About 10 % of all pupils in grades 1–10 who learn Sámi in Norwegian schools live in the city of Tromsø. This group totalled 232 pupils in the school year 2020/2021, and the pupils went to over 20 different schools. Almost all were pupils of North Sámi, and a handful also received instruction in South Sámi. In Umeå in Sweden, 42 pupils attended mother tongue classes in Sámi in the winter of 2021, divided among five different Sámi varieties, reflecting the diverse composition of the Sámi population in the area. In neither city, the Sámi pupils exceed 3 percent of their municipal peer group and they are embedded in local communities dominated by the national majority languages (Norwegian and Swedish). We discuss the challenges and opportunities that Sámi children who grow up in two urban environments face when reclaiming, maintaining, and developing their indigenous heritage language. We report from piloted language (re)vitalisation activities, 'language showers' (giellariššu), which regularly gathered pupils from different schools for activities in Sámi and were led by adult proficient speakers with the goal to strengthen the pupils' language skills and the social bonds between children who otherwise do not meet on a regular basis.
Första författare har fått sin forskningstid inför det här arbetet till stor del finansierat av ISK vid UiT Norges arktiske universitet samt till en mindre del av UmU. Första författare har en lektorstjänst vid båda universiteten.