This Susan Manning Workshop on Tuesday 30 May 2023 was organized by IASH Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Erika De Vivo and featured contributions from Dr Guy Puzey, Senior Lecturer in Scandinavian Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and Dr Chiara Bonacchi, Chancellor's Fellow in Heritage, Text and Data Mining and Senior Lecturer in Heritage; HCA and Edinburgh Futures Institute.
Following an introduction by Prof. Lesley McAra (Director, IASH), Dr De Vivo briefly presented her IASH research on Márkomeannu's Linguistic Landscape, providing the public with preliminary findings from her current IASH project "'Gulak Gus Buzza?' An anthropological study of Márkomeannu Festival as a site of linguistic activism". Taking her IASH project as a starting point, Dr De Vivo launched her online photographic exhibition on Márkomeannu festival’s linguistic landscape. This exhibition is hosted on the website https://gallogieddi.iash.ed.ac.uk/ and features a series of pictures (more than 35 photographs) from De Vivo’s fieldwork on the Norwegian side of Sápmi, held at Gállogieddi (Norwegian side of Sápmi). The subjects of the photographs are objects, linguistic signs, and landscapes connected with Márkomeannu festival. Explanatory texts in both English and North Sámi contextualize the photographs and offer insights into the use of MárkuSámi language as a decolonial strategy at Márkomeannu. The texts also address the significance of language projects for the local MárkuSámi community.
The presentation was followed by roundtable during which Dr Puzey and Dr Bonacchi provided diverse disciplinary perspectives on the interaction between Linguistic Landscape and born-digital heritage. Dr Puzey's presentation focused on current debates on Sámi ethno-linguistic rights in Fennoscandinavia, also in light of the oncoming report on Norwegianisation of Sámi and other ethno-linguistic minorities in Norway (Rapport Til Stortinget Fra Sannhets- Og Forsoningskommisjonen, submitted by an ad hoc commission to the Norwegian Parliament on 01.06.2023). Dr Bonacchi addressed heritage making in digital ecosystems, examining digitalization processes as opportunities for improving language learning in threatened language contexts such as that of Sápmi. In Indigenous contexts across the world, digital-born contents as well as web-based platforms and apps are proving extremely useful language acquisition tools who can help users to familiarize themselves with their heritage language. Dr Puzey, Dr Bonacchi, and Dr De Vivo then addressed how Sámi-managed website platforms can be arenas where Sámi activists challenge Fennoscandinavian cultural and linguistic hegemony while promoting Sámi cultures and languages, contributing to counteracting the stigmatization of Sámi cultures and to the reversal of language shift processes. During this roundtable, the speakers discussed how Sámi-managed web-based platforms have emerged as crucial arenas allowing Sámi individuals and communities to claim Sámi spaces organized according to Indigenous epistemologies and values.
The roundtable discussion was followed by a Q&A and a small reception.
The organiser is thankful to the Susan Manning Workshop Fund at IASH, Dr Ben Fletcher-Watson for his logistical and technical assistance, and Professor Lesley McAra for her opening and closing remarks.