Sápmi (Sámi Homeland) - the Making of a Nation
Building a new ethnopolitical exhibit at the University of Tromsų, Norway

by Terje Brantenberg.^[note]

During the last three years the Department of Sámi Ethnography at the University Museum in Tromsų has been preparing a new exhibit on the modern situation of the Sámi people in Norway. The aim of the project is to tell the story of how the Sámi - being seen for decades as a scattered and almost invisible minority - have eventually developed their 'sense of a nation' and established themselves as a political force at the national and international level. This story of a rapid and unprecedented cultural and political mobilization is much similar to the recent history of other indigenous people across the Arctic. Still it remains largely unknown to the general public and continues to be relatively ignored by the ethnographic and local museums in the Nordic countries.

Full-scale work on the project started in spring 1998 with a $ 250.000 grant from the Norwegian Research Council and recommendations from the Sámi Parliament and the Sámi Board of Education. Additional funding come from the University of Tromsų, the Norwegian Ministries for Education, Municipal Affairs and Culture. The exhibit is due to be opened to the public in October 2000.

Sámi Culture at Tromsų Museum

Tromsų University Museum is the regional museum of Northern Norway. It is located in a region, which is also the homeland of the majority of the indigenous Sámi people - a homeland, which extends across the national borders into Sweden, Finland and northern Russia. Since its establishment in 1872, the Tromsų Museum had a sort of a Sámi exhibit from its very beginning. In 1949 a separate Department of Sámi Ethnography was established. In later years, the role of the Department of Sámi Ethnography as the major national institution for Sámi research, has changed drastically. This came partly through the establishment of the University of Tromsų in 1972, but also by the emergence of an increasing number of Sámi academic institutions, most noteworthy being the Nordic Sámi Institute (1973), followed by a number of local Sámi museums and cultural centers.

However, Tromsų Museum continues to serve as one of the major centers for documentation and research in the field of Sámi studies in Northern Norway. In 1973 the Department of Sámi Ethnography opened a new permanent Sámi exhibit, outlining the evolution of the traditional Sámi forms of livelihood and material culture. The presentation - including several full-scale dioramas of traditional reindeer pastoralism - continues to attract many visitors, particularly foreign tourists during the summer season.

Despite its role as the museum's major attraction to the public, there has been a growing concern at the department about what is not included in and presented at the current Museum's displays. This eventually pushed us to consider alternative presentations of Sámi culture and, particularly, of the modern Sámi society. The latest history and the situation of Sámi today are still relatively unknown to the Norwegian public. Despite a considerable growth of Sámi newspapers, radio- and TV-programs, and increasing participation of Sámi in public spheres, there is still little awareness with regard to Sámi issues, which remain by and large a matter of local and regional significance only.

However, during the last decades Sámi issues have become increasingly politically important. This reflects the growing importance of a Sámi political movement advocating means for self-government and claiming (unrecognized) territorial and cultural rights. The struggle culminated in the 1980s by a reversal in governmental policies that provided recognition of the Sámi people as a separate indigenous minority people in Norway. The Norwegian Government established two separate commissions for prosing new policies on Sámi culture and language and on the issue of Sámi customary law and territorial rights. Following the new Sámi Act (1987), the Sámi Parliament was established in 1989 and Sámi language was introduced to the public service in a number of northern municipalities.

The enactment of the new Sámi law and the opening of a round of hearing on the report of the Sámi Rights Commission once more opened a heated debate on Sámi issues in Norway. In several northern municipalities local residents organized protest movements against the introduction and use of Sámi language in public offices, on roads signs, in kindergartens, and schools. The Sámi Parliament was also a highly controversial issue, spurring accusations of future "ethnic cleansing" and a Sámi "take-over" in Finnmark.

With the growing extent and intensity of these conflicts, it was apparent that they did not just reflect different political views on Sámi issues, but rather a persistent misinformation and ignorance, exposing long-seated prejudice towards Sámi, their history and modernity. Most Norwegians still tend to identify Sámi with traditional culture and reindeer pastoralism - an exclusive Sámi form of livelihood in the North, despite the fact that this activity comprises only a tiny minority of less than 10 % of all Sámi in Norway.

The Need for a New Exhibit

While following these debates and controversies regarding the status of Sámi and their culture, we became convinced that as anthropologists and curators at the Department of Sámi Ethnography we could not limit our activities to merely observations and documentation of the current events. We saw the growing need for using the Museum more actively as a venue to spread information on the recent history and current situation of Sámi in Norway. Lectures for anthropology students and other audiences, had revealed a striking need for information on the historical roots and ethnography of the Sámi, but even more so - on their present-day situation. Apparently many people consider the present expansion of Sámi music, art, literature and research as a normal state of affairs in a pluralistic society. That these flourishing forms of Sámi self-expression were non-existent, unthinkable, and even considered immoral and forbidden only a few decades ago, is a fact of which many seem to be completely ignorant. Younger people know little, if nothing, about the history and background of the debates on Sámi language, land rights etc. In other words, despite the fact that Sámi have managed to achieve a real cultural and political revolution in just a few decades, the present knowledge of these most recent events appears to be rather shallow, almost non-existent among Norwegians and many Sámi alike.

It is therefore not surprising that when we consider how museums in Norway present Sámi culture, all of them focus predominantly on the Sámi past. Most Sámi museum displays go from prehistory to the early phase of modern history when Sámi became increasingly integrated into the dominant society and culture of the specific nation states. In fact, this is exactly the case of our present Sámi exhibit at the Tromsų Museum. Here, the public is presented with an overview of the major forms of Sámi livelihoods - from the nomadic adaptations of hunting and fishing, reindeer pastoralism to more resident forms of economy, like animal husbandry combined with fishing and farming. The displays rely heavily on objects representing traditional patterns of material culture like dwellings, technology, clothing, handicraft as well as Sámi indigenous cosmology and shamanism. Sámi reindeer pastoralism is shown in a full-scale diorama that dominates the whole exhibit. The design of the current Tromsų exhibit was based on a study of the major contemporary ethographic museums, including the Smithsonian Institution; and it is still regarded as one of the best of its kind in Scandinavia.

The purpose of the present (that is, 1973) exhibition, however, was not just to present an ethnographically correct view of Sámi cultural history. The exhibit was also meant to serve a certain political purpose. It was launched as a major effort in documenting that Sámi are a separate indigenous people, with their specific history, and unique and enduring cultural traditions. Thus, the exhibit advances the "two-people" approach advocated by the emerging Sámi movement - a view which was not yet recognized in governmental policies (under which Sámi were termed as "Sámi-speaking Norwegians") nor by the public at large.

During the last decades Sámi have been increasingly effective in mediating their interests through an array of political associations and cultural institutions. These and other aspects of their cultural-political movement, however, are in no way displayed in the present (1973) Sámi exhibit at the Tromsų Museum. Like almost all older and more recent Sámi exhibits in museums in Scandinavia, Tromsų Museum presents a more or less timeless perspective of Sámi society and culture, as a fixed and uniform entity rooted in an indigenous past, and in terms of the present - by displaying cultural traditions. It entails an image of 'Sáminess' as an opposite to modernity and to the present life of the most Sámi of today. In this way traditional ethnographic displays - despite their intentions to highlight the cultural uniqueness of Sámi - are in fact contributing to the common stereotypes of Sámi culture and society as merely a matter of the past and obsolete in the modern world. One could argue that such presentations are clearly misleading and insufficient for understanding the significance of current Sámi issues, thus contributing to confusion and conflict on Sámi matters.

An Ideology of the New Exhibition

These arguments became important for outlining our new Sámi exhibit at Tromsų Museum. We decided that we need something more than to document the wide range of cultural and political activities typical for the present-day Sámi life in Norway. What we want to put on display is how these cultural and political activities had been set in motion after WWII, and by the subsequent chain of events, leading to the present. What we want to illustrate is - in other words - a historical process. We sure did not want to make a traditional "exhibit" - a display of separate items (images, objects etc) which the audience could observe and study at random. Instead we wish to present the historical development of the Sámi cultural and political movement as a coherent and developing story - containing its specific plot leading up to the present. Like all stories, our story had two levels: one concerned with specific empirical events, activities, actors, and objects we would use for illustrations; the other - covering the more underlying meanings of the narrative. In this way, our story is not only about material objects or "museum facts", but also about meanings.

Moreover, by making a new Sámi exhibit at the Tromsų Museum we also face the issue of what is going to happen with the existing permanent Sámi exhibition. Instead of tearing it down to make room for the new, the Museum agreed to keep the old displays, providing us with additional space. We want to keep the old exhibit not only in terms of its projection of cultural history, but also to expose this - as well as our new exhibit - as alternative museum presentations of Sámi culture and society. By doing this we hope to make the audience more aware of the fact that museum exhibits, including our present project, are merely forms of representation and not just authoritative documentation of "facts". Thus, the two exhibits will expose underlying difference in focus, selection of themes and objects, forms of presentations etc. Basically, the story we would like to tell can be framed in terms of two questions: "Who are we?" and "What do we want?" These two questions summarize the basic motivations and aspirations, to which the Sámi movement could be seen a general answer.

The growth of a common cultural identity: "Who are we?"

The years following WWII were characterized by a national and large-scale effort for rebuilding and development. In this period Sámi language and identity had little relevance except at the local level. Norwegian authorities took it as a matter of fact that all citizens shared a common (Norwegian) ethnic belonging. To be Sámi were seen by most people, including many Sámi themselves, as being socially 'inferior.' This naturally led to a large-scale process of assimilation or "Norwegianization".

However, in this situation, some individual Sámi started to reconsider the significance of being Sámi in Norway. This opened up a wider discourse on what it meant to be Sámi: from a matter of primarily local relevance to something that was conceptualized as the shared cultural interests of all Sámi people. Language and traditional skills, like handicraft (duodji), music (joik - which once was seen as "backward", "primitive", and "heathen"), were now given new and positive meanings as expressions of cultural continuity - as elements of a shared Sámi cultural inheritance. Over time this opened up certain cultural innovations and Sámi self-expression in a growing number of fields of activity where Sámi and their interests had been absent or peripheral, like professional literature, new forms of music, theater, sport, and academic research.

The emergence of Sámi politics and organization: "What do we want?"

The developing sense of a shared cultural heritage came also to constitute a basis for a gradual political awakening and mobilization. Defining people's collective interests posed the question of how these were to be presented and advocated. This led to the establishment of the growing number of political associations (local, regional and national) and a democratically elected representative body for all Sámi in Norway - the Sámi Parliament (1989). The ongoing debates provided return to the old issues of what it means to be Sámi in the modern world - as members of an indigenous people but also as citizens of the Norwegian society.

In other words, the plot of our exhibit story is how the Sámi - from being a dispersed, marginalized, and politically unorganized population have developed an understanding of themselves as a people and established themselves as a nation, both culturally and politically. By our museum and audio-visual means, we want to emphasize how the Sámi used their network of cultural and political activities to expand a shared knowledge of their cultural uniqueness and historical roots, while becoming increasingly involved in the modern world and political processes on a global scale.

Designing the New Exhibit

To define the plot and the content of the story we want to tell to the public, is one thing. Another issue is how to transform this into a real exhibit of photos, texts, artifacts, film and video material displayed on computer screens. From early on we were quite aware that what we are aiming at would be more in the line with the book or a film script rather than a museum exhibit. The historical development and processes in our case would be much better expressed by writing than by audiovisual means and display of objects. We certainly knew what we wanted to tell to the public; but we also spent considerable time in planning and finding strategies and material to make the narrative into an exhibit of our intention.

We finally ended up with an outline composed of three different sections, corresponding to the division of the exhibit hall into three interconnected rooms. For the moment, we have labeled them as the "Norwegian Room", the "Sámi Room", and the "Indigenous Room". Each room presents different "spaces", or dimensions, and stages in the building of the Sámi nation, the historical development we describe:

The Norwegian Room: "The making of the welfare state and quest for equity" (1945-1960).
The Sámi Room: "The struggle for equal worth" (1960-1980).
The Indigenous Room: "Sápmi (Sámi Land) - the making of a Nation (1980-2000).

Each room will contain elements suggesting a typical environment of the period in question in addition to objects, which connect to the course of the narrative. All rooms represent different life worlds of the succeeding historical phases, expressed through the use of different colors, light, and sound for each room. Each room will also have a video screen where we will present a selection of personal interviews based on video footage produced as part of the project. By presenting the accounts of a wide selection of individual people - representing different background, experience, and points of view - we want to emphasize that the story we are telling is something that has been created and lived by individual persons, in cooperation, but often in disagreement and heated debate.

At the moment we are in the midst of the design work of the various themes for each of the three rooms. The aims of the project are quite ambitious; it is the first attempt ever presenting an overview of the cultural and political movement of Sámi in Norway in the form of a museum exhibit. Our story is controversial for several reasons. By giving a general overview, we will always be open to criticism for our selection of events, actors and places. The very heading of the exhibit - Sápmi - "Sámi Homeland" or "Nation" - is also highly controversial. The term emerged during the 1980's, referring both to the territorial homelands of Sámi as well as being a political symbol of Sámi unity and nationhood, common for all Sámi. For some, the very term of Sámi nationhood is a provocation, and nothing but a political slogan.

Another problem in our presentation is that - by focusing on the cultural and political movement - we can very easily end up with a one-sided "success" story of political development. Importantly, not all Sámi people would consider themselves part of the "movement" we are describing. In fact, there are Sámi who have been against not only self-government and legal rights, but who also oppose the use and teaching of Sámi language and culture for themselves and their children. What is seen today as common Sámi interests were barely existent some 40 years ago; it was gradually defined, advocated and developed in a difficult and manifold struggle, and still goes on.

By presenting our story as a contribution to the ongoing public debate on the basic Sámi issues, we will not measure our success or failure in terms of what our audience(s) may like and/or agree with. Our intention is to present a visual perspective on Sámi history and modernity, which is largely unknown or drastically different from stereotypes most people are familiar. We hope that we may provide our visitors with the means to develop different understandings. This is, in a way, the story of our own vision of the modern Sámi nation, which is also a component of the exhibit project.

The making of the new exhibit is based on the combined experience and expertise of the staff members of the Department of Sámi Ethnography at Tromsų Museum, and their longtime professional and personal involvement in the very cultural and social process we are describing.

Present project members are Ellen Beck (producer), Ivar Bjųrklund (manuscript editor), Terje Brantenberg (project leader). Other project members: Harald Eidheim, John Hansen, Johan Albert Kalstad, Dikka Storm. External consultants/producers: Gõran Carlsson (designer, Umeå), Harry Johansen (photographer, Kautokeino), Nils Jon Porsanger (filmmaker, Karasjok), Peter Simons (multimedia-producer, Stockholm).

Endnote

Published in: Arctic Studies Center Newsletter, No 7, August 1999, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, pp 15-18.

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Sápmi (Sámi Homeland) - the Making of a Nation Building a new ethnopolitical exhibit at the University of Tromsų, Norway