A summary of the news for November.
The young Frisian singer Janna Eijer (22) from Jubbega won the eight edition of Liet International in Italian Udine, last Saturday evening (19 November 2011). Liet International is the big international song contest for contemporary songs in European minority languages. Alongside Friesland, the other contestants in Udine came from Ireland, Austria (Burgenland Croats), Val Badia (Ladinians), Scotland, Karelia in Russia, Udmurt in Russia, Friuli in Italy, Switzerland, Norwegian Sápmi, and the Basque Country and Asturias in Spain. Janna Eijer was send to Udine as the winner of the Frisian song contest Liet earlier this year. She was the only soloist of the twelve contestants. At Liet International songs were in Asturian, Basque, Croatian, Frisian, Friulian, Gaelic, Irish, Ladinian (South Tyrol), Rumantsch (Switzerland), Sápmi, Udmurtian (Finno-Ugric language in Russia) and Vepsian (Karelia).
Janna Eijer made an interesting change to the solid rock music from the Basque Country and Asturias and the folk music from Scotland and Ireland. She wrote and composed her sensitive ballad “1 blow” herself. While she was softly singing, the audience in the sold-out Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine was completely silent. The twelve-headed jury – one jury member for each participating region – made an exciting affair of the scoring. Not until the final jury member, Orla Sweeney from Ireland had given her votes, did Janna Eijer pass the Udmurt band Silent Woo Gore from the Russian Federation with only two points. It is the first time in the existence of Liet International, a Frisian initiative, that the Frisian contestant wins the song contest. Earlier winners of Liet International came from Catalonia, Corsica, Sápmi (4x) and the Faroe Islands.
Listen to the winning song of Janna Eijer: “1 blow”
The public award went to Coffeeshock Company, an energetic reggae, hiphop, rap band from Burgenland (Croatian), in the eastern part of Austria. Their huge, fanatic fan base joined them to Udine.
Liet International in Udine was organised by the Frisian foundation Liet International in cooperation with Friulian cultural organisations and governments. The song festival is supported by, among others, the Council of Europe, the Spanish region Asturias and by the candidate European Capital of Culture Ljouwert/Leeuwarden 2018.
On 16 November 2011 it was 60 years ago that “Kneppelfreed” (Frisian for “club Friday”), took place. Instead of “kneppeljen” (clubbing), it was time for “keppeljen” (connecting), according to the Frisian movement organisation “Ried fan de Fryske Beweging”. They came up with a programme of 60 days, starting 60 days before 16 November, on 17 September, at the same courthouse where Kneppelfreed took place 60 years ago. During those 60 days several activities took place, like lectures, theatre plays, music events, etc. One of the activities took place every day. Special flags (picture) were designed for 60 towns and villages in Fryslân and each of them got 60 flags to display at houses, shops, along the road, etc. Every day a new town or village displayed their flag, so in the end 60 x 60 flags were visible in Fryslân. On the flag the name of the town and a clause from a poem typical for that town were printed.
At this website you can read all the poems and find some short movies of people reading their town's poems.
Kneppelfreed (club Friday)
Kneppelfreed (Frisian for “club Friday”), also known as the “Battle of Zaailand”, took place on 16 November 1951. On that occasion a group of protesters, bystanders and journalists went to the courthouse at the Zaailand square and clashed with the police when they met them with batons and water cannons and tried to force them apart.
Fedde Schurer, editor of the newspaper “Friesche Courier” in Leeuwarden, had accused the judge of the district court, Mr. Wolthers, in an editorial of "childish, insulting and harassing actions". Mr. Wolthers had condemned two milkmen for writing the Frisian words “sûpe” and “molke” on their milk churns, instead of the Dutch “karnemelk” and “melk”. And he had refused the vet Sjirk Franses van der Burg to defend himself using Frisian for a traffic violation. Mr. Wolthers had the vet waiting for an interpreter in the lobby of the courthouse for hours then decided that an interpreter was not necessary and finally refused to listen to Van der Burg's defence.
Because of his comments Schurer was summoned for insulting the judiciary. The trial was sensational, because it embodied a power struggle between the Dutch-speaking elite and the Frisian-speaking youngsters. Many outraged Frisians wanted to attend the meeting and raised banners in the square where the weekly market was just held. The crowd in front of the courthouse demonstrated against the decision to put the journalist on trial in the small rather than the large hall preventing them from attending. The choice for the small hall was taken by the court to save fuel costs. The police sprayed the people with water, but these were mainly merchants and unsuspecting housewives. There was a battle with the police in which many unsuspecting Frisians were considered to be Frisian Language fighters. Dutch journalists got sympathy for the Frisian movement because of the huge police force.
Two of the results of Kneppelfreed were that in 1955 the use of Frisian in primary education was permitted (Cals-law), and in 1956 the right to speak Frisian in court was officially confirmed (Donker-law).
Since July 2011 there exists an agreement on cooperation between the Fryske Akademy in the Netherlands and the Government of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District (Yamal) in the Russian Federation. The main area of common interest is in the field of minority language studies, where the situation of Frisian in Friesland can be compared to the situation of Nenets, Hanti, Selkup and other minority languages in Yamal and where partners in both institutions can learn from each other. Furthermore, the international reputation of the Mercator Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning as a platform in Europa can be utilised to include the experience of other minority language areas in Europe. In the framework of this agreement several plans have been formulated for mutual working visits, joint conferences and seminars, exchange of literature and information and other activities.
As representatives of the Fryske Akademy/Mercator Cor van der Meer and Tjeerd de Graaf were invited to take part in the Arctic Educational Forum which has been organised in Salekhard (the capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District) from 16 until 19 November 2011. About 250 participants attended this Forum, most of them representatives of institutes in the Russian Federation, where the languages of the Arctic regions are studied and used in educational programs. Other scholars from abroad were colleagues from Canada, Estonia, Finland, Hungary and Scotland, who also reported on the experience with the teaching and learning of minority languages in their country.
Photo 1. Opening of the Forum by the governor of Yamal
During excursions to schools, art centrums and other institutions the conference participants were able to meet with representatives of the local minority peoples and learn about the rich culture of the Nenets, Hanti and Selkup minorities. In some smaller settlements in the tundra teachers showed their work with the children of reindeer herders and other local people who have to send their children to a boarding school. These visits made a great impression and illustrated how in such arctic schools much attention is paid to the local culture and language. The use of information technology for the development of new language teaching and learning methods in a minority language situation will be an important aspect of the cooperation between the Frisian Academy/Mercator and the institutions in Yamal which are the partners of the agreement.
Photo 2. Excursion to a school in the tundra
This and other topics were discussed on the last day of the Forum in a meeting with the director and vice-director of the Yamal-Nenets Department of Education (Irina Sidorova and Alexander Ivanov) and the director of the Yamal-Nenets Regional Institute of Education Development (Galina Shaporenkova). During this meeting the Russian edition of the book “North and East Tartary” by Nikolaas Witsen was presented to the library of the Department and the participants from Friesland received books and further documentation about the local situation in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District.
Photo 3. Meeting at the Department of Education
It was decided that the plan of activities will continue in 2012 with the participation of two experts from Yamal in the Early Language Learning Expert Seminar (9-10 February 2011), organised in Leeuwarden by the Mercator Centre. In the meantime further action plans will be specified, such as a joint seminar in St.Petersburg with the Herzen State Pedagogical University, exchange of publications on bilingual and trilingual education, ethnolinguistics and language communication, preparation of joint publications, and the study of endangered languages, cultures and archives. We hope that part of these events will take place in the framework of the Russia-Netherlands Year 2013.
Background information on Regional and Minority Languages in Yamal
The Russian Federation is a multinational country where many languages are spoken. In this country the Russian language is the most important means of communication used for contacts between its citizens and in many cases with people abroad. Its use as one of the important world languages is stimulated in several ways, whereas the position of many regional and minority languages in Russia has become rather weak and in many cases it can be qualified as being in several stages of endangerment.
The Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District covers a large area of 770,000 km2, which is mostly situated on the Yamal peninsula and in the Eastern part of the Polar Ural mountains. It has a population of about 550,000 people and is one of the strategically important regions of the Russian Federation with concentrated rich natural resources, where each year more than 91% of the natural gas in the country is obtained. In addition to these natural resources, the other wealth of Yamal consists of its history and the people who live on these lands, their traditional culture and language. The indigenous inhabitants of the Yamal peninsula (approximately 14,000 people) are the Nenets, Khanty and Selkup. Most of them are Nenets, who practice their traditional way of life such as reindeer herding, hunting and fishing. There are 600,000 reindeer in the region which is a quarter of the world’s reindeer population.
Each of these ethnic groups has its own language. More than 30 years ago there existed a rather extended bilingualism in these communities, in which often the leading position was occupied by the Nenets language, whereas Russian was the second language. Educational programs were directed at pupils, who came to school just speaking Nenets. They started their education using the native language, at the same time learning Russian which afterwards became the only language of education, while Nenets kept its position as a family language. This situation of transitional bilingualism lasted until the 80s of the last century. Since then more and more Nenets parents have shifted to Russian as the language of the family and the Nenets language has become endangered. However, for Nenets there are still possibilities to obtain a revitalization of the language, which might be considered as a good example for other minority languages in the Russian North. The exchange program with the Mercator Centre will contribute to this development.
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the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union.
