Publishing Sámi Literature-From Christian Translations to Sámi Publishing Houses

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Edited and translated by Rauna Kuokkanen

Publishing in the Sámi languages has always been difficult. The Sámi are currently spread across four countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. There are nine different Sámi languages, some of them with only a few speakers. The Sami publishing industry is entirely dependent on government funding as we do not have our own funds nor is there a system of independent foundations as is the case, for example, in North America. Although the Sámi language has been a language of instruction at some schools in the Sámi area for a couple of decades, the number of Sámi readers remains very small. Due to the various Nordic assimilation policies …