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The Pool for Sami LifeIn the midst of the worldBy Anne Murray and Eva Silvén»Sápmi, the land of the Sami,ranges over the northern parts ofSweden, Norway, Finland, and Russia.The Sami are one of the world’s indigenouspeoples, with a history going backlong before the present-day nation stateswere created. The traditional livelihoodsof hunting, snaring, fishing, and reindeerherding entailed a nomadic way of lifewhich conflicted in various ways withlatter-day boundary drawing and exploitationof natural resources.In the twentieth century, and especiallysince the Second World War, Samisociety has undergone major changes.The political picture has changed, just asthere have been economic, cultural, andsocial changes. In 1993 the Sametingetwas established in Sweden as both anelected assembly and a state authority.Reindeer herding has been modernizedand many people have left the traditionalways of life behind. Sami life todayis enacted far beyond the Samis’ corearea. Most Sami live and work like otherinhabitants of Sweden, and at the sametime their Sami identity has taken onnew expressions.These processes and how they haveaffected individual people constitutes thestarting point for the work of the pool.Through field studies and collection, theaim is to create an understanding forhow Sami culture changes and developsin the traditional settlement area, in urbancontexts, and in a globalized world.An informative and learningnetworkThe pool, which was founded in 1990,acts as a network for the member museumsand arranges joint seminars,study trips, and field investigations. Todaythere are eight members: Ájtte, thePerhaps “glocalization” is the most convenient term to describethe work and perspectives of the Pool for Sami Life. Eight memberscooperate to document and analyse how contemporary Sami issueschange and develop in different settings.Swedish Mountain and Sami Museumin Jokkmokk, the Norrbotten Museumin Luleå, the Västerbotten Museum inUmeå, the Department of Dialectology,Onomastics and Folklore Research alsoin Umeå, the Multicultural Centre inBotkyrka, the Museum of Ethnographyand the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm,and, finally, the National Association ofSwedish Sami.The members of the group meet atleast once a year, with informal contactsin between, for continuous discussingideas with each other. The meetings arealways combined with seminars or studytrips. On one occasion the group metresearchers at the Centre for Sami Researchat Umeå University, another timeissues of cultural diversity were illuminatedon the basis of ongoing projectsat the Multicultural Centre in Botkyrka.On another occasion the group metat the Skansen open-air museum for ademonstration of experience-based Samiknowledge, a part of the world’s immaterialcultural heritage which is called“traditional knowledge”. Yet anothertime the lawyer at the National Associationof Swedish Sami gave the groupdeeper insight into the ongoing courtcases about the winter grazing areas ofthe reindeer, by putting these disputesinto their historical and contemporarySami duodji (handicraft) cutting edge withfish skin, wool, plexiglass and silk. Anna-Stina Svakko working with a purse for theNordiska Museet’s upcoming Sami exhibition.Photo: Carine A. Durand 2007.context. This raised questions includinghow such knowledge can be broughtinto the museums’ exhibitions or usedfor a reinterpretation of artefacts, pictures,and documents in the collections.Similar questions have also been consideredon several occasions in the group’songoing discussions of the new permanentexhi bition about the Sami at theNordiska Museet, which is to open inNovember 2007.In September 2005 there was a jointstudy trip from Kiruna in Sweden viaKaresuando to Kautokeino and Karasjokin Norway and back. On the waythe group visited institutions such asthe female craft collective Máttaráhkkáin Kiruna, the Kristallen gem polishingworks in Lannavaara, Juhl’s silversmithyand the Sami theatre BeaivvaásSámi Teáhter in Kautokeino. The theatrewas then rehearsing the “yoik opera”Skuólfi, which depicts in mythical formthe removal of the Sami skeletons forwhich there are calls today to return andrebury them. The journey continued tothe main town of the Norwegian Sami,Karasjok, with a visit to the central Sami20 • Samtid & museer no 2/07
The Pool for Sami Lifemuseum, Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat, andthe adjacent tourist attraction SápmiPark. There were lively and interestingdiscussions about how a traditionalmuseum and an experience centre witha multimedia programme, a large souvenirdepartment, and a restaurant couldcooperate.Field studiesThe pool members represent ethnic,multicultural, regional, and national perspectivesand linguistic and ethnologicalresearch. This span, which is alsogeographical, gives the group a broadorientation which means that Sami issuescan be viewed from different perspectives.The members work in differentways with matters concerning Samilife: through fieldwork and collecting,exhibitions, courses, lectures, and otheractivities. Over the years the projectshave dealt with the world heritage siteof Laponia, with reindeer herding, dress,handicraft, and language, the everydaylife of Sami women, and Sami schools.In Umeå the museum, through a studycircle, has engaged various organizationsto shed light on Sami life in theFrom the pool’sfield trip to Sápmiin September 2005.Signpost in Karesuandoon the Swedish-Finnish border, in themidst of the world:11,636 km to Lima,6,269 to Calgary.Photo: Eva Silvén©Nordiska museet.city over time, by collecting historicalmaterial from the old days parallel topresent-day interviews. By continuousacquisition of artefacts, Ájtte has documentedthe change in the range of waressold at the annual Jokkmokk market.In August 2007 pool members tookpart in a joint workshop/field seminartogether with representatives of otherSamdok pools. The aim was to arrive atmore profound knowledge of what lifeis like today in a small place in the Västerbottenmountains, Ammarnäs. Differenteconomic activities are representedin the community, such as tourism,trade, hunting, fishing, reindeer herding,and handicraft. The participants in theseminar had the opportunity to interviewlocal people, to make study tours andbe guided in the surroundings. We hopethat it will be possible to present the resultin some form in collaboration withthe local community council, so that theinhabitants of the place will be able tobenefit from the work.Crossing bordersIt goes without saying that the Sami aspectis not a variable that stands alonein the pool’s studies; depending on thesubject it is combined with other powerfactors such as gender and class, butalso ethnicity in a broader sense. At thesame time, the Sami aspect can in itselfbe described as multi-perspectival inthat it includes so many different interfaces,cultural encounters, and culturalconstructions – regionally, nationally,and internationally, as well as in relationto different cultural-heritage andresearch institutions. Borders are alsocrossed in time, between then and now:history is invoked in trials about landrights, while handicraft and languagelink past and present in new forms –which the pool aims to explore throughcontemporary fieldwork and exhibitions.The museums’ collections are anotherhistorical phenomenon that is highlytopical today and charged with presentdaymeanings. Through inventories anddemands for repatriation the collectionsare given an active role in coming toterms with the colonial heritage, bothnationally and internationally.The global indigenous policy, whichhas a place for instance in the variousorganizations of the United Nations,creates a new framework and a newcontext for Sami issues at all levels, inthe museums as well. New affiliations,meanings, and forms of understandingarise, also forcing the museums to altertheir perspective. But for anyone who isinterested in following a societal changein real time, studying how a new powerorder is established, these movementsand currents are also an object of studyin themselves. pAnne Murray is curator at the Museum ofEthnography, anne.murray@etnografiska.seEva Silvén is curator at the Nordiska Museet,eva.silven@nordiskamuseet.seSamtid & museer no 2/07 • 21
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Page 23 and 24: i Photo Ramón Maldonado, Stockholm

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