Soon enough, NRK Sápmi will be welcoming WITBN to the land of snow, midnight sun, northern light, yoik, and the famous blue light during daytime in mid-winter.
By MARJA KATARINA PÅVE / SECRETARIAT OFFICE
NRK Sápmi will be hosting the next biennial World Indigenous Television and Broadcasting Conference, WITBC 2012, from March 24 to 30, 2012. The venue for the conference will be Guovdageaidnu in the heart of Sápmi. Registration for the conference will be available on the newly launched website starting on Sept. 12.
The conference will be held just after the sun comes back after a long period of winter darkness. This is the time when both the Sámi people and nature starts to wake up again after a long winter of temperatures that goes down to -52 degree Celsius. March is traditionally the time for weddings, festivals, and other cultural activities in Guovdageaidnu. The temperature will be nice and not so cold, and the sun usually shines most days in March.
We hope to see you at WITBC’12, and if you choose to attend you will not only have the possibility of listening to interesting view of Indigenous journalism but you will also get a piece of the Sámi culture. Get around in Guovdageaidnu with reindeer taxis, enjoy Sámi food, listen to music in a lávvu (Sámi tipi), and you might see the northern light dancing above your head in the middle of the night while taking a bath in a bathtub placed in the snow outside. This is just some of what you will experience in addition to the main content of the program. The focus at the third conference will be Indigenous Journalism. We will have interesting discussions around the topic of what the Indigenous perspective is while working in media. Our vision for the conference is: Unifying Wisdom, Sharing Content.
The goal of all the cooperation within WITBN is not only to unify all the knowledge of the co-workers in the network, to share content, but also to make shared platforms where we can distribute our local content all over the world, and by that influence more people than we would if we only reached our local audiences. Through working together we learn about each other and hopefully will be able to produce content with even higher quality with an Indigenous perspective for the world.
To do that we have to solve both practical, technological, legal and journalistic constraints, and that will be a part of what we will be aiming to do in the internal workshops before the conference for WITBN members.
In cooperation with the Sámi University College, we are arranging journalist seminar days before the main conference. This seminar will be open for journalists and media people who work within the area of Indigenous journalism. The headliners at the seminar and the conference will be the very best in the fields of investigative journalism, education, feature, and social media both locally and from other regions in the world.
WITBC’s aim is to create opportunities for Indigenous broadcasters to exchange views and experiences; and to encourage interaction and communication among Indigenous media worldwide.
It is only a few months away from the conference. As we gear up for an insightful WITBC ’12, we at NRK Sápmi are excited and look forward to meeting you all in the Arctic Circle and exchanging all our views towards the future of Indigenous journalism.
For more information about WITBC ’12, visit: www.nrk.no/witbc2012; or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. You can also contact the WITBC'12 team at NRK Sápmi on: phone +47 7846 92 00; fax +47 7846 9201; or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
ENDS
Marja Katarina Påve has a master degree in business in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship and is now working as the coordinator for Sápmi WITBC 2012.
