Des yoïks de jeunes Samis à l'ère de l'extractivisme vert
(2026)
Files
DesyoïksdejeunesSamisàlèredelextractivismevert_30102025_LéopoldBeyaert_versionfinale2.docx
Closed Access - Microsoft Word XML
- 149.79 MB
Details
- Authors
- Supervisors
- Laugrand, Frédéric
- Abstract
- Sami yoik refers to a form of action that aims to project an atmosphere of proximity through an impressionistic vocal technique. The yoikeur Berit Alette Mienna described yoik as a potentially overwhelming feeling linked to the experience of "being seen," "understood," and in some cases, "loved." Through the act of yoiking, it is about better hearing and understanding others—who they have been, are, and will be for the person performing the yoik. A person who receives their own yoik appears poetically in the place, in the moment, within their community. They can thereby find themselves recognized and honored within a historical presence. Far from being limited to the past or the symbolic, Sami yoiks constitute, for young people belonging to this indigenous people of Northern Europe, rich ways of recognizing one another and engaging together in the unpredictability of the contemporary world marked by climate change and the energy transition. Based in the Sami community of Jåhkåmåhkke in Sábme, the territory considered “ancestral” by the Sami, this ethnography documents how young Sami people use poetic language to pursue complex processes of recognition. In addition to contributing to the renewal of socio-territorial ties that include non-human beings as well as places of life and memory, yoiks (poetic poems) can serve to address stigmas, stereotypes, and other issues of misunderstanding related to the legacy of colonialism in Sweden. They can also counter purely extractive and abstract configurations of space. The mining conflict in Gállok, located near the village of Jåhkåmåhkke, is a current issue in which the struggle for the recognition of indigenous Sami rights intersects with the challenges of environmental protection and the mining boom of the energy transition. A mine in Gállok would cause significant pollution and severely disrupt the dynamics of Sami reindeer herding in this region, which is already under considerable pressure. While mines may represent attractive economic opportunities for young Sami, many also wish to continue living and passing on their specific ways of inhabiting their lands. In these conflictual situations, young Sami use narratives and yoiks as frameworks for critical interpretation and expression, placing relationships of responsibility and reciprocity with the environment at the heart of their actions. Yoiks thus unfold a historical presence through which young Sami engage to perpetuate the material, social, and philosophical conditions of their collective freedom.
- Affiliations
Citations
Beyaert, L. (2026). Des yoïks de jeunes Samis à l’ère de l’extractivisme vert. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/273821