Biebmolassi

Funding

The Biebmolassi project was one of the eight projects that are receiving funding as a direct follow-up to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations. Read about the announcement here.

The project

The project examines Sámi and local food systems in Sallto (Salten) and Stuornjárga (the Skånland Peninsula), focusing on how knowledge about food practices can contribute to reconciliation processes in these regions.

Collaboration

The project partners are UiT The Arctic University Museum of Norway and the Nordland Research Institute. The project collaborates with Várdobáiki sámi guovddáš and Salten Mat. The University of Lapland (UoL) is the project’s international partner. 

Taking as a point of departure the disruption of local and Sámi food systems in a region characterized by Norwegianization processes, this project aims to contribute to the emerging reconciliation processes for Sámi in Norway. Biebmolassi draws upon and operationalizes an Indigenous understanding of food systems, where food is a central part of culture and an arena for reconciliation that can serve to bridge the past with the present acknowledging traditional Sámi foods as a valued part of Sámi culture. In the project, we focus on local Sámi food systems in Stuornjárga (Skånlandshalvøya) in Southern Troms and the Sallto (Salten) region in Nordland, and how the vitalization of food systems can contribute to reconciliation.