Lappishretain

Lappishretain is a fictional archival framework designed to preserve linguistic, cultural, and ethnographic data from the Lappish region. It combines a data model, software components, and governance practices intended for long-term accessibility and resilience.

The name blends "Lappish," a historical term for Sámi-speaking peoples of northern Europe, with "retain," signaling its purpose of long-term preservation. It is described as suitable for universities, museums, and community archives.

Development of the concept was undertaken by a hypothetical Northern Research Consortium in collaboration with the Sámi Cultural Council, with public drafts released in the 2020s and ongoing revisions as communities contribute.

Architecture and features include defining archival objects with metadata, media, and provenance; support for multilingual metadata, controlled vocabularies, persistent identifiers, immutable snapshots, cryptographic signing, and robust access controls. The design emphasizes portability to allow transfer between repositories and long-term stewardship.

Use and governance emphasize a broad range of items such as field recordings, photographs, field notes, craft patterns, and oral histories. A central focus is data sovereignty, with communities controlling access and reuse rights. Governance bodies incorporate Sámi representatives and ethics oversight, ensuring compliance with relevant privacy and cultural heritage protections.

See also Digital preservation, data sovereignty, linguistic archives, Sámi languages.