Arctic Peoples

by Clive Tesar & Gunn-Britt Retter 

The Saami Council has given its annual book prize to the author of a children’s novel that contains some decidedly grown-up ideas. Elle Marja Vars was presented with the prize at a ceremony during the Saami Council ’s meeting in Unjárga / Nesseby, in Saami traditional territory in northern Norway.

Vars’ book (pictured here with the author) translates as “The World’s Laziest Man”. The book describes a man who lives simply, and only ever takes and uses as much as he needs. People from the Finnmark area, which is home to many Saami, are often described as lazy by people in southern Norway. Vars gently examines this idea, showing that her character is not really lazy, but a man who lives according to traditional values, who lives sustainably and leaves little impact on the land.

This is Vars’ second Saami Council book prize, as she also won in the category of ‘children and youth books’ two years ago.

The Saami Parliament in Norway has released the first public version of a Saami “spell checker” and other proofing tools. This is a milestone in Saami computing history, and is part of various different efforts to ensure that indigenous languages can be used with modern computer technology. Microsoft has been developing some of its programs in indigenous languages, including Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit, and a Greenlandic spell checker has already been developed.

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Oqaasileriffik – the Greenland Language Secretariat launches the first version of Kukkuniiaat, an intelligent Greenlandic spell checker and hyphenation tool, which can be used in Microsoft Word and other programs in Office.
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