Voicing Sápmi, defending Sápmi: Environmental activism in Sámi popular music and music videos

As Europe’s only recognized Indigenous peoples, the Sámi rely on a variety of media in pursuit of social, political and environmental activism. Sámi musicians have used popular music to discuss twenty-first-century concerns and reach broader Scandinavian and global audiences, often messaging through their iconic vocal genre of joik and imagery of their homeland, Sápmi. Artists employ music videos to enhance the activist impact of their music, showing and telling rather than just explaining. These videos illustrate an Indigenous Sámi ecocritical approach to the sociopolitical issues discussed in the lyrics. Through such combined media expression, artists discuss their connection to the land, sense of place and the effects of climate change in the Arctic. They furthermore render visible and audible the years of colonial erasure and silencing of Sámi presence in northern Fenno-Scandinavia. The article concludes that these videos present an emerging ecocritical activism profile specific to the Sámi experience.