In the morning, on the last day of our class trip we prepared traditional Norwegian “matpakke” and we continued our journey. Next stop was Indre Billefjord in Porsanger Muncipality. We visited there Mearrasiida Competence Centre. In Sámi languages mearra means sea and siida, in this context, means home. It is a Sea Sámi organization founded in 2002, which goals are to protect, preserve and collect information about their language, culture and traditions.

Social anthropologist, Svanhild Andersen, who is the chairman of the Centre, presented the tasks undertaken in this place and explained why development of local tourism is still a big challenge for them. The diversity of culture is often a tourist’s interest. For it to be interesting, it must be characterized by something special. The culture of modern Sea Sámi is not very different from the average Norwegian life. The contrast is less visible than, for example, in Sámi reindeer herder’s lifestyles. In addition, the long period of Norwegisation process, the assimilation policy, which began after the mid-19th century and lasted for almost 100 years, also contributed to the disappearance of their culture.

That is why the existence of this place, the center where elements of their heritage are collected and knowledge about them disseminated, is extremely important. Thanks to this, the awareness of the uniqueness of their tradition is growing, also among people who have Sea Sámi roots.

Later we could see an exhibition of their handicrafts – costumes, toys, everyday objects and decorative elements. The material culture of Sea Sámi people is characterized by colorfulness and diversity. The materials from which these works are created come from natural sources – the wood of locally growing trees, the wool of their sheep, bones, skins of aquatic mammals and fish. Their outfits are decorated with beautiful designs that are more important than just being an aesthetics aspect. Their design is a unique and special sign of their regional culture which distinguish them from other Sámi cultures.

We had the pleasure to meet a local artist – Ove Stødle – who created many of the items shown at the exhibition.  Among them was beautiful bone jewelry, wooden decorations, e.g. a wooden bow tie, wooden dishes and furniture.  But the largest project Ove currently had was building a traditional Sámi boat. In a room filled with a smell of pine wood and tree resin, he explained how working on it looks like and what challenges still awaits him. There was only one man who had such valuable knowledge about building these traditional boats and if Ove wouldn’t learn from him, knowledge could have gone forever.

This place showed me that if there are suitable people who want to take care of the valuable knowledge of their ancestors and pass it on, it gains stability and strength over time. Thanks to this, the region acquires the uniqueness and authenticity that can be lost so easily in the modern globalized world.

It was the second day of our trip, and we had been on the road for a while. The hour was getting late, and people were in the mood for some rest and good food to fill us up after our trip to Trollholmsund. The original plan was that we were going to set up some lavvus for us to stay in for the night, but because of the weather forecast we ended up renting cabins instead, which ended up being a smart choice considering the fact that it started pouring down shortly after our arrival to Russenes camping in Olderfjord. Firstly, upon our arrival, we had to make the sleeping arrangements. Everyone split into groups of four, and then each group were given keys to our cabins for the night. The cabins were small and simple, yet quite charming in a way, with two rooms, one of which had a couch and a table, and the other, a four-man bedroom. We put our stuff in the cabins then it was time for us to make dinner.

We met up in the gathering hall/kitchen area and got to work. The kitchen was, not unlike our living quarters, small and a little cramped, so only a few people could help with the cutting and cooking at a time, meanwhile the rest had to help set the table.

For dinner, we were going to have a traditional Pollock fish soup. The recipe was Ellen`s, and was made up of Pollock (obviously), and different vegetables like onions, garlic, bell peppers, carrots, parsnips, celery and veggie stock. Other ingredients that we used were coconut milk, ginger and a little bit of chili to spice things up a little bit, and give the soup some more of a bite and kick so to speak.

Fish soup is very traditional, especially along the Norwegian coastline were fishing is a big part of everyday life, as it has been for so many centuries. Fishing has always been a massive part of Norwegian culture. The coastal fish soup usually is mostly made by using white fish like cod, halibut or Pollock to mention a few. If you travel farther into the mainland then the more common thing will be to use red fish, since there are plenty of them in the lakes and rivers of Norway.

Now for the most important part of all.  How was the fish soup? Well, as the title may suggest, it was simply amazing. You could even call it a culinary masterpiece. It was really well balanced and rounded. The fish itself had a nice and pleasant consistency, and with a great taste. The chili added some flair, and gave the soup a satisfying twist. I do believe that pretty much everyone enjoyed it, and if this were a food review then there would simply be no other choice than giving it five out of five. When we were done with eating and cleaning, everyone headed back to the cabins and enjoyed the rest of the evening by socialising and playing some games before heading to bed.

ESTD 1986

The second day of the field trip included the memorable visit to “Sami Centre of Contemporary Art” which was established in 1986 in order to preserve the Sami’s culture.

Sami, indigenous people who are living in Northern part of the earth since thousands of years with their own cultures and heritage including Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Sami people have been living there since prehistoric age struggling and being adjusted with the extreme weather condition in comparison to other parts of the world. They developed their own way of lifestyle suitable to their motherland. The exposure of the extreme cold forced them to adopt suitable activities in order to survive.

Modern development have obviously affected the Sami people residing different places. Passing through many obstacles and rejoices throughout the centuries, now they have started to live modern life with a lot of modern facilities such as advanced houses and other facilities that wouldn’t be available before fifty years. Their life have become much mo easier in comparison to the past.

Although they have been changed into modern facilitated lifestyle now, the centuries old culture is very important for various aspects because culture is the heritage of community. It can not only be useful to aware upcoming Sami generation about their past generations but also for the rest of the world. It means the Sami culture has great scope for tourism as well and the centre is the point of attraction for tourism from all around the world and they can tourists can learn and refreshed themselves with the most probably new experience to them.

Art Center aims to organize exhibitions on different aspects of the Sapmi Culture in order to provide exposure of the contemporary art to the modern day people so that their centuries old cultural heritage will exist in future in people’s mind and hopefully modern Sapmi generations follow and preserve their valuabe culture with pride. Even though no any culture has remained untouched and unaffected by the modern development as it is natural process of modification and change, Sapmi Cultural Heritage which developed in the northernmost part of the earth before thousands of years has significant role while studying human civilization.

Click here to learn more about the exhibitions of the Center

Projected work is effective to achieve a certain goal effectively. Sapmi Centre of Contemporatry Art is conductiong several projects in order to preserve and highlight Sapmi culture. The center is working in several projects with cooperation with different government and non government bodies as it has become international concern these days. Moreover, the centre is also colaborating with Sapmi people and organizations spreading mainly in Sweden, Finland and Russia. Some of the arts and paintings in the center are made by Sapmi artist belonging to Russia, Sweden and Finland as well.

You can learn more about the center’s projects by clicking here: Click here to learn more about the projects owned by the center

The visit to the Sapmi Centre for Contemporary Art is satisfying as it totally reflects centuries old Sapmi Culture and provides better knowledge of their contemporary lifestyle.

References
20 Sept. 2019 Exhibition and Projects; http://samidaiddaguovddas.no/en/

Note: Unable to upload more pictures due to the lack of space.

by Chi Nguyen

One of the most interesting parts in this excursion is that we can gain some real experiences about Sámi daily activities. So, in the second day, we had a Sámi Knife trip at Karasjok Camping.

Gathering up & start

After checking out and giving room keys back, we all gathered in front of the cabin and were ready for the trip. We were all so curious about what will happen in this trip and had a lot of questions such as what is the main attractions of Sámi Knife? How can we use Sámi Knife? What is the main activities of the camp?, etc… Fortunately, we met Silje Halonen – owner of Karasjok Camping – she was also a guide for our trip that day. Silje is a Sámi as well and she inherited the camping from her father. Her family has established the camping since 1963 and Silje took over it from 2011.

We really enjoyed an autumn-vibes in Karasjok with cool weather and fascinating yellow-leave trees started when going along the path to the river.

Silje let us all participate in preparation tasks for the camping such as collecting and carrying reindeer skins, finding stone for making fire burner and using Sámi Knife to clear brushes.

Sámi Knife & Prepare for fire

One most necessary thing for camping is a Sámi Knife. A knife was an essential tool for the Sámi people, who survived on fishing, fur trapping and reindeer herding. Those knives are hand-made by Sámi and were sharpened one day before the trip. That’s why those are so sharp.

Silje guided us to use Sámi knife in the correct way and showed example for us. The Sámi knife is absolutely sharp and we need to hold it tightly in our hands so that we can erase leaves from the bush easily. I am total surprised when even the smallest girl of our group can do this by herself.

We stopped near by the river and started fire camping there. We used all materials brought along including reindeer skins, stone and grill sticks to set up fire and started grilled smoked reindeer meats.

Fire camp & Hear stories

All of us sat around the fire and talked to each other. We heard stories from Silje about Karasjok Camping and asked her many questions about her concerns. Silje was inspired by sharing Sámi experiences to tourists more, not only bring accommodation for them but also offer them many activities so that they can feel what exactly Sámi lifestyle is. In winter, there is a snowmobile trail right up to the cabins, so the basis for snowmobile safari is excellent! Skiing enthusiasts can use the same track to get down the river ice, and on to the many ski slopes in the area! Besides that tourists can visit at reindeer herds, horse riding, snowshoeing, northern lights chasing and many other activities,…

In summer, in Karasjok camping, they organize some other activities such as hiking, mountain biking, canoeing, cultural trail, hunting and fishing, etc… for tourists.

What will be next?

Now, Silje concerns one matter that how can she decide the target customers and do marketing better for the camping in the future. She are taking part in many tourism projects and learns the way to improve marketing channels through social media and tourism agencies. In long-term plan, Silje wants to build more cabins for more accommodation to tourists and in short-term, she will add more beds in the next Easter.

We were all really enjoyed this activity and highly recommended Silje to develop some more experienced activities like this for tourists in the future.

For more information about Karasjok Camping, check it at: http://www.karacamp.no/indexen.html

Walking through the close growing trees in Karasjok you will find a beautiful building inspired by the nature around it. This hidden treasure has a massive value to the whole nation of Sámi people. The treasure you have  found is The Sámi Parliament, and has a lot to offer to those who enter its open doors.

The History of the Parliament

The story of the Sámi parliament starts way before the first parliament, the building or even the first election. It all began with the split of the union between Norway and Sweden. The Sámi people had difficulties with the split, now the borders had change, and could not follow the reindeer as they had always done. This led to the first international congress on the 7^th of February 1917 and is now the national day of the Sámi people. After this the Sámi people work together to find solutions for comment problems across the borders. There came more factors that contribute the need to have a political voice for the people. The dam that the Norwegian government wanted to build in Máze had a big impact on the Sámi people, and a few year later, the first Sámi Parliament was sent on the 8^th of October 1989 in Karasjok by H,R,H King Olav V.
Today, as the youngest Parliament ever, the 39 representatives meet op four times a year to discuss the issues that has impact on the Sámi people.

The Heart of the Parliament

When you enter the plenary hall, you walk right in to the heart of the parliament. It is here all the magic happens. In this hall, the 39 representatives discuss the in favour for the Sámi people with local, national and international issues.
The first thing that catches you attention is the massive painting by Hilde Schanke Pedersen in the back of the rostrum. The deep blue colour in the background with golden spots forming a circle gives us the impression of the Sámi culture.

Inspired by Nature

Throughout the whole parliament we can see the inspiration of nature, even in the smallest details. It is no secret that the architects Stein Halvorsen and Christian Sundby wanted the Sami culture to shin in this building. They have used the northern lights as a red thread throughout the building to connect the main hall with the plenary hall.
The main hall of the parliament serves both as the foyer and a library. When entering the hall you are taken by the brightness and the great view of the forest. The celling is covered with light balls and shine like a bright night sky.  The hall is build up around you as a fence for the reindeer, and as the reindeer you feel safe in the warmth of the building.
When you got the first glance of the plenary hall from outside, you are in no doubt that the inspiration comes from the Lavu. The big cone shaped building has even more similarities with the Lavu on the inside, where the representatives all form a circle around the big opening in the hall, as a fire in the Lavu.

On August 26th we went on an excursion to Alta Museum. As part of the field trip museum’s marketing and sales manager Anita Topia gave us a presentation. She explained how the museum operates and its roles of conserving one of the eight UNESCO heritage sites in Norway. However, museum work is not limited to protecting heritage. It plays a role in introducing the heritage and its importance to a wide range of people, from individuals to groups, locals and foreigners. The rock art is one of the two cultural heritage sites in Finnmark. There are five places in Alta that the rock art can be found. Only one of them, Hjemmeluft, is open to public. Other four, Kåfjord, Storsteinen, Amtmannsnes and Transfarelv are not made available for tourists, but are the Museum’s responsibility.

The Alta Museum consists of a director and three departments – protection, research, renewal. Their tasks are explained in 4F’s which are dissemination (Formidling), management (Forvaltning), research (Forskning), renewal (Fornybar).

The Museum gets about 60,000 visitors a year. The analysis shows the main season is from June to August, 80% of all the guests visit then. More than 99% of them are from Europe, with about 30% Norwegians. The largest proportion of tourists are from Germany, Italy and France. Alta museum would like to attract more visitors from Asia, since they see a big potential there. Another big opportunity to expand is to persuade the tourists visiting the North Cape, by new deals and marketing strategies. The museum is missing out on a big number of guests during the winter season, since the main attraction is unavailable during this time. Hence it is important to come up with new activities, different exhibition to bring in more visitors.

The guides are very valuable part of the Museum. They are the faces of a museum when greeting visitors and taking them on guided tours that are personalised by every guide. Which in turn has a significant impact on the museum’s image and their feedback. A good guide is someone who has plenty of knowledge on what they are presenting. The tour that is given should be educational and entertaining. It is important that the museum guide is enthusiastic, has a loud and clear voice, and knows how to adapt to the group that (s)he is presenting to.

Anita had made a SWOT analysis going into detail about the museums Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Some of it we discussed earlier – high vs low season, well trained employees, UNESCO status, increasing the number of visitors. The struggle is with lack of resources to finance the Museum, and their biggest threat is an overall decline in tourism, a financial crisis and vandalism. The museum has a responsibility in conserving the world heritage while displaying it for the public. Their future mission is to create more activities to reach out to more people, to meet the new demands of its customers. Overall we feel like Alta Museum has a lot to offer, and plenty of opportunities to grow.

Reference list

1. Topia, A. (2019). Verdensarvsenter for bergkunst – Alta Museum. Museum verdensarvsenter & reiselivsattraksjon. Presentation, Alta

Photographs taken by Hyunyi Um