Hey everyone! Greetings from Sapmi!

I am helping with a petition called Give Us Subtitles (Atte midjiide tekstemiid) and would really like to share it here if that's okay.

The purpose behind the petition is to show SVT, NRK, and YLE (the state-funded TV stations of Sweden, Norway, and Finland) that there is a need for Sami subtitles on their Sami speaking programs & movies on their streaming services. Currently, they only offer Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish despite the fact that the shows are dubbed in Sami or Sami original programs. This is problematic because Sami is a protected minority language in Sweden & Finland, and even a national language in Norway - there are people in these countries who want or need Sami subtitles.

We contacted all three stations to ask why Sami isn't offered as a choice in the subtitles section on these platforms. SVT & NRK responded that they are not prioritizing it since there doesn't seem to be enough interest to justify it. YLE never responded whatsoever. So we want to show them that others do believe it should be prioritized. We have accumulated over 2400 signatures, so we think that interest is DEFINITELY there. We just want for these stations to do the right thing. It's great that Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish are offered as subtitles because a lot of Sami people are not fluent in their own language (thanks to many generations of forced assimilation, colonizing, and white-washing) - but the fact that you can't at least have the option to read the Sami words that you are hearing is incredibly confusing and does nothing to help our literacy issues.

Here is the link to the Facebook and Instagram where we update daily (in various languages) with reasons why subtitles are important, and other information. The petition is in the link above.

I hope you all have a great day and thank you for taking the time to read this! Giitu!