Once the Sami people followed the herds of reindeer which provided their livelihood around the snowy wastes of the Arctic. Today they live in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. World Report 357 reported the launch of the Lule Sami New Testament in Sweden. Although fewer in number, the Lule Sami in Norway recently enjoyed a similar celebration of their own.
OSLO, Norway — In October the Nordland town of Tysfjord was the scene of three days of events celebrating the launch of the translation of the New Testament in Lule Sami. Norway’s Lule Sami population is a mere 700 – just under half that of Sweden – and most of them live in the Tysfjord area.
The actual translation was performed by four Lule Sami from Norway and four from Sweden, who took three years to complete it.
Asked why it was worth spending four million kroner (US$468,000) on producing the new translation for just a few thousand people, Anne Lisbeth Lagset of the Norwegian Bible Society replies, “Everyone is entitled to hear and read God’s Word in his or her own language.”
Furthermore, the Society is keen to contribute to the survival of the Sami language which is so fundamental to the threatened Sami culture.
Many Sami who are now in their 50s or 60s did not receive education in their own everyday language at school. In fact, they had to refrain from using it and repress their Sami identity. But because Lule Sami is primarily an oral language, the less it is spoken, the less it is remembered and passed on, and so the greater is the threat to its existence.
The publication of the New Testament in Lule Sami will help it develop as a written language. Small wonder, then, that the Sami churches who contributed financially to the translation are delighted with the job done by the Bible Societies of Sweden and Norway!
The three days of celebration held to mark the launch included a Eucharist celebration service, a seminar on the 1,000-year history of Christianity among the Tysfjord Sami, and an exhibition of church books in Sami from the 1700s to the present day. (WR 358/7 - 03.01)