Singing Maps: developing online music communities to support Sámi adolescent cultural resilience.

Sámi vocal traditions, among the oldest in Europe, have faced challenges due to historical suppression and marginalization by majority cultures in the Nordic region. Despite a resurgence in Sámi commercial music, traditional practices have become endangered, and are almost entirely absent from formal educational settings. The Singing Maps project aims to preserve and promote the traditional musical heritage of the Sámi people, focusing on Sámi singing and joiking. By investigating issues such as cultural sustainability, Indigenous resilience, heritage ownership and musical identity, Singing Maps explores how Sámi music can be shared and passed down through modern educational platforms and online learning communities. It will develop new knowledge and learning resources specifically adapted to help Sámi adolescents connect with traditional music, supporting cultural resilience through music education. The Singing Maps project brings together Sámi culture bearers, educators, and researchers from across the Nordic region to create a unique online platform that will serve as a living archive and learning hub for Sámi musical traditions. The platform will function as a digital community where learners can create content, connect with others, and access Sámi music from different regions. This project not only aims to preserve endangered Sámi music but also strives to create ethical frameworks for sharing this heritage. By investigating traditional Sámi learning practices, the project seeks to understand how music has been taught across generations and how it can be shared responsibly with younger generations. This research will result in guidelines for sharing Indigenous musics developed through dialogue with Sámi culture bearers. The research is supported by international collaboration with project partners in Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, and Canada to place Sámi music in a global research perspective.

There is an increasing awareness in the Nordic countries and worldwide of an urgent need to bring Indigenous musics into classrooms to sustain ancient cultural practices in danger of extinction, redress historical injustices, fulfill national curricular goals, and foster cultural resilience. This proposal aims to build knowledge of traditional learning practices to support broader participation of Sámi adolescents in musical heritage. It will do this by investigating key issues surrounding cultural sustainability and Indigenous resilience such as tradition and renewal, heritage ownership, rites of passage, and cultural identity in the Sámi context. In collaboration with culture bearers from across the Nordic region and a wide international network of Higher Learning institutions, this study will provide an empirical basis to better understand the ways in which Indigenous music has been and may be effectively shared with young people. These perspectives will form the basis for the development and implementation of a first-of-its-kind online music learning community for use in secondary education in Norway, Finland, and Sweden. As such, this project will engage Sámi adolescents in living musical communities, strengthen cultural resilience, and secure a sustainable Sámi voice in Nordic music education. The project has four specific objectives: 1) Build knowledge of traditional learning practices and perspectives on sharing of cultural heritage among of Sámi culture bearers in Norway, Sweden, and Finland 2) Establish ethical standards and frameworks for responsible sharing of traditional music that positions the Sámi context in an international Indigenous comparative perspective 3) Develop online music learning resources and practices collaboratively with culture bearers and their communities, and 4) Evaluate the effectiveness of the dedicated online learning community platform to support Sami adolescents’ cultural resilience through school music education