, and the yoik was seen exclusively as an expression of pre-Christian religion.

Mari Boine explains in the video below how and why she started to recognizes and reclaim her own heritage and sing the yoik.

She mentions the protests and violence in the news at the beginning of the 1980s, as seen in the photo to the right, had a strong effect on her sense of identity; the controversial construction of a hydroelectric power plant on the Alta river in Finnmark, Northern Norway created feelings of anger and rage for her as a Sámi.