Background
Yoik is one of the oldest musical traditions in Europe, that is still is in practise and unbroken tradition. Centuries of threats against the practise of traditional yoiking have never the less resulted in that yoiking in some areas has been put to silence. We can now see a change of attitude and a raising interest for the traditional yoik. A three-year-long yoik project in the Swedish part of Sápmi, and a conference about the future of the yoik held at Ájtte, Swedish Mountain- and Sami Museum in the autumn of 2002,  have shown that yoik is a central part of the Sami cultural heritage. Because the traditional yoik is spontaneous and bound to specific conditions, it has rarely been recorded. For those reasons, the older recordings of yoik, that are scattered in different archives, are extremely valuable sources of knowledge now when the tradition of yoiking is fading away. Through the archives, a person could find the yoiks of his family and local region. Yoik performers, though, often find the archives a world that is hard to penetrate. The records are sometimes incomplete or non-existing. Another problem is that the older recordings are crumbling away and in great need of being transfered to safe medias. Thus exists a danger that a significant part of the yoik-recordings will be lost for future generations. The Yoik Association in Norway, initiated a feasibility study in the year 2000, concerning the need of making yoik recordings in archives available. The study states that there is a need for drawing attention to the yoik recordings in the archives. In co-operation with Sami museum SIIDA in Finland and Ájtte Museum in Sweden, a yoik archive project is being initiated with the purpose to improve the availability of the yoiks and to secure their preservation for the future.

Vision
The Yoik Association has a vision to map out, copy and gather yoik that is today scattered all over the world, and make it available. The vision of the project is to make material in the Nordic archives available and to work for the establishment of a Sami yoik archive with activities all over Sápmi.

Purpose
The purpose of the 2,5-year long yoik archive project is to gather, make available and preserve yoik recordings scattered in archives and other institutions in Norway, Finland and Sweden. The project starts with the oldest recordings, and concerns all the dialects of the Sámi language. The Yoik Association and the museums can see the great value of the project from their different fields of activities. The material that is beeing made available is important both for those who practise yoik and for others with interest in music, but also has a value for education and future university research. Further on, the project is important for the future production of teaching aids, for information activities about yoik to the general public and for future CD publications. Issues about preservation for the future and the establishment of a Sami yoik archive are important for the museums.

Expected results
Yoik recordings have been made available from each of the different yoik dialects through a database and CDs. Yoik recordings have been copied for preservation purposes. At Ájtte museum an archive ist established where copies of the yoiks and some of the original material will be stored. The institutions will after the projects ends, work for the growth of the database  and that material will be collected.