With a potential audience of less than 75,000 people, NRK Sáme radio and TV will never achieve the mass-market status of giants like MTV and Eurosport. Since 1992 it has embarked on a new mission, a combination of preservation and information...

By Nathaniel Tishman

Shades of pastel red, yellow, green, and blue illuminate the background as a man dressed in a traditional Sáme gakti costume steps to the center of the stage. The lights make his tunic reflect in an almost iridescent blue, with highlights sparkling in the red and gold threaded beads. With a brief pause, he begins speaking, reading today's headlines in a language spoken by less than 50,000 people, vaguely resembling Finnish, or perhaps Hungarian. What few people know is that his words are being sent throughout Scandinavia, and that people as far away as Malmö, Sweden, almost 2,500 kilometers south, will hear his words later that day. This is NRK Sáme Radio & TV, rapidly gaining a footing in today's world of BBC and CNN.

How it all began...

Nobody would claim that Sáme Radio and TV, based in the tiny community of Karasjok, Norway is prepared to compete with the global corporate media giants. In terms of reaching the small audience of Sáme speakers in northern Scandinavia, it has grown by leaps and bounds.

The first known radio broadcast in Sáme was recorded in Tromsø, sometimes referred to as the 'Paris of the North', in 1946 with a 20 minute broadcast. This was something of an isolated event, as the Norwegianization policy was still in full effect, meaning that the Sáme language was strongly discouraged by the Norwegian government. In 1976 Sáme Radio moved to Karasjok, which is widely seen as the center of Sáme culture in Norway along with Kautokeino, 70km to the west. The first broadcasts in Sáme on television began in 1990, when NRK, the Norwegian Broadcasting Company produced 7 hours of Sáme programming. In 1992 NRK spun off Sáme Radio and television into a separate organization, and one of the largest indigenous media outlets in the world was born. Today Sáme television broadcasts approximately 60 hours per year, with the content being primarily news and community information, all in Sáme.

"We're basically a mini NRK, we have the same responsibility for the Sáme that the Norwegians had for our market in the past," says Piera Balto, 50, Sáme Radio's News Manager.

Preservation and progress...

In a world of media homogenization and global villages it has become extremely difficult for small ethnic groups to preserve their language and heritage; the Sáme are no exception. Sáme Radio and TV are seen by many as reversing that trend, preserving the language and culture in a powerful way. Indeed, since its inception, Sáme radio has grown to broadcast more than 1500 hours of radio a year, approximately 6 hours per day. Most of the broadcasting is in the North Sáme dialect, which is spoken by the vast majority of Sáme, some 50,000, with limited Text TV broadcasts in the Lule and South Sáme dialects, which are each spoken by less than 1,000 people.

Balto has seen things improve dramatically since he arrived at Sáme Radio in 1987. Originally trained as a teacher, he felt that Sáme journalism was a critical way of preserving the Sáme languages.

"When I came to Sáme Radio in 1987, we were only producing about 45 minutes of radio programming per day, and now we're on for 6 hours a day," he says.

Despite the improvements and the substantial support from the government, Balto feels that Sáme Radio and TV need to have more support.

"The development is going forward, but we should have had this service offered for Sáme viewers 30 years ago."

As with every language, there is a great deal of evolution over time. With Sáme being spoken by such a small number of people, there is concern that the language might become extinct without institutions such as NRK Sáme Radio to preserve it.

"If the Norwegians are worried about their own language being anglicized, than we must be much more worried about Sáme," says Balto.

Passing it on...

With such a small number of people who certainly are not getting any younger, the Sáme language finds itself in need of a new generation, people who will carry on the heritage and speech of the indigenous people of the north. With this in mind Sáme TV and Radio have begun to reach out to children, hoping that kids will hear the language and keep it alive.
Suyi West, 21, produces a show for Sáme radio called Kákáos which is aimed at people between 14-25. Originally from Finland, West came to Sáme radio 6 months ago, where she'd previously produced Kákáos for Finnish Sáme Radio, based in Inari. West sees her show as a way to reach out to Sáme kids who might otherwise not know about their language and heritage

"We want young people to listen to us, and maybe think 'hey, it's cool to be Sáme," she says.

With more than 60% of Sáme programming being strictly culture, service, and government broadcasting, West is worried that young people will not be interested in listening to the only station which broadcasts in their native language- this is where Kákáos comes in. While much of the cultural programming focuses on Sáme past, Kákáos deals with issues affecting young people.

"We're not preaching to kids that you have to be a traditional Sáme," West says. "What we are doing though is making sure that they can hear the Sáme language, which will help them learn."

"It means a lot for the Sáme...."

Balto feels that it is a major achievement for the Sáme to have broadcasting in their native language, and to produce original programming. In fact, the Sáme news is broadcast each day on both Norwegian and Swedish TV with subtitles.

"In other countries like Italy and Spain all the minority languages have been dubbed over the main news broadcast, but in the Norwegian broadcasting, we speak Sáme with Norwegian subtitles," Balto says proudly. "I think this means a lot for Sáme spectators, it shows that the Sáme language was given very high status, and they can see that our language was good enough."

Sáme Radio and TV have big plans for the future. Since 1991 it has already grown by more than 400%- if it continues to grow at the same rate, by 2010, Same Radio could be a 24-hour news operation. As Sáme Radio is aimed at an indigenous audience, one of its main focuses is on indigenous issues. The directors of Sáme Radio and TV have opened contacts with Greenland TV/Radio, as well as with Inuit broadcasters in Canada and Aboriginal-language broadcasters in Australia. They are hoping to have a digital network established by next year which they can use to air each other's broadcasts.

Media by its very nature is meant to communicate with as broad a reach of society as possible. This is the mission of Sáme radio, although to a limited extent. Sáme Radio's mission is more one of preserving a language and a culture that might otherwise fade away. As the news broadcast ends, the man in the gakti disappears- if Same Radio continues on its current path, it never will.




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