Sámi Museology

From Lappology to Sámi Museology

1 The Journal Nordic Museology Nordic The Journal USEOLOGI M

Tomas Colbengtson: Sami Culture. ORDISK

N 2019 • 3 Contents

PREFACE

3 Preface Brita Brenna 5 Introduction Cathrine Baglo, Jukka Nyyssönen & Rossella Ragazzi

Articles

8 A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham Silje Opdal Mathisen 25 The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category Cathrine Baglo 45 Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola 61 The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years Dikka Storm 77 Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker Veli-Pekka Lehtola 96 Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research Eva Silvén 118 TheSamekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum Trude Fonneland 134 Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici 152 Religion of the past or living heritage? Tiina Äikäs 169 Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system Monica Grini Nordic museology 2019 • 3

Preface

In this special issue of Nordic Museology we present a range of articles that give us unprecedented insights into the development and changes of museum representations of Sámi culture. The articles offer a thorough investigation of how Sámi culture has been an object of knowledge for museums and how this knowledge production has been entangled with representations of the Sámi in Nordic museums and society. Sámi culture is specific to Scandinavia and Russia, and Sámi museology is an important topic for which our journal ought to be a central hub. And indeed, this has also been the case in the latter years. In 2015 Nordic Museology made the special issue “Rethinking Sámi cultures in museums”, where a range of authors discussed contemporary Sámi displays and heritage work. Some articles also delved into the history of collecting and collections of Sámi artefacts. However, that issue dealt mostly with contemporary colleting and display. The present issue, we believe, can work very well as a sequel where more attention is given to historical transformations – as stated in the title for the issue – from Lappology to Sámi museology. In the introductory article to the 2015 issue, anthropologist Christina Kreps claimed that much attention had been given to collaboration and changes in the relations between indigenous communities and museums in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States. However, she claimed, less is known “about the current status of relationships between indigenous populations, such as the Sámi, and the Nordic museums. Similarly, the literature on indigenous peoples’ museums and cultural centers has expanded greatly in recent years but includes limited contributions about Sámi museums” (Kreps 2015, 4). This new issue will not rectify the lack of attention to contemporary Sámi museums and cultural centres, but it gives us insights into how the changes in representation of and knowledge production about Sámi cultures have been interconnected with changes in the societal discourses about the Sámi. This historical perspective, moving from the 19th century to the present, gives a unique comparative understanding of Nordic institutional research on and representation of Sámi culture. We hope this will provide yet another stone to step on in establishing Sámi museology as a thriving field. Brita Brenna

Literature Kreps, Christina 2015. “Appropriate museology and the ‘new museum ethics’”. Nordic Museology 2, 4–16. Preface

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Tomas Colbengtson: Sami Culture. Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 5–7

Introduction Museums as arenas for the production and circulation of knowledge on Sámi cultures, societies and identities

Cathrine Baglo, Jukka Nyyssönen & Rossella Ragazzi

Museums have been central sites for production which the Sámi build their identities and voice of knowledge on the Sámi.1 Being equipped their demands. We are particularly interested to disseminate this knowledge in novel ways, in exploring how different discourses, and museums have a special role and responsibility institutional and societal contexts, in this case towards, both, the majority societies and Sámi museums or exhibition arenas, have had impact societies alike. This publication examines on and continue to impact the production of how the relationship between society and the knowledge on Sámi cultures, histories and production and dissemination of knowledge identities across time. on Sámi cultures has changed in the context of The contributors are museologists, his- Nordic museums. A more ambitious scope is to torians, anthropologists, archaeologists and see whether and how these changes have had an cultural studies scholars with experience from impact on the societal discourses about the Sámi working in and writing about museums and and on the representation and construction of their practices. They are all from countries with Sámi museology. The aim is to offer a critical native Sámi populations (Norway, Finland, view on the history of “Lappology” up to Sweden, Russia), and they have specialised in contemporary research and representation of various fields of study and issues relating to the the Sámi as it has unfolded in Scandinavia, and Sámi. The contributors are part of the Nordic in part also northern Russia. research project “Societal Dimensions of Sámi The point of departure is that the scholarly Research”, financed by the Norwegian Research production of knowledge and society share Council.2 a complex interdependence. In museums in This publication has ten articles organised general, the voice of the Sámi has grown from according to a chronological historical timeline. a muted research object to a strong researching In her article about a double set of Sámi subject with a morally compelling voice. The artefacts collected in Norway in the 1850s, old authorities of Sámi research collecting Silje Opdahl Mathisen offers a critical view and mouth-piecing the Sámi have been on the establishment of a Sámi collection at transformed into objects of deconstructive the Museum of Ethnography in Oslo, as well research. As a result of this democratization, as notions of ethnicity and race. While one set museums have become sites of more equal remained in Oslo the other was to be exhibited encounters and an ethno-political platform in at the Crystal Palace exhibition in London. Cathrine Baglo, Jukka Nyyssönen and Rossella Ragazzi

6 Moreover, the author demonstrates how parts Sámi research and the bolstering of the Sámi of the collection have roots in one of the ethno-political movement. darkest chapters in Sámi-Norwegian history – Veli-Pekka Lehtola challenges the percep- the Kautokeino uprising. tion of the muted Sámi research object in his Cathrine Baglo explores the connection article on the life and career of Johan Nuorgam, between two early industrial expositions, a Sámi expert and future museum expert. In the Norwegian assimilation policies towards the 1930s, he worked as a custodian and presenter Sámi in the last part of the nineteenth century at the “Lapp section” of the open-air museum and what she argues is the disappearance of at Seurasaari in Helsinki, and during the period the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category. 1959-63 he brought this knowledge home and According to a classic study conducted in a Sea established the first Sámi museum in Inari in Sámi community, in 1971, all signs of a Sámi Finland. Lehtola analyses Nuorgam’s life in terms past were associated with the social stigma of James Clifford’s concept of the “Squanto”, a and shame of the inhabitants. It is the contours cultural broker with complex relations to both of this path that we see sign of in the Tromsø “outsiders” and his own community. expositions, Baglo argues. Eva Silvén offers an overview of Sámi Eeva-Kristiina Harlin and Veli-Pekka Lehtola research and collecting at the Nordic Museum examine the Sámi collections in the National in Stockholm with focus on the curator Ernst Museum of Finland, which were provided Manker and the period 1930-1970. The author by the Finnish Lappologist T. I. Itkonen from focuses on the friction between the potentially 1912 to 1927. More than ninety percent of his essentialising and emancipatory effects of collections came from the Skolt Sámi area. The Manker’s work in relation to its societal impact. objects received a fair amount of attention at The cultural heritage created by Manker the National Museum, but were subjected to the at the Nordic Museum (object collections, almost compulsory representation of reindeer photographs, media, scientific research and herding. Today, Itkonen’s collection has gained popular travelogues texts) was definitely based new meaning for the Skolt Sámi community on an outsider’s view of the Sámi, but in ways due to the repatriation of the entire Sámi that today may lead to decolonising and re- collection of the National Museum to the Siida appropriating it. Sámi Museum, as the article demonstrates. Trude Fonneland retraces the social and Dikka Storm looks at the roles of the political consequences of the exhibition Ethnographic Museum in Oslo and Tromsø Samekulturen (The Sámi Culture, 1973), at Museum in relation to the production of Sámi Tromsø University Museum, which still serves research from the end of the nineteenth century as an arena forty years on for the dissemination until the post-war years. By emphasising the of Sámi culture to visitors. By contextualising academic development of particular individuals the production of Samekulturen and discussing and the development of professional networks, its genesis, particularly in relation to the later she calls attention to the establishment exhibition Sápmi – en nasjon blir til (Sápmi – and effects of a specific research strategy. becoming a nation), the chapter argues that Moreover, she argues that the ethnographer Samekulturen has regained validity as a social Ørnulv Vorren and Tromsø Museum became actor. The co-existence of the two exhibitions important contributors to the advancement of opens for new insights regarding Sámi identities Introduction to Special issue

and the production of knowledge and heritage, The question of how the old binary of “art” 7 the author claims. and “ethnographica” is still predicated in the Adopting a longer time perspective on museums of Norway’s capital is crucial here. Tromsø University Museum, Rossella Ragazzi The art museums show “European” and and Giacomo Nerici focus on the set up, “Norwegian” art, and the Ethnographic reception and social scientific discursive Museums display the craft of non-Western fields that have informed two exhibitions cultures and in this case Sámi duodji, sometimes on the Sámi as curated over time by Tromsø even subsumed under the homogenising University Museum: Sápmi – en nasjon blir til concept of Arctic culture. This absence of seeing (2000) and Sámi Stories (2014), employing a Sámi works, topics and artists from a “national recursive comparison with the aforementioned imagery” perspective reinforces the grand Samekulturen (1973). The authors individuate a narrative of Norway as a monocultural nation. set of discursive paradigms that have influenced Curating, collecting, conserving and scholars, visitors and curators interacting at the circulating knowledge on the Sámi is museum. The concept of heritage is here seen as increasingly becoming a dialogical process, situated, negotiated and processual. The authors which reveals the role of the museums as look at how certain aspects of Sámi material social actors after the paradigm change and and immaterial heritage have been constructed, the democratization of Sámi research. The performed and narrated to articulate different relationship of research, museums and societies discursive registers concerning materiality, is also dialogical. Museums participate in the ethnic identity and cultural belonging. co-articulation of the societal discourses of Tiina Äikäs explores the presentations of Sáminess with their knowledge production, Sámi religion in museums and exhibitions in and are affected by the same discourses. The northern Finland: Siida The National Museum dialogue, multiplying in voices, will continue. of the Finnish Sámi in Inari, Arktikum in Rovaniemi, the Museum of Northern Cathrine Baglo, Jukka Nyyssönen Ostrobothnia in Oulu, and the Samiland & Rossella Ragazzi exhibition in Levi. The chapter analyses the themes and histories of these presentations, Notes and discusses them in relation to the long history of displaying Sámi religion in museums 1. We apply the term ”Sámi” in most of the articles in Finland. It is argued that Sámi religion is since it is the term chosen and used in official commonly relegated to the past and presented documents by Sámi Parliament in Norway. as disconnected from Christianity. Even so, The term is considered to come close to the contemporary exhibitions of Sámi religion pronunciation of the Sámi languages. The hold the potential to renew, comment on and choice is a compromise for the sake of editorial question old presentations. consistency. The authors address the issue of Monica Grini explores how Sámi culture ethnonym, according to their own focus and is presented in various museums in Oslo. needs, but the publication language dictates Sámi matters are predominantly articulated the choice of the ethnonym in more general as “culture” in the anthropological sense of references to the Sámi culture, society etc. the museumscape she sets out to explore. 2. Project number 270629. Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 8–24

A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

Silje Opdahl Mathisen

Abstract: This article investigates the events surrounding the discovery of a double set of Sámi artefacts collected in Norway in the 1850s. While the collecting had received government funding and was initiated by a Norwegian scholar, the commission for it came from London. One set of artefacts was to be exhibited at Crystal Palace in Sydenham, a commercial venue reaching a tremendously large audience. The other set became part of the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, a much smaller scientific institution established in 1857. By turning the spotlight on the historical context and agencies of these two sets of artefacts, this chapter examines the notions of early ethnographic practices.1

Keywords: Sámi collection, ethnographic museums, Crystal Palace in Sydenham, Ludvig Kr. Daa, Dr. Robert Gordon Latham, Kautokeino uprising.

In the archive at the Museum of Cultural and ethnologist Robert Gordon Latham. History in Oslo, one of the first entries in an old One set was sent to London to be exhibited protocol containing various correspondence is at Crystal Palace in Sydenham. The other set a handwritten record dated from 1853 to 1854 eventually became part of the collection of entitled: “A record of ethnographic objects the Ethnographic Museum at the Kongelige procured for the Crystal Palace in Sydenham”.2 Frederiks Universitet in Christiania (now Over three pages, numerous Sámi objects Oslo).4 The Ethnographic Museum opened in are listed, starting with “a complete plaster 1857. cast of three Lappish convicts residing at the This record refers to forms of collecting, Christiana Tugthuus (prison)”.3 studying and exhibiting indigenous people This is a record of the collecting of a double at a time which marked a turning point in set of Sámi artefacts that had government the way different global ethnic groups were funding and was initiated by the Norwegian perceived in relation to each other, and which scholar, politician and journalist Ludvig Kr. saw the development of the notion of “race”.5 Daa on the request of the British philologist At the same time, academic disciplines like A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

institutionalised in universities and museums? 9 I will examine some of the historical processes connected to the collection and exhibition of the objects, focusing on some of the main players and institutions involved in the process. This may contribute to an understanding of how the Sámi were perceived in relation to other indigenous peoples and in relation to the majority population in Norway in the mid-1850s. Moreover, an examination of the processes concerning the record can contribute to a better understanding of the earliest institutionalised research on Sámi culture at the University of Oslo.

A record of ethnographic objects The record is two and a half pages long and handwritten in the gothic style. It has eight entry numbers with several sub-numbers. The first four entry numbers are dated 1853 and the rest are from 1854. Of the four entries Fig. 1. Page one of the Record of Ethnographic from 1853, only the first is related to Sámi Objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham. Photo by the author. culture: plaster casts of three Sámi convicts at Christiania Prison in Oslo are described. The other record entries from 1853 are old lead archaeology and anthropology were emerging seals, various imported ethnographic objects and this all coincided with the start of what has from Borneo and national costumes from been called “the exhibitionary complex”, an Norway.6 emerging network of world’s fairs and museums All the entries on the list dated 1854 refer that provided the cultural underpinning for to Sámi objects. Entry number 5, which is the the development of the modern nation-state first entry from 1854, also describes plaster (Bennet 1995; Rydell 2011:136). casts, this time twenty-one plaster casts of The record draws on two separate events: the three Sámi. According to a later director of the exhibition at Crystal Palace in metropolitan Ethnographic Museum, Yngvar Nielsen, these London, and the founding of an ethnograph- plaster casts were duplicates of those made in ic university museum in the small Norwegian 1853 (Nielsen 1907:8). Entry number six is a capital of Oslo. In the following, I will examine reindeer. It does not specify whether this was the milieus in which the Sámi artefacts a real reindeer or a mannequin, or whether it were collected and exhibited – in Oslo was the hide or a stuffed and mounted reindeer. and in London. What notions of race and Entry number seven, which mainly describes ethnicity prevailed at that time? How was this items belonging to the Sámi dress/costume, is Silje Opdahl Mathisen

10 by far the longest entry; it alone spans almost seventeenth century. The practice of exhibiting two handwritten pages and points to the living “exotic” people has been documented importance of the Sámi costume in exhibitions since the fifteenth century (see for example of Sámi culture. Entry number seven is a long Broberg 1981/1982; Baglo 2006, 2011; Qureshi list of various items “belonging to the Sámi 2011:2; Mathisen 2014; Nordin & Ojala dress”. Among these are a fur coat (beaska) and 2018:303). The nineteenth century witnessed two tunics (gáktis7), one pair of fur trousers or significant changes in the scale and nature of longs socks (biddu or gálssot) and three pairs such human displays, which reached their peak of boots (gápmagat), of which one pair is for in the wake of the Great Exhibition at Crystal a woman and one pair probably for a child Palace in London’s Hyde Park in 1851. After as they are described as small. Furthermore, the Great Exhibition, the building was taken there are also three belts, all with knives down and moved to Sydenham, where it was (probably niibeboagán), two headdresses plus rebuilt and extended considerably. The objects one headdress for a woman,8 and two pairs in the record were collected so they could be of trousers (buvssat). At least three whole exhibited in the Court of Natural History in costumes can be reconstructed based on Crystal Palace. Robert Gordon Latham was these objects, of which one was for a woman in charge of making the exhibition about the and one for a child. Under the same entry people of the world, which he categorised number there are also some objects that we into different ethnological races. According to might not immediately think of as belonging the British cultural historian Sadiah Qureshi, to Sámi dress: a sledge (geres), and two entries: Latham’s exhibition had great impact on the “Reenbelte og klokkebånd” and “Tøm”, that I general view on human races (Qureshi 2011b). interpret as being part of a reindeer harness The history of the record starts with a (leanŋggat), plus other objects like a milk request from Latham to his Norwegian friend bowl (náhppi) and a small loom (probably Ludvig Kr. Daa. Latham asked Daa if he could a njuikun). Apart from the reindeer and the assist in collecting Sámi ethnographic objects objects connected to reindeer husbandry, the to be displayed in a “Lappish” section in the collection seems to emphasise the human body People’s Palace. In return, Latham would and how it was dressed. The whole record starts, provide other ethnographic objects. Latham as mentioned, with the plaster casts of heads, had spent time in Norway in the 1830s, where and ends with entry number eight: “head hair he befriended the writer Henrik Wergeland from 4 Lapper” (Sámi). The physical body, and and Ludvig Kr. Daa. Daa (1809–1877) was a how it was dressed, was apparently essential in Norwegian historian, ethnologist, politician the representation of Sámi culture (Mathisen and journalist. He grew up in northern and 2017). western Norway, where his father worked as a priest. A man of many talents, Daa was also a controversial figure who was said to have a Ludvig Kr Daa and the founding difficult personality (Gran 1911). He studied of an ethnographic university philology in Oslo and was a close friend of museum in Oslo Wergeland, but they later had a public falling The collecting of Sámi objects has a long out. When Daa applied for the vacant position history and can be traced back to at least the as lecturer in history at the University of Oslo, A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

he was passed over in favour of Peter Andreas James Cowles Prichard’s (1786–1848) work 11 Munch, who did not have formal training in Researches into the Physical History of Mankind history but was a less controversial figure. Daa (1813) where change was explained not as a held several positions as a politician, journalist, rupture between different races of man, but head of archives and teacher of history until he rather as a result of many small changes over a was appointed director of the Ethnographic long period of time (Kyllingstad 2004:46). Museum in 1862 and was made professor in In response to Latham’s request for Sámi 1866. He was the director of the museum until objects, Daa formed a committee consisting 1877. According to Yngvar Nielsen, Daa was of himself, Professor Christian Boeck, curator, the first director who actually cared about the and later, Professor Laurits Esmark, Professor collection (Nielsen 1907:24).9 This is evident Halvor Heyerdahl Rasch and research fellow, from the report he wrote to the Collegium later Professor, Jens Andreas Friis.10 The com- Academicum in 1862, complaining about the mittee suggested collecting a double set of sorry state of the collection (Ludvig Kr. Daas artefacts. One set would be sent to Latham innberetning til det akademiske Kollegium 16. in London, and the other would be kept at october 1862). Aside from trying to save the the University of Oslo and become part of an collection from relentless attacks from moths, ethnographic collection. The committee sent Daa made a systematic catalogue based on a an application to the Collegium Academicum geographic principle (Nielsen 1907:32). It is at the university requesting a sum of 150–200 worth mentioning that Daa also erected an Speciedaler11 for this purpose. The application early example of an outdoor museum when he, went all the way to the Norwegian Parliament in 1873, built a Sea-Sámi dwelling in a corner (Stortinget), which accepted the application of the university garden. The houses proved to in a Royal Decree dated February 8, 1853. be difficult to maintain and had to be removed The Collegium asked the abovementioned in 1880 (Nielsen 1907:46; see Baglo, this issue). Professor Munch to make the necessary Daa wrote several history books and was arrangements for storing the ethnographic especially interested in comparative questions objects, presumably in the new university about peoples and nations based on ethnological buildings that were being erected in the centre material. In the essay “Om Nationaliterenes of Oslo. udvikling” (On the development of nations) The completion of the university buildings (1869) he was one of the first in Norway to draw was delayed, and in 1855, the Collegium asked on Darwin’s theories. In this essay, Daa rejected for a status report from Daa’s committee. Daa, the “immigration theory” advocated by the Esmark and Rasch reported that the money Norwegian historians Rudolf Keyser and Peter had been spent on plaster casts of the heads Andreas Munch. Munch and Keyser were the of three Sámi men, made by the brothers foremost historians in Norway from the 1830s Giacinto and Pietro Guidotti for the sum of to the 1850s, promoting a Norwegian national 36 Speciedaler. Friis had bought costumes and identity. Daa claimed that Keyser and Munch’s other objects including a “pulk” (sledge) with a theory, which explained change as a result of harness for 94 Speciedaler, and he also bought catastrophes or revolutions, was outdated. Sámi hair for four Speciedaler.12 Half of the He took a more evolutionary view and collected objects had been sent to Latham in based his research on the British ethnologist London. In return, the university had received Silje Opdahl Mathisen

12 ethnographic objects, mainly from Borneo the Sámi and Finnish languages in 1866, this and Sumatra. Regarding the plaster casts, the became a permanent position. committee reported that they had ordered one Nils Joachim Vibe Stockfleth (1787–1866) set for the university collection, and seven sets was a Norwegian priest and missionary among to be use for exchanges with other museums the Sámi. He also acted as Friis’ mentor at (Nielsen 1907:8). the University of Oslo. Stockfleth is credited According to Yngvar Nielsen, the request for being the “second founder” of the North- from Latham was the catalyst for the founding Sámi written language, after Knut Leem of the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo (Nielsen (1697—1774), and for having re-introduced 1907:1ff; see also Gjessinget al. 1957). There the scholarly study of the Sámi language (Gran was already a small collection of ethnographica 1911:346; Niemi 2009). According to historian at the university, but it was stored with the Einar Niemi, the influence from German coin collection and the archaeological objects. romanticism and more liberal views on According to Yngvar Nielsen, the initiative to minorities that emerged after the Napoleonic found an independent ethnographic collection wars led to a “rediscovery” of the Sámi as an and to open an ethnographic museum came ethnic group in the first half of the nineteenth from Latham in London, and from the century, and Niemi credits Stockfleth for this Ethnographic Museum in Copenhagen, led by (Niemi 2009). Stockfleth’s most important work the Danish antiquarian Christian Jürgensen was on Sámi language research, translations of Thomsen. The museum in Copenhagen was religious texts and religious education among widely acclaimed to be the best ethnographic the Sámi. collection in the world. When the Ethnographic Stockfleth was convinced that the Sámi Museum in Oslo opened to the public in had a “holy right” to their own language January 1857, it was housed in three small and nationality, and that it would benefit the rooms on the top floor of the newly erected society as a whole if the Sámi were allowed to university building. When it opened there develop their own language and culture. This were only 197 entries in the catalogue. pluralistic view was strongly criticised during Catalogue entries number 11–58 are called the the 1840s, and was on the verge of disappearing Latham collection, that is the objects Latham altogether around 1850, due in part to a growing sent in exchange for the Sámi objects (Nielsen Norwegian national sentiment. On Stockfleth’s 1907:15–16). last journey to Finnmark in 1851–1852 he played an unfortunate role in the controversies leading up to the Kautokeino uprising. He Early Sámi research at Kongelige was asked by bishop Juell in Tromsø to travel Frederiks universitet to Kautokeino in the hope that he could When the Sámi objects in the record were “smooth the waters” among the supporters of collected, Sámi and Finnish language courses the Laestadian faith. Unfortunately, Stockfleth were already being taught at the University of acted in anger, and beat some of the people Oslo, although only periodically and intended involved with his walking stick and his especially for clergymen who were going to behaviour probably contributed to the uprising work in Finnmark. When Daa’s cousin Jens escalating out of control (Niemi 2009). Andreas Friis was appointed professor of Jens Andreas Friis and Ludvig Kr. Daa A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

were cousins, and as mentioned, Friis was a translator. He was made professor in the Sámi 13 member of the committee that collected the and Finnish languages in 1866. Friis made Sámi objects on Latham’s request. Friis (1821– numerous journeys to the north of Norway. He 1896) was a writer and one of the foremost was not only a man of science, but also a hunter, Sámi linguists. He studied theology and the fisher and mountaineer, and he was fascinated Sámi and Finnish languages under Stockfleth’s by the ways of life of the reindeer-herding tuition. From 1847 to 1849 he was a university Sámi. For many he is best known for his novel fellow in the Sámi and Finnish languages at Lajla – which could be referred to as the Sámi the University of Oslo, before travelling to version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He published Kajaani in Finland in 1849 to study under Elias widely, producing scientific and literary works Lönnrot. Lönnrot was a Finnish physician, and writing in newspapers. In the latter, he philologist and collector of traditional oral raised awareness of the discrimination against poetry. On this journey, Friis spent eight the Sámi (Lindkjølen 1983). Friis was also months in Finnmark (Gran 1911:346). From interested in Sámi cultural history, mythology 1851 to 1863, Friis was hired to take over for and ethnography. In 1861 he published an Stockfleth in teaching the Sámi languages at ethnographic map of Finnmark, a ground- the University of Oslo, while also working as a breaking work that offered insight into both

Fig. 2. The “Bushmen” (Khoisan) display from the Crystal Palace exhibition. Reproduced by permission of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, catalogue no. PRM 1998.211.9. Silje Opdahl Mathisen

14 ethnicity and language, as well as the Sámi ways of foreign peoples were arranged in scenes of life and living conditions.13 In 1867, Friis, against a backdrop of painted images (Qureshi Daa and the Sámi Lars Jacobsen Hætta travel- 2011:195). The whole court was arranged led together to Finnmark, Kolahalvøya and like a map, divided between the Old World Finland (Gran 1911:346–347; Lindkjølen 1983). in the southeast and the New World in the southwest. According to the British cultural historian Sadiah Qureshi, the human models Robert Gordon Latham and the were the primary attraction in the Courts of Courts of Natural History in Natural History. They were lifelike, painted Crystal Palace plaster casts arranged in visual narratives Hoping to capitalise on the success of the deemed by Latham as representative of their Great Exhibition14 in Hyde Park in 1851, a respective ethnicities (Qureshi 2011:196). private company, the Crystal Palace Company, Many casts were made from individuals who relocated the building to Sydenham where were either exhibited or living in London it was extended before opening to the public at that time (Qureshi 2011:209). If the Sámi in 1854. Crystal Palace, also called the objects were exhibited, they would probably People’s Palace, was not an international be arranged in a family group together with trade fair like its predecessor in Hyde Park, a stuffed reindeer pulling a sledge, a common but rather a pantheon of national edification trope in representations of the Sámi (see and entertainment. As the entrance fee was Mathisen 2014; 2017). The Sámi objects that reasonable, it attracted a large number of the committee led by Daa collected would be visitors, with more than 1,3 million visitors the sufficient to make such a representation. first year (Piggot 2004:164). In the guidebook accompanying the exhi- The building was surrounded by a vast bition, 79 of 92 pages are written by Latham park with fountains and a lake with an island and dedicated to ethnology. Part II, from pages inhabited by full-scale models of antediluvian 80 to 92, is about zoology and botany and monsters and extinct reptiles. With a walk written by Forbes (Latham & Forbes 1854). starting from the antediluvian monsters, Latham uses the first two pages to describe through the Courts of Natural History and what ethnology is: the study of human variety continuing through to Art and Technology, the (Latham & Forbes 1854:5). According to exhibitions at Crystal Palace, seen as a whole, Qureshi, the guidebook’s accessibility in both emphasised the potential for improvement and style and cost (only six pence) makes it likely had an overarching theme of progress. that this was one of the most widely used Guidebooks suggested that visitors should ethnological works of the 1850s (Qureshi start their tour from the South Wing entrance. 2011:198). In doing so, they would enter the Courts of Robert Gordon Latham (1812–1888) was Natural History. This exhibition, the result an English ethnologist and philologist. During of a collaboration between Latham and his philology studies, he spent a year abroad, Edward Forbes, a professor of botany, was a first in Germany, then in Denmark and finally major innovation: a small-scale museum of in Norway. He published a two-volume book man in his natural habitat. Growing plants, about Norway and the Norwegians which he animals stuffed and mounted, and models dedicated to his friends Wergeland and Daa A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

(Latham 1840). In 1839 Latham was elected elements, including natural history, philology, 15 Professor of English Language and Literature anatomy and physiology. Latham’s work in the at University College, London. He then Courts of Natural History, and his prominent decided to enter the medical profession and position in the Ethnological Society, suggest obtained the degree of M.D. at the University that both ethnologists and the bourgeoisie of London. He became a lecturer on forensic looked to Latham, not Knox, for their medicine and was elected assistant-physician ethnological education. This suggests that the at Middelsex Hospital. His interests henceforth mid-nineteenth century saw a substantial pro- developed towards ethnology and philology liferation, not a homogenization of approaches and he abandoned medicine in 1849. In to the scholarly study of human variation 1852 he became director of the ethnological (Qureshi 2011:217–218). department at Crystal Palace, Sydenham. The mid-nineteenth century marked a Latham was not just an “armchair ethnolo- turning point in the view on the different gist” (see Stocking 1987:79, 108–109; Sera- peoples of the world. Until then, this view had Shriar 2013:5–12). He was already a professor two major influences: Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s in English when he then retrained as a physician romantic view of the noble savage as someone and built a medical carrier. In other words, he who was more “natural” or closer to nature was thoroughly schooled in both the linguistic than modern men and not corrupted by and biological/anatomical approaches to the modern life. The other major influence was study of man. Latham rose to prominence the importance of the Bible as a historical after the death of Prichard. He was elected to document. It was a common belief that it the Royal Society in 1848 and published The was possible to date the age of the earth, and Natural Histories of the Varieties of Man in that all men were descendants of Adam and 1850, the same year as Robert Knox’s Races of Eve, and in principle equal (monogeneses – Man (Sera-Shriar 2013:82–95). He served as see Stocking 1987:25). By the late eighteenth the vice-president of the Ethnological Society century, scholars developed a model of social and was given the curatorship of Crystal development in which civilizations naturally Palace’s Courts of natural history. All this passed through distinctive stages characterised suggests that Latham had a prominent position by their mode of subsistence: hunting, at the time, and Qureshi suggests that his work pasturage, agriculture and commerce (Stocking was not seen as outdated in the mid-1850s, as 1987; Baglo 2011:172–174; Qureshi 2011:189). has been suggested by historians who reads As a result, non-European civilizations could Knox’s publication as indicative of a new area be perceived as less developed. Among others, of scientific racism (see Qureshi 2011;216–217, Qureshi points to the elasticity of this model note 121). By reading Latham’s work in the on an individual level. If an African learned Courts of Natural History at Crystal Palace, to speak English, converted to Christianity Qureshi sees it as neither a humanistic, text- and dressed in European clothes, he could be based approach in line with Prichard, nor as classified as a European. This elasticity, Qureshi having adopted anatomy and physiology as his argues, is often overlooked when biological or primary rationale for defining human variation colour-based notions of ethnic difference are (as Robert Knox and James Hunt). She sees anachronistically adopted for earlier periods Latham’s work as a heterogeneous mix of many (Qureshi 2011:189, see also note 324). Silje Opdahl Mathisen

16 British debates between the 1830s and Prichard, and like Prichard, he held ethnology 1860s were at a significant crossroads for the to be part of historic philology that traced re-making of the natural history of “race” the origins of races through the genealogical (Qureshi 2011:187; Sera-Shriar 2013). Between relationship between languages. In the Courts the mid-1840s and early 1870s, scholarly of Natural History, Latham used the three-race studies of human variety were institutionalised theory of Georges Cuvier, but preferred to avoid with the emergence of learned societies. The the term “race”, using instead “varieties of man” institutional wrangling between these societies (Latham & Forbes 1854). Latham was praised ultimately led to their amalgamation as the for making an innovative exhibition and for new Anthropological Institute of Great Britain creating a promising basis for future research and Ireland in 1871. According to Qureshi, (Qureshi 2011:209). At that time, there were this has traditionally been seen as taking place no ethnological museum in London, and after during, and contributing to, the re-conception the exhibition was destroyed by fire in 1866, it of “race” from being an elastic category, to was not until the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford the emergence of “scientific racism” based opened in 1887 that the public could see an on unchangeable, inherited traits based ethnological collection again. According to the on physiological, anatomical or biological British historian Efram Sera-Shriar, the Courts differences. These shifts are again coupled with of Natural History can also be seen as a type the transformation of “armchair” ethnology of ethnographic training ground where the into modern anthropology, that is, an assumed exhibition and the accompanying guidebook shift from humanistic textual and philological informed readers and visitors how to observe approaches to scientific investigations rooted and interpret the different human varieties on in biological science and, ultimately, fieldwork display (Sera-Shriar 2013:95). (Qureshi 2011:214–215; Sera-Shriar 2013). James Cowles Prichard, Robert Knox and The fate of the objects in the James Hunt are theorists associated with this record shift. Knox and Hunt’s works are frequently cited as typical of a new tide of Victorian In the following, I will look at how the racism and aggressive imperialism. But these objects listed in the record could have been views were regarded as highly controversial exhibited. As already indicated, the objects by many of their contemporaries (Qureshi were collected in two sets: one set was to be 2011:215–216). exhibited in the Courts of Natural History Latham contributed to the discussions at Crystal Palace, and the other set was to with the exhibition in the Courts of Natural be exhibited at the Ethnographic Museum History, and the guidebook accompanying in Oslo. Collections of strange objects from it, by stressing human unity. He arranged faraway places had existed for hundreds of the exhibition according to the taxonomic years, but new to the nineteenth century was principles of three varieties of man: European that the collections were open to the public (omitted from the exhibition), Mongolian and and financially supported by the government Negro, and the developmental stages hunting/ (Bouquet 2012:65). The history of exhibiting gathering, agriculture and commerce (Qureshi foreign peoples has of course a much longer 2011:201). As Daa, Latham was a follower of history. Scholars have pointed to a connection A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

between earlier shows and the establishment According to Philips, two polar bears and a 17 of ethnographic museums: museums exhibited group of “Esquimaux” represented the arctic foreign peoples in much the same way as they regions (Philips 1854:104). Is it possible that were exhibited in the shows, but the museum the Sámi objects and plaster casts were not did not have live people, able to talk and act, but shown? rather “people” as representations, in the form In the handbook, Latham writes that the of still plaster casts (Qureshi 2011; Baglo 2011). Greenlanders are the family of peoples that In the late nineteenth century, anthropologists occupy Greenland, the coast of Labrador, the were often responsible for curating displays northern coast of North America and the of foreign people into sequences representing shores of the Arctic Sea, both east and west. racialist evolutionary hierarchies (Qureshi They extend to Russian America, to the other 2011:186). It can be argued that they used side of the Behring Straits and to the Aleutian the fairs not only to show or publicly validate Islands. Latham also writes that the Esquimo anthropology, but also to actually create and is the only family common to the Old and the establish anthropological knowledge. Museum New world (Latham & Forbes 1854:77–78). exhibitions are not only a pure dissemination In the handbook, Latham thanks professor of meaning. The making of an exhibition is also Thomsen from the ethnological museum in a process that creates meaning. By collecting, Copenhagen for providing the Greenlandic classifying and juxtaposing objects, museums material, but there is no mention of Daa or of affect and influence people’s perceptions of the collaboration with the University of Oslo. them (see Ruud 2018). This is particularly the Based on the examination of contemporary case when university museums collect and handbooks written by Latham and Forbes, and exhibit objects due to their presumed authority Philipps, it seems that the Sámi objects were in presenting “the truth”. never a part of the exhibition at Crystal Palace. How then were the Sámi objects that Daa One can only speculate why. Did Latham and his committee made such an effort to confuse the Greenlanders and the Sámi, as collect, exhibited? At Crystal Palace, the might be interpreted out of the description of question is rather whether they were exhibited the Greenlanders in the handbook? However, at all. In Latham and Forbes’ handbook for the seeing as Latham had stayed in Norway and exhibition, there is no mention of the Sámi. that he wrote about the Sámi in his book about Including the “Esquimo” (Greenlanders) Norway I find this hard to believe (Latham exhibited in the arctic region, the handbook 1840). Another argument against this theory lists 12 groups of peoples, with subgroups. is that Latham made two separate requests: None of these are Sámi (Latham & Forbes one to Daa in Oslo asking for Sámi material, 1854). Another contemporary guidebook and one to Thomsen in Copenhagen asking for for the Courts of Natural History is Samuel Greenlandic material. Philip’s Guide to the Crystal Palace and its Park Latham was criticised for not making the (1854). There is no mention of Sámi objects or peoples of Britain and Europe a part of the of a representation of Sámi people here either. exhibition in the Courts of Natural History When entering the Ethnological and Natural (Qureshi 2011:201). He writes in the handbook History department, the first section a visitor that this omission was because he assumed would come upon was the Arctic regions. that the character of most of the European Silje Opdahl Mathisen

18 populations was sufficiently understood the Lappish fur had already been destroyed (Latham & Forbes 1854:5–6). Can this explain and had to be removed. The same was true why the Sámi objects were not exhibited? If for some of the Lappish garments. Daa also so, Latham must have classified the Sámi as pointed out that the 21 plaster busts that he European, not Mongolian. Perhaps they were had helped to collect in the 1850s (number 5 hard to place as one or the other? Or could it in the records) were missing – they could not simply be due to practical reasons, that there be found, neither in the catalogue nor in the was not enough exhibition space, or that the collection (Daa 1862). Sámi objects arrived too late? Another aspect In a book celebrating the fiftieth anniversary to speculate on is the fate of the Sámi objects of the Ethnographic Museum, the director, that were sent to London. What happened to Yngvar Nielsen, lamented a lost opportunity: them? If they had been exhibited in the Courts The Ethnographic Museum in Oslo could have of Natural History, as was the plan, they would been almost as good as the one in Copenhagen! probably have been destroyed by fire in 1866. Important connections were established Since it seems that the Sámi objects were most with Thomsen in Copenhagen and Latham probably not exhibited, there is a chance that in London. There were great opportunities some of the objects might have survived until for collecting, as Norwegian shipping greatly today. expanded in this period. But alas, Nielsen complains, due to very limited funding and a director – Peter Andreas Munch – who already Daa’s inventory had too much to do and, according to Nielsen, Unfortunately, apart from the three plaster was “not a museum man”, the Ethnographic portrait busts, most of the objects listed in the Museum was not a priority. records have probably been destroyed or lost. I Today, little is known of what the exhibitions have not been able to trace any of the original looked like at the time. The mission and ideal objects in the records in any of today’s museum of the Ethnographic exhibition is stated in the collections, neither at the Ethnographic annual report to the Collegium Academium Museum nor at the Norwegian Museum of in 1857. The ideal was that enough of the Cultural History (Norsk folkemuseum).15 nations’ tools, weapons, clothing, objects of When Daa took over as a director of the art and other artefacts would be exhibited so Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, the collection the visitors would have enough data to make was in such a sorry state that he ordered a a clear conception of each nation’s higher or full inventory. In a letter to the Collegium lower development (Nielsen 1907:13–14). Daa Academicum dated October 16, 1862, Daa was critical of the exhibition when he took over mentions the fate of some of the objects as director. He describes an exhibition that was listed in the record. The rooms where the not ordered geographically and led one to see ethnographic collection had initially been it more as a Wunderkammer (Ludvig Kr. Daas stored and exhibited were not ideal: very hot innberetning til det akademiske Kollegium, 16 in the summer and freezing in the winter. October 1862). In contrast, Latham’s exhibition As a result, moths caused severe damage to was ordered geographically and according to the collection. Daa refers to his predecessor, the taxonomic principles of three varieties Professor Monrad, who told him that all of man. In 1902, the conditions for storing A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

and exhibiting the ethnographic collection 19 improved as it was moved to the newly built Museum of History (Historisk museum).

Sámi prisoners as objects of study – the origins of Sámi Research at the University of Oslo I have referred above to the entries in the record as “objects”, but there is a degree of ambiguity about some of the items when it comes to whether or not they are objects or actors, namely the three plaster life-mask casts. The names of the people portrayed in plaster are not mentioned in the record. In his book on the history of the Ethnographic Museum commemorating its fiftieth anniversary, Yngvar Nielsen describes them as: portrait heads of Mathis Hætta16 “of mixed race, the father a Kven and the mother a Lap from Kautokeino”; Peder Rik “of unmixed Lappish race from Polmak, East-Finnmark”; and Nils Karasjok “of unmixed Lappish race from Karasjok, except that his grandmother was Swedish” (Nielsen 1907:8, my translation). Who were they? According to the records, they were inmates at Christiania Prison. This Fig. 3. Portrait head of Nils Karasjok, plaster puzzled me a bit, as one of them, Mathis Hætta, life-mask cast. Reproduced by permission of the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk is a well-known figure from the events leading folkemuseum), catalogue nr. NFSA.3563. up to the Kautokeino uprising, and earlier I supposed that he was an inmate at Akershus Prison, another prison in Oslo where the Sámi his pietist revival movement. They were among prisoners from the Kautokeino uprising served the 22 Sámi who were convicted of disturbing a their sentences.17 At the State Archives, I public sermon in the mainly Sámi municipality examined the prison records from Christiania of Kautokeino in the interior of Finnmark in Prison for this period and there they were: northern Norway. Their severe punishment and Mathis Hætta, Nils Karasjok and Peder Rig, as high fines added to the controversy leading up well as a fourth Sámi prisoner: Rasmus Spein to the Kautokeino uprising in November 1852, (Fangeprotokoll Kristiania Tukthus. Fanger where the local Sámi followers of Laestadius (FKT). 1850–1857). Both Hætta and Spein attacked representatives of the authorities were so called Laestadians, religious followers and killed the local law enforcer and a local of the Swedish priest Lars Levi Laestadius and merchant (see Zorgdrager 1998). Silje Opdahl Mathisen

20 Mathis Hætta and Rasmus Spein were Lars Jacobsen Hætta on translations from transferred from the prison in Trondheim to Norwegian to Sámi (Kjølaas 1998; Aarseth Christiania, where they arrived on August 11, 2009; Davy 2018). Hætta was sentenced to 1852. According to the Dutch anthropologist death for his participation in the Kautokeino Nellejet Zorgdrager, Bishop Juell arranged uprising but because of his young age (he was for them to serve their time in Oslo, where 18 at the time) the sentence was reduced to life they could be educated in religious matters in imprisonment. In an article about Hætta and their own language, as this was not possible his importance as a bible translator, Per Oskar in Trondheim. Jens Andreas Friis from the Kjølaas writes that in 1851 Friis applied to the University of Oslo was to educate them in their Ministry of Justice to have Sámi prisoners sent own language (Zorgdrager 1998:289, and note from Trondheim to Oslo so they could assist in 675). According to the clerical prison records, his studies of the Sámi and Finnish languages. both Hætta and Spein were defiant and refused According to Kjølaas, this did not happen until to work until they were beaten into submission 1856, when seven Sámi prisoners from the (FKT. Presten. 1840–1852). Rasmus Spein died Kautokeino uprising were sent to Oslo and in prison on January 28, 1853. Neither the Akershus Prison, among them Lars Jacobsen prison records nor the clerical records state the Hætta (Kjølaas 1998:713–714). However, as cause of death. the prison records from Christiania Prison Six months before Mathis Hætta and Rasmus show, Friis’ first application was successful. Spein arrived at Christiania Prison, two other When Daa formed his committee so Sámi prisoners had been transferred there from he could collect Sámi objects to be sent to the prison in Trondheim. Nils Karasjok and Crystal Palace in London, a scholarly interest Peder Rig were both from Finnmark and, even in Sámi languages and culture was about to though their crimes were not related, they were be established at the University of Oslo. This both convicted of stealing and slaughtering interest had its roots in missionary work and reindeer. Nils Karasjok was sentenced to three the importance of translating the Bible and years, three months and three days and Peder religious texts into Sámi. Even though Friis Rig to two years, two months and five days and Lars Jacobsen Hætta also collaborated for (FKT. Fanger. 1850–1857). According to the many years after Hætta was pardoned, it cannot clerical records from the prison, Nils Karasjok be underestimated that this collaboration could understand a little Norwegian but Peder started on very unequal terms, between Sámi Rig did not understand Norwegian at all (FKT. prisoners and scholars from the university. The Presten. 1840–1852). Why were they sent all conditions for the Sámi prisoners must have the way to Oslo? The clerical records provide been very difficult, both at the Christiania and the explanation: According to an order from Akershus Prisons. As indicated, the clerical the Ministry of Justice, Peder Rig and Nils records from Christiania Prison state that Karasjok were moved to Christiania Prison Mathis Hætta and Rasmus Spein were beaten, so that Friis could have the opportunity to and Spein died only six months after he arrived discuss his work on the Finnish and Northern in Oslo. Sámi languages and his work on a Finnish In 1863, Friis and Daa applied for the and Northern Sámi dictionary (FKT. Presten. release of four remaining Sámi convicts from 1840–1852).18 Friis later worked closely with the Kautokeino uprising at Akershus Prison A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

(there were originally seven prisoners but conditions. The making of the plaster heads 21 three had already died in prison). The prison was probably not a voluntary process. Life- management supported the application and mask casting, the process of making a three- wrote that the Sámi convicts had acted in an dimensional copy of a living human body exemplary fashion, and also pointed out that or body part through the use of moulding they had suffered more than usual. They did and casting techniques, can be extremely not understand the language, and because uncomfortable. As mentioned above, additional of their faith, they could not drink beer or copies were made so exchanges could be carried eat pork (Kjølaas 1998:721). Daa and Friis out with other museums and institutions. The wrote that it was especially hard for the Sámi three plaster heads are now in the collection at prisoners to serve long sentences in a prison the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History. In far away from their home and under very the record, they are described as “plaster casts different conditions than what they were used of three Lappish Convicts”. Today they are to. According to Friis and Daa, this must have catalogued as “portrait heads”, each with their been an extra burden and probably contributed name: Nils Karasjok, Peder Rik and Mathis to some of the Sámi prisoners becoming ill, Hætta. where some even died. Clearly, Daa and Friis understood at this time that it added to the Notes burden for a Sámi prisoner to be sent to serve a prison sentence in the south of Norway, which 1. I would like to thank Jon Barstad at the must have seemed like a foreign country. But Archives of the Museum of Cultural History/ was this an understanding Friis had, and a Kulturhistorisk Museum for invaluable help calculated risk he took, when he arranged in understanding and transcribing gothic for Nils Karasjok and Peder Riik, and later handwriting. I would also like to thank Káren Mathis Hætta and Rasmus Spein, to be sent Elle Gaup at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural South or was this an understanding that Friis History/Norsk Folkemuseum, and Liisa-Ravna reached gradually? The death of Rasmus Spein Finbog and Gro Ween at the University of Oslo in Christiania Prison might have contributed for their help in searching for objects, translating to this understanding, but still, Friis later and reading and commenting. participated in a prolonged debate where he 2. Fortegnelse Over de ethnografiske Genstande, argued for the prisoners from the Kautokeino der ifølge Kongl. Resolution af 8 Febr 1853 ere uprising to be sent south as well. anskaffede for Chrystalpaladset i Sydenham. As mentioned above, Peder Rik, Nils Universitætets ethnografiske Musæum. Indkomne Karasjok and Mathis Hætta were brought to Breve 1833–1877 Archive reference 246/1855 Oslo to provide material for Jens Andreas Friis’ 3. Until the early twentieth century the Sámi were study of the Sámi language. The three plaster referred to as “Lapper” by Norwegians, and portrait heads in the record actually represent sometimes as “Fins”. The term “Fins” was also three important suppliers of linguistic data on used for people with a Kven background. The the Sámi language. There are strong indications Kvens are a Finnish minority in Norway. In the that the Sámi informers did not provide their record, both terms are used. services voluntarily. They were prisoners, 4. The University of Oslo is the oldest university subjected to beatings and lived under harsh in Norway, founded in 1811 as Det Kongelige Silje Opdahl Mathisen

22 Frederiks Universitet, named after the Danish 14. From May 1 to October 15 1851, The Great King Fredrik IV, the last king of the Danish- Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, Norwegian union. In 1939 the name was changed also called The Great Exhibition, was open to to Universitetet i Oslo (the University of Oslo). the public in a temporary building designed by I refer to it simply as “the university”. The name Joseph Paxton and aptly named Crystal Palace. Oslo is the newer name for the city. In the 1850s This was the first of the world fairs that became Oslo was called Christiania, after the Danish- popular in the last part of the nineteenth and the Norwegian King Christian IV. I refer to it as Oslo. beginning of the twentieth centuries. 5. For a clarification on the term “race”, see 15. The Sámi collection was transferred from Kyllingstad 2004: 10–11. the Ethnographic Museum to the Norwegian 6. According to Yngvar Nielsen (1907), this might Museum of Cultural History in the 1950s. be a book: Norske Nationaldragter by Chr. 16. Nielsen 1907 writes his name as “Matias Hætta”. Tønsberg (1852). 17. Zorgdrager writes that Mathis Hætta and Rasmus 7. Gávitt is the correct plural for gákti (plural). I Spein served time together at the workhouse have been advised to use the term gáktis here. in Christiania (Zorgdrager 1989:299. See also 8. Not enough is known about which type of head- https://digitaltmuseum.no/011023295796/hode- dress or cap this is to give it a correct Sámi portretthode from the Norwegian Museum of term. Cultural History, where the collection of the 9. Yngvar Nielsen (1843–1916) was director of the plaster heads is to be found today, and where the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo from 1877 to text states that Mathis Hætta served time at the 1916. Like Daa, he was a historian and a professor Akershus Prison in Christiania. of ethnography. He was a very productive 18. “– Overflyttet efter Justitsdepartementets Ordre writer and is known for his travel guides which tilligemed No. 124 Peder Olsen Rig til xiania promoted tourism in Norway. Tugthuus for at constitueret Docent i det lappiske 10. Jens Andreas Friis (1821–1896). Linguist and og Qvenske Sprog, Cand. thl. Friis, der kunde writer, known as one of the foremost researchers have Anledning til Conference med dem under on Sámi languages and Lappology. See also pages hans Beskjæftigelse med det finske Sprog og 13–14 in this article. Udarbeidelsen af finske Bøger.” Fangeprotokoll 11. Speciedaler (Spd), the monetary unit used in Kristiania Tukthus. Presten. 1840–1852 Norway up until 1875. 12. According to the report from the committee, Friis References was the one who acquired the objects. Friis made numerous trips to Finnmark, the first in 1850 Archival Sources (Lindkjølen 1983:10). The archives of the Museum of Cultural History, 13. Ethnic maps like this can also be a valuable tool University of Oslo/Arkivet ved Kulturhistorisk for the government, see Ivar Bjørklund, “Society, museum, Universitetet i Oslo Ethnicity and Knowledge Production. Changing Universitætets ethnografiske Musæum. Indkomne Relations between Norwegians and Sámi Breve 1833–1877 Archive reference 246/1855. 1850 – 2000”. Forthcoming in Sámi Research in “Fortegnelse Over de ethnographiske Gjenstande, Transition: Knowledge, Politics and Social Change, der ifølge kongl: Resolution af 8 Febr 1853 ere edited by Laura Junka-Aikio, Jukka Nyyssönen anskaffede for Chrystalpaladset i Sydenham.” and Veli-Pekka Lehtola. Ludvig Kr. Daas innberetning til det akademiske A record of ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham

Kollegium 16 October 1862. KHM, Etnografisk Gjessing, Gutorm & Marie Krekling Johannessen 23 museum 1957. De Hundre år - Universitetets Etnografiske Museums Historie 1857–1957. Vol. 5. Oslo: The State Archives / Riksarkivet Universitetets Etnografiske Museum. Fangeprotokoll Kristiania Tukthus. Fanger. 1850–1857. Gran, Gerhard 1911. Det Kongelige Fredriks Universitet Statsarkivet, Oslo SAO/A-10644/Had IV 1811–1911. Vol. 1. Kristiania: Aschehoug. Fangeprotokoll Kristiania Tukthus. Presten. 1840–1852. Kjølaas, Per Oskar 1998. “Lars Jacobsen Hætta. Statsarkivet, Oslo SAO/A-10644/K/Ka/L0001 Opprører og bibeloversetter”. In Alf Isak Fangeprotokoll Kristiania Tukthus. Presten. 1845–1852. Keskitalo. Guovdageainnu Suohkangirji Statsarkivet, Oslo SAO/A-10644/K/Ka/L0002 = Kautokeino Sognebok. Guovdageaidnu: Domsprotokoll. Kristiania Tukthus. Fanger. Guovdageainnu Suohkan. Domsprotokoller. 1850–1861. Statsarkivet, Oslo Kyllingstad, Jon Røyne 2004. Kortskaller og langskaller. SAO/A-10644//H/Hd/L0004 Fysisk antropologi i Norge og striden om det nordiske herremennesket. Oslo: Scandinavian Literature Academic Press/Spartacus Forlag AS. Aarseth, Bjørn 2009. “Lars Hætta”. In Norsk biografisk Latham, Robert Gordon 1840. Norway and the leksikon. https://nbl.snl.no/Lars_H%C3%A6tta. Norwegians. Vol. 1. London: Bentley. Accessed 1 May 2019. Latham, Robert Gordon 1840. Norway and the Andersson Burnett, Linda 2013. “Selling the Sámi: Norwegians. Vol. 2. London: Bentley. Nordic stereotypes and participatory media in Latham, Robert Gordon 1850. The Natural History of Georgian Britain”. In Jonas Harvard & Peter the Varieties of Man. London: John van Voorst. Stadius (eds.). Communicating the North: Media Latham, Robert Gordon & Prof. Edward Forbes 1854. Structures and Images in the Making of the Nordic A Hand Book to the Courts of Natural History. Region. Farnham: Ashgate, 171–196. Crystal Palace Library. London: Bradbury & Baglo, Cathrine 2006. “Samer på ville veger? Evans. Om ‘levende utstillinger’, antropologi og Lindkjølen, Hans 2009. “J A Friis”. In Norsk biografisk vitenskapelige praksiser.” Nordisk Museologi, leksikon. https://nbl.snl.no/J_A_Friis. Accessed 11 2006, 1, 3–20. April 2019. Baglo, Cathrine 2011. På ville veger? Levende Lindkjølen, Hans 1983. J.A. Friis og samene. utstillinger av samer i Europa og Amerika. Ph.D. Trondheim: Forlaget Sámi Varas. dissertation, Universitetet i Tromsø, Institutt for Mathisen, Silje Opdahl 2014. Etnisitetens estetikk: arkeologi og sosialantropologi. visuelle fortellinger og forhandlinger i sámiske Bennett, Tony 1995. The Birth of the Museum: History, museumsutstillinger. Ph.D. dissertation, Theory, Politics. London: Routledge. Universitetet i Oslo; Det Humanistiske Fakultet. Bouquet, Mary 2012. Museums: A Visual Mathisen, Silje Opdahl 2017. “Still standing: On Anthropology. London: Berg. the use of dioramas and mannequins in Sámi Broberg, Gunnar 1981/1982. “Lappkaravanor på villo- exhibitions.” Nordisk Museologi 1, 58–72. väger: antropologien och synen på samerna fram Nielsen, Yngvar 1907. Universitetets ethnografiske mot sekeskiftet 1900”. Lychnos 1981/1982, 27–86. samlinger 1857–1907. En historisk oversikt over Davy, Jack 2018. “Lars Hætta’s miniature world: deres tilbilvelse, vækst og udvikling. Meddelelser fra Sámi prison op-art autoethnography.” Journal of det Ethnografiske musæum No.1. Christiania: W. Material Culture 23.3, 280–294. C. Fabritius & sønner A/S. Silje Opdahl Mathisen

24 Niemi, Einar 2009. “Nils Stockfleth”. In Norsk Sera-Shriar, Efram 2013. The Making of British biografisk leksikon, https://nbl.snl.no/Nils_ Anthropology. London: Pickering & Chatto. Stockfleth. Accessed 10 April 2019. Stockfleth, Nils C Vibe 1860. Dagbok Nordin, Jonas M. & Carl-Gösta Ojala 2018. over mine missionsreiser i Finnmark. “Collecting, connecting, constructing: Early https://www.nb.no/items/cad80824242520acf- modern commodification and globalization of d476f83a555f1de?page=5&searchText=Nils%20 Sámi material culture.” Journal of Material Culture Chr.%20Vibe%20Stockfleth. Accessed 10 April 23:1, 58–82. 2019. Perminow, Arne Aleksej, Ann Christine Eek & Jostein Stocking, George W. 1987. Victorian Anthropology. Bergstøl 2004. Kulturhistorier i sentrum: Historisk New York: Free Press. Museum 100 år. Oslo: Kulturhistorisk Museum. Zorgdrager, Nellejet 1998. De rettferdiges strid: Philips, Samuel 1854. Guide to the Crystal Palace and Kautokeino 1852. Trondheim: Landslaget for its Park, Sydenham. London: Bradbury and Evans. Lokalhistorie: https://www.nb.no/items/URN:NB- Piggot, Jan. R. 2004. The Palace of the People: The N:no-nb_digibok_2009122100054. Accessed 10 Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854–1936. London, April 2019. Hurst. Prichard, James Cowles 1813. Researches into the Physical History of Man. London: J. and A. Arch. Silje Opdahl Mathisen, Ph.D., Qureshi, Sadiah 2011a. Peoples on Parade: Exhibitions, Collection manager Empire, and Anthropology in Nineteenth-century [email protected] Britain. Chicago: University of Chicago. Qureshi, S. 2011b. “Robert Gordon Latham, displayed Museum of Cultural History, people and the natural history of race” in: The University of Oslo Historical Journal 54:1, 143–166. Box 6762. St. Olavsplass Ruud, Lise Camilla 2018. “Det museale maskineri. 0130 Oslo, Norway Fremstillinger av ‘primitive folkeslag’ ved Det Kongelige Frederiks Universitets etnografiske https://www.khm.uio.no/om/organisasjon/ samlinger.” Norsk museumstidsskrift4:2, 72–91. arkeologisk-seksjon/ansatte/siljeopd/index.html Rydell, Robert W. 2011. “World fairs and museums.” In Sharon Macdonald (ed.). A Companion to Museum Studies. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 25–44

The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category Assimilation policies and the role of industrial expositions

Cathrine Baglo

Abstract: While the Sea Sámi had a prominent position in an industrial exposition held in Tromsø in northern Norway in 1870, this category of display was no longer present in an industrial exposition held in the same city in 1894. In this article I explore this change and how the display of Sámi culture at the Tromsø expositions fit into a larger societal picture. Moreover, I argue that the creation of material regimes emphasizing reindeer herding culture as the only genuine Sámi culture, contributed to the marginalization of the Sea Sámi early on in an exhibition context.

Keywords: Industrial expositions, Sea Sámi culture, cultural assimilation, northern Norway, fin-de siècle, material regimes.

Initially, this article was going to be about the in various works in the last three decades.1 Scandinavian roots of the live human displays, In the research process, I had realized that and how emphasis on cultural reconstruction “Sámi culture” in the human displays, or live has been overlooked at the expense of the ethnographic displays as I prefer, was almost credibility of both organisers, audience, and the always synonymous with reindeer herding indigenous peoples that took part in them. This North- and South Sámi (Baglo 2017/2011). It display practice, which became tremendously had also become clear to me that the dominant popular in the nineteenth- and early twentieth interpretation of the displays as “human zoos” centuries, had been the topic of my doctoral was inadequate and simplistic (for a discussion thesis. More specifically, I had focussed on on the term, see Baglo & Stien 2018). the live displays of Sámi culture outside the Zoological gardens became a common countries with native Sámi populations as venue for the displays due to the same the transportation of knowledge was central. Hagenbeck and his distribution network, Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, but the same kind of displays took place at it was the displays taking place abroad that many other arenas, also in Scandinavia. I was known, not least due to the activities of therefor visited and made archival studies zoo purveyor Carl Hagenbeck (1844–1913) at Skansen in Stockholm and Sverresborg in in Hamburg as they have been described Trondheim, one of Norway’s biggest open air Cathrine Baglo

26 museum, where such live displays of Sámi means and with different historical trajectories culture took place. In addition, I would focus within various groups and areas. Nevertheless, on two industrial expositions that took place a rather simplistic picture seems to prevail, that in Tromsø in Northern Norway in 1870 norwegianization mainly took place in schools and 1894. However, the material from these and as a result of political measures initiated expositions proved to be so comprehensive by the Norwegian state from around 1850 and that I had to narrow my scope to Tromsø only, a series of instructions on language practice a decision which seemed fair considering the in schools, which followed soon after (1862, historical importance of Tromsø as a “center 1870, 1880, 1898).2 However, norwegianization of calculation” (Latour 1987:222), a place was much more than laws and instructions.3 where “material inscriptions” regarding the It was also a systematic devaluation of Sámi Sámi are gathered, translated and combined language, culture and identity, which hit (see also Fonneland 2019; Ragazzi & Nerici the Sea Sámi particularly hard. Before the 2019; Storm 2019). Important in that regard period of norwegianization, the Sea Sámi – was the Tromsø Seminarium, the teacher’s mearrasápmelas in North Sámi – constituted college where Sámi language was taught, the largest group of Sámi in Norway.4 As the and the establishment of Tromsø museum term indicates, they lived along the coast in 1872. I began by looking for traits in the subsisting on fishing and animal husbandry. two expositions relating to reindeer herding In Norway, the Sea Sámi settlements appear communities in reindeer herding core areas, to have spanned from Trøndelag to Finnmark, Sámi family names and reconstruction as a and the Sea Sámi took active part in trading trope. However, after digging deeper into the networks, such as the east-west Pomor trade and material, I realised that the main finding was the north-south Hansa trade, as boat builders, the prominent position of the Sea Sámi in the seamen and producers, sellers and buyers of 1870 exposition and the complete absence of merchandise. According to the missionaries them in the 1894 exposition. How to account who first used the term, the “Sea Sámi” lived for this? The Sea Sámi were still there, going on on farms and sought church regularly, just with their everyday business. The differences like the Norwegians. Missionary work among were, however, that in 1870 the international the Sámi had started with renewed interest tourist- and entertainment industry had not since the 1720s (Evjen & Hansen 2008:23). In yet discovered the reindeer herding Sámi, the addition to the relatively sedentary Sea Sámi, museums had not yet assumed responsibility or “bufinner” or “boendesittendes finner” for, and even monopolized, cultural display, as they were called by Peter Schnitler, the and the colonization and cultural assimilation Danish jurist and military officer known for of the Sea Sámi had not yet taken full effect. his work with the Norwegian/Swedish Border The objective of the article would have to be Commission in the 1740s (Evjen & Hansen to demonstrate the way the two industrial 2008:21), there were the nomadic reindeer expositions – and the live ethnographic herding Sámi, “Mountain Sàmi” according to displays – played into the larger picture. the missionaries. The most important criteria The cultural assimilation or “norwegianiza- for delimitation seems to have been that it tion” of the Sámi in Norway was a complex was possible to register rather precisely which process that took place in many ways, by many mountain area they stayed in – and consequently The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

which fjord, as the reindeer in the north seek down of cultural diversity take place? How 27 toward the sea in the summer. The Sea Sámi was it related to assimilation policies and how had strong ties to the reindeer herding Sámi was this development expressed in expositions through institutionalized relations of exchange and museums elsewhere, both nationally and (verddevuohta in North Sámi), the custodial internationally? By scrutinising the practice of reindeer institution (reindeer, but also goats, collecting and displaying Sámi material culture owned by Sea Sámi but guarded by nomadic at the Tromsø expositions, the objective is to reindeer herding Sámi), intermarriage (Evjen restore some of the “complex repertoires of 2007; Nordli & Gaski 2019), but also through action” that may have been overlooked in our the sharing of language, which depended on understanding of these events. The term is the Sámi language in the area.5 The Sea Sámi taken from Bruno Latour (2005:55). It is only in northern Nordland are known to have had a by constantly comparing the transformative distinct dialect, “Finnagiella”, but it disappeared capacities that are “doing the action” that data early on in advantage of Norwegian (Evjen & can be registered, Latour insists. As known, Hansen 2008). Latour unfolds a particular notion of agency. In this article, I will investigate the role of It is not “who is doing the action” that is at two industrial expositions held in Tromsø stake, but “what is doing the action”. This in 1870 and 1894, in contributing to the not only brings non-human agencies into accomplishment of the assimilation of the the picture, it also widens the scope of linear Sea Sámi in northern Norway. During the action to “complex repertoires”. Moreover, late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I will argue that the creation of material industrial expositions were important public regimes contributed to the marginalisation of arenas for the production of knowledge on the Sea Sámi in addition to the other factors Sámi culture and history in Scandinavia, as mentioned at the beginning. As pointed out well as in much of the industrialised world by Jonas M. Nordin and Carl-Gösta Ojala, (Baglo 2017/2011). In fact, cultural displays at the material things moving into collections industrial expositions and other commercial and being enrolled into different networks, in venues preceded or took place parallel to the the past as well as in the present, have rarely establishment of ethnographic museums whose been analysed in depth (Nordin & Ojala 2018). primary function was to systematically record This is also the case of Sámi material culture, and preserve knowledge on human cultures and the role of Sámi material objects in the considered to be under threat from progress formation of material regimes of colonial and industrialisation. As I will demonstrate collecting and control. I would like to add here, this excluded the Sea Sámi at an early display to that. A key part of this repertoire was point in time. A salient feature of the 1870 the reconstruction of Sámi domestic spaces. exposition is the prominent part the Sea Sámi played as a display category. While the 1894 The General Exposition 1870 – tying exposition differed from the 1870 exposition in heterogeneity closer together many ways, one important change was that this category was no longer present. Instead, the On the fifth of August, 1870, The General focus was exclusively on the nomadic reindeer Exposition for Tromsø Diocese opened its herding Sámi culture. How did this narrowing doors to the public at Hotel du Nord in the town Cathrine Baglo

28

Fig. 1. The General Exposition 1870. Inside Hotel du Nord. Tromsø University Museum.

of Tromsø, which had about 5000 inhabitants at where in addition a fully developed nomadic the time. Until 1918, the counties of Nordland, life exists, and where the purpose must be Troms and Finnmark were organised into one to tie this heterogeneity closer and closer diocese with Tromsø as the cathedral town. The together”.8 The Account was published in 1872 region’s patriotic societies were the initiators of with the then deceased exposition committee the exposition.6 The aim was to demonstrate leader, bailiff, and member of the Norwegian and stimulate technological development and parliament Martinus Nissen Drejer as the economic growth, especially in fisheries, and editor and seems to have be written by both arouse the outside world’s interest in the area.7 exhibition committee members and external Everything that could “illuminate the living reporters. More than 6,000 people visited conditions and level of development” was put the exhibition, most of them from northern on display. The comparative perspective was Norway and very few from abroad due to the especially interesting in this region, as stated Franco-Prussian War, which had started a few in The Account of the General Exposition for weeks before. Tromsø Diocese, because this is where “several Hotel du Nord (later Grand Hotel), was completely different nationalities clash, and one of the most majestic wooden buildings The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

in Tromsø at the time. The hotel was centrally first with the settlement [original italics] the 29 situated at Strandskillet, a cross street leading history of a land starts” (Munch 1852; Baglo up from the market by the port. The exposition 2001). Objects and products relating to the was spread over three floors covering 880 sedentary Sámi or Sea Sámi were displayed in square meters and the hotel’s ample courtyard relation to the mountain Sámi. Both groups was used for the display of larger objects.9 The spoke (North) Sámi. The exposition was exposition was divided into five parts, sections referred to simply as the “Lappish department” A – E. Section A presented the regional and (Finneavdelinga). As stated in The Account, “the arctic fisheries “very realistically” through Sea Lapp and the Sedentary Lapp [..] must be the display of commodities and objects perceived as Civilisation’s conquest of nomadic (“Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, life” (Beretning 1872:108). While the Sea Sámi August 18 and 21, 1870). Section B exhibited were perceived as superior to the reindeer objects and products related to agriculture, herding Sámi in cultural evolutionary terms, including live animals and “all the agricultural theories of race would invoke notions of them tools used in the diocese”. Section C consisted as hybrid and degenerate, not unlike the Forest of “comparable material” from section A and Sámi in Sweden (Lantto 2000:46) and the Inari section B, while section D was devoted to Sámi in Finland (see Lehtola, this volume). In handicrafts, industry, mining and forestry. Norway, the linguist, ethnographer and author Most important for this article, however, is Jens Andeas Friis was central in constructing section E, which was devoted to the diocese’s an image of the Sea Sámi as “bastardized” in home products “including objects related contrast to the “authentic” reindeer herding to clothing, homemaking, the educational Sámi, especially through the acknowledged system and everything that can illuminate and widely circulated novel Laila (1881). the population’s way of life and cultural stage” The Sea Sámi’s close connection to Norwegian (Beretning 1872:5). This section was divided in society was considered demoralising. two departments. The objective of the first was to illuminate the life of “Bumenn” while the Keen public interest objective of the second was to shed light on the life of the “Fjellfinn” (Beretning 1872:5). The While the other sections of the Tromsø category “Sedentary Men” (Bumenn) referred exposition were displayed in the rooms of Hotel to Norwegian-speaking fishers and farmers du Nord and its courtyard, the four largest while “Mountain Lapps” (Fjellfinn) referred to rooms of the smaller Schmidt’s Hotel11 across nomadic reindeer herding Sámi.10 The binary the street were devoted to the Sámi department between the sedentary Norwegian farmers due to a keen public interest (“Udstillingen i and fishers and the nomadic Sámi reindeer Tr o m s ø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, August 14, 1870). herders became a central trope in Norwegian The Sámi department included 43 exhibitors national history as it was written from the among which district sheriff Abraham Brun 1850s. Norway had in a way been populated from Unjárgga and merchant Ove Christian before, the historian Peter Andreas Munch Fandrem from Kárášjohka in Finnmark (1810–1863) stated referring to the indigenous were the most important (“Udstillingen i Sámi, but it was only with the arrival of “our Tr o m s ø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, August 14, ancestors” that it became “settled”. “And it was 1870).12 Coastal Unjárgga was largely settled Cathrine Baglo

30 by Sea Sámi while inland Kárášjohka, the name of a river, comprised a variety of Sámi subsistence patterns. Brun and Fandrem were both from Trøndelag much farther south and represented a Norwegian elite consisting of clergy, military and merchants. Some of them became involved in ethnographic business and for various reasons. Fandrem had his business in Ávjovárri along the Kárášjohka in the wintertime. The summers were spent at the trading post in Komagfjord, a small village located on a peninsula in the north-eastern part of Alta (Ytreberg 1942:255). According to Sophus Tromholt, the Danish astrophysicist and amateur photographer whose studies pioneered the modern Northern lights science, Fandrem was one of Finnmark’s most well- Fig. 2. The General Exposition 1870. The somewhat known and respected men. He was hospitable, chaotic display, mainly of boats, in the backyard of Hotel du Nord. Tromsø University Museum. knowledgeable and an avid collector. “Several ethnographical museums were indebted to him for receiving many precious gifts of Lappish idea that every “nation” was entitled to its own artefacts, and at all expositions his rich and culture and language. This policy had been complete collections had garnered great and practised by Nils Vibe Stockfleth (1787–1866), well-deserved attention” (Tromholt 1885:255; who came to eastern Finnmark as a priest in Ytreberg 1942:255). 1825, and became a scholar of Finnish and The Tromsø Stifstidende newspaper ran a Sámi at the University of Christiana (Oslo) series of detailed reports on the exposition in 1839. He is credited with creating the first until it closed on the sixth of October. It was North Sámi written language (see Opdahl probably symptomatic of the large public Mathisen, this volume). From the 1840s and interest that the Sámi department was the onwards, however, Stockfleth’s pluralistic view focus of the very first report. Details regarding faced growing resistance, and the ensuing the Sámi department were also reported in debate would pave the way for the state’s The Account of the exposition. Indeed, more policy of norwegianization (Minde 2003; than a quarter of the 162-page long account is Niemi 2014). However, until around 1870, the devoted to the Sámi department. The catalogue minority politics of Norway shifted between presented the announcement of the exposition being forthcoming to the preservation of in North Sámi and explained many Sámi Sámi cultural distinctiveness, so-called words (Beretning 1872:119). In comparison, acculturation, and cultural assimilation, the catalogue for the 1894 exposition was 61 which became dominant from that point pages long and did not contain a single Sámi on (Zachariassen 2016). Similar divergent word or term. The circumstances seem to attitudes were expressed at the exposition in reflect an interest in language diversity and the Tromsø in 1870. The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

Pupils in the chairs of the 31 Norwegians

According to descriptions, the rooms on the first floor of Schmidt’s Hotel consisted of Sámi household utensils and tools related to “the life of the Sea Lapps in and outside the turf hut” (Beretningen 1872:14), meaning tools and objects related to both fisheries and farming, as well as vehicles and other “living necessities”. In one of the vehicles, a sledge harnessed by a stuffed reindeer, a life-size male wax figure was placed dressed in fur and a bearskin collar. The life-like scene was probably meant to exemplify the “vappus” (from oahpis in North Sámi), the Sámi guide who would transport visitors to the Sámi settlements. The two rooms on the second floor were devoted to the life of the nomadic reindeer herding Sámi (Beretningen 1872). Tromsø Stiftstidende reported on the Sámi exposition in a rather positive light. According to the newspaper, “quite a great deal of precious objects, finery and glitter” were displayed upstairs (“Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, August 14, 1870). In a corner of the room, two wax figures of a man and a woman in Sámi costumes were Fig. 3. The Account of the General Exposition for Tromsø Diocese (1872). Photo: C. Baglo. displayed. “From the headdress it was obvious that the man was a Sea Lapp from Alta and the woman a Lapp from Karasjok,” the reporter visiting Fandrem in Komagfjord was because it wrote, revealing an affinity to Sámi costumes in gave access to Liidnavuotna “where a lot of Sea both coastal and inland Finnmark that would Sami live” (Tromholt 1885:488). soon disappear (“Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Another display in the Sea Sámi section Tromsø Stiftstidende, August 14, 1870). The consisted of a collection of books written Sámi costumes from Alta could very well in Sámi. By this time, the Sámi teacher Ole have been brought there by Fandrem. As the John Reiersen from Skjervøy had published a owner of the trading post at Komagfjord, he bilingual instruction book for Sámi to learn knew the area and local Sea Sami settlements Norwegian – En kort veiledning for finnerne til well. Komagfjord was also the entrance to at lære norsk (Vänekaš vuosatus sabmelaccaidi Liidnavuotna (Lerresfjord), a large Sea Sámi oappat daru, 1867) (Reiersen 1998:18). More- settlement situated to the northeast. In fact, one over, samples of handwriting from Sámi school of the above-mentioned Tromholt’s reasons for children were displayed as well as a coffin with Cathrine Baglo

32 a wax figure demonstrating contemporary good, Brun reassured, and a sample of “very Sámi burial customs. According to the unappetizing butter” made from reindeer reporter, the coffin resembled the customs of milk. Sheriff Brun had only managed to buy other people, but “naturally” the coffins were the cheeses from the owner after persistent “more straightforward and simple” (Beretning persuasion. Indeed, Brun “went out of his way 1872:137). Simple was also the description to make sure that the exposition rendered a of the fishing gear of the Sea Sámi: “Their truthful picture, even if it was at the cost of the fishing lines and nets, fish traps and stake nets, beauty” (Beretning 1872:131). fish spears [..], angles and bait – Everything demonstrates that they are sitting as pupils in Sámi medallions and diploma the chairs of the Norwegians” (“som Elever i Nordmændenes stole”, Beretning 1872:135). Sámi handicraft manufacturers were awarded The Sea Sámi were “partly peasant”, the prizes for their contributions to the Sámi reporter wrote. The Sea Sámi kept sheep and department. Their names and places of goats, sometimes cows, in their turf huts, residence were mentioned in The Account. he wrote, while oxen were used as draught Marit Nilsdatter from Ungárgga had woven animals. A slide stacker with a harness for “the most remarkable belt and shoe ribbons” oxen was on display at the Sámi department, for which she received a silver medallion. “but also this gear was just as homemade and Inger Andersdatter from Guovdageaidnu had primitive as everything else,” the reporter among several “beautiful and well-made works concluded (Beretning 1872:136). in reindeer hide exhibited a large number of At the same time, the Sea Sámi at the “Komager” [Sámi leather shoes] “of rare beauty” 1870 exposition were praised for being self- for which she received a bronze medallion. The supportive and capable of making everything shoes sold out immediately and were mostly they needed to perform their work. The purchased by women from Tromsø. Anders “most salient” part of the Sámi department, Andersen Magga from Buolbmát received a however, was “the primitive cultural stage, the bronze medallion and honourable mention peculiar kind of civilization – if one dares to for his ropes made of pine roots. A bronze call it civilization, which each object testifies medal was also awarded to Per Olsen Hjælper to,” the reporter wrote. Yet many Sámi objects from Unjárgga for the production of a Sámi were admired. One object, which made a knife. “It was, as all these [Sámi knives], large particular “heartfelt and good impression” on and chunky [..] but considering the fact that every visitor was the Sámi cradle (Beretning he forged it himself, it was rather well done” 1872:140). Other noticeable objects were (Beretning 1872:130). The prize winners all a “strikingly beautiful green woman’s hat”, received a diploma specially made for the several women’s belts, an object “in which the exposition. It bore the coat-of-arms of King Sámi pride themselves”, and a violin “carved by Oscar and had six figurative motifs surrounded knife all the way through” allegedly as a present by floral designs. Two of the six motifs were to the famous violinist and composer Ole Bull. Sámi. The depiction of a white reindeer on a Other objects on display worth particular blue background, which became the coat-of- mention were cheeses made from reindeer arms of Tromsø, was introduced for the first milk, which looked unappetizing but tasted time at the exposition. The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

33

Fig. 4. According to The Account, “Watercolourist Bergh” visited frequently to paint motifs and conduct studies. Bergh is identical to portrait painter and copyist Hans Johan Frederik Berg from Nesna, Norwegian art’s first orientalist. Three paintings testify to Berg’s presence at the Sámi camp at the exposition in Tromsø in 1870. i

Picturesque scenes consisting of a winter tent made from wool, and More interesting to the public than the display a summer tent made from hessian, or burlap, of costumes, wax figures and objects at the fabric. According to the local newspaper, the Sámi department, however, were the “genuine Mountain Sámi dwellings were inhabited by dwellings with ‘live’ Lapps in the backyard”, two families from the island of Sážža (Senja) The Account stated (Beretning 1872).13 The south of Tromsø. The reconstruction of the backyard of the Schmidt hotel was adjacent Sámi domestic spaces also included a storage to an undeveloped grassland called Prestenga. house, a rack for household gear, riverboats Here the committee had arranged for the and reindeer. Brun had brought his own draft reconstruction of Sea Sámi and Mountain reindeer, which he would occasionally harness Sámi domestic spaces, more specifically a during the exposition and ride through the turf hut inhabited by a Sea Sámi family from streets of Tromsø. “The visitor, for whom the Unjárgga recruited by sheriff Brun (Beretning life of the Finns had to be so unknown, was 1872:147), and Mountain Sámi dwellings here given the clearest and most interesting Cathrine Baglo

34 insight into their living conditions,” The the tenement house of one of the museum’s Account stated. Brun and Fandrem were board members15 but from 1873 until 1894, “indispensable cicerones” for any visitors the museum rented offices on Main Street who wanted to know more about the Sámi. (Ytreberg 1946:644–646). The museum’s Sámi While both of them spoke North Sámi, Brun collection appears to have contained 81 objects is known to have spoken Russian and Finnish originally, and it constituted the museum’s as well (Roth Niemi 1983:60). The description foremost priority.16 However, it was not until continued by elaborating on the scene in a 1949 that a Sámi ethnographic department manner that testifies to the richness of detail was established (see Storm, this volume). typical of the cultural reconstructions of the Among the objects included in the collection time (Baglo 2015): from the General Exposition were two turf hut models. The 1870 exposition displayed several How picturesque were not the scenes unfolding in small-scale models of houses, boats, skis, fish this summer tent, where reindeer were slaughtered flakes, sledges, looms, farm machinery and and the meat was hung as it was, bloody and red, to a Sámi coffin as illustrative, convenient and smoke in the vent in the ceiling, while the flayed head mobile substitutes.17 Other identified objects and the sinew-producing reindeer bones still were are the sledge Brun used to demonstrate dangling from the ceiling of the tent. In a corner sat reindeer riding in the streets of Tromsø - small a one-eyed old woman smoking her inch-long iron wheels have been mounted on for that purpose pipe, while she enthusiastically and industriously (L-1789), and at least two of the four coffee sewed summer and winter shoes; the man was busy grinders mentioned in The Account. Each preparing the hide, another was grinding coffee, grinder was perceived as representing a step while a third was cooking slaughter soup in a big on the evolutionary scale where the fourth was pan hanging there. The cheeses made from reindeer described as almost “civilized”.18 milk were hanging in twine threaded through a hole Both Fandrem and Brun displayed Sámi in the middle of the cheese, just above our heads, objects elsewhere in Norway and abroad. and in another corner, a dog had a good time resting Fandrem received awards for his Sámi peacefully. These kinds of scenes with different collections presented at the Scandinavian variations were seen daily: No wonder many curious Industry and Art Exposition in Copenhagen onlookers and visitors swarmed to the Lapps’ site in 1872 and in Gothenburg and Christiania (Beretning 1872:148–149). (Oslo) in 1871 (Beretning 1872: 149). Brun presented a reconstruction of Sámi domestic spaces at Norway’s first national industrial Sámi expositions elsewhere exposition in Drammen in 1873, exhibited Several of the contributors and exhibiters Sámi objects in Gothenburg, Stockholm and were encouraged by the committee to let their Øresund in Sweden, and at the World’s Fair in objects remain in preparation for a permanent Philadelphia in 1876 (Roth Niemi 1993:60). public collection “or a general museum” In the catalogue of the Drammen exposition, in Tromsø (Thomsen & Storm 2002). The we can obtain an impression of the scale of the museum was established in October 1872 reconstruction. The exhibition, Sámi life in the (Thomsen & Storm 2002; see Fonneland, North transported to the South, contained a full this volume). The collection was first kept at size tent, a model of a double Sea Sámi turf The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

hut, figures in winter and summer clothing, 35 reindeer (stuffed or live), as well as almost 300 other objects and products, including reindeer moss, warble flies on a jar filled with spirit, a reindeer rumen filled with blood, reindeer sausage, wind-dried salmon flesh, a crowberry scoop, a violin (probably the same as the one in Tromsø), a list of literature published in Sámi, proofs of Sámi handwriting, and arithmetic problems and maps drawn from memory, all of “which demonstrate that the Sámi, as anyone else, are capable of cultural development when handed the means” (Brun 1873). At the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, the director Ludvig Kr Daa erected an early example of an outdoor museum when in 1873 he commissioned the building of a Sea Sámi dwelling in a corner of the university garden (Opdahl Mathisen, this volume). Allegedly, the turf huts proved difficult to maintain and were removed in 1880, but other dynamics may have contributed to this decision. Fig. 5. The General Exposition for Fisheries, Agriculture and Industry. Diploma. Tromsø The General Exposition 1894 – the University Museum. disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a Display Category to a nationalism informed by racial theories Fourteen years later, in 1894, a new exposition and social Darwinism. A nation should consist was presented in Tromsø. While this of one culturally homogeneous population exposition differed from the first in many only. Or as stated by the Norwegian historian ways, one of the most interesting features was Ernst Sars (1835–1917): “State and nationality that the Sea Sámi no longer formed a part of should correspond with each other as form the display. Instead, the focus was exclusively to content” (Sars in Fulsås 1999:150). Within on the nomadic reindeer herding Sámi this framework, all the Sámi were considered culture. While a negative attitude had gained “foreign elements” (see for example Baglo footing in the dominant society regarding the 2001). The reindeer herding Sámi however, Sámi as a whole by this time, the Sea Sámi became subjects of ethnographic interest. The were often portrayed as if they were on the Sea Sámi did not. lowest rung of the social status ladder. Both The General Exposition for Fisheries, developments were in accordance with the Agriculture and Industry, which ran from the changing attitude in the culture of the time, first of July until the twenty-fifth of August, from an exoticism informed by universalism was a celebration of the city’s centennial Cathrine Baglo

36 on June 20. In contrast to the exposition in 1870, there was considerably less focus on the Sámi, a fact that may chiefly be explained by the emergence of Tromsø Museum that had assumed responsibility for ethnographic display. Another development of the time was that the Sámi department formed part of the section devoted to “Touristic objects and antiquities”.19 The other three sections were: “Fisheries, Whaling and Arctic Catching and Hunting”, “Industry, Handicrafts and Domestic Industry” and “Agriculture”.20 The Fig. 6. The General Exposition 1894. The new exposition took place in and around the new museum building and the exposition portal. Photo: museum building, which was completed in Hedley With. Perspektivet Museum. June that year (Ytreberg 1946:752). County governor Boye C. R. Strøm was the leader of the exhibition committee while “P. Svendsen”21 Fig. 7. Tromsø Udstillingen. Catalogue. Photo: C. Baglo. was in charge of touristic objects and antiquities (main department D). The spacious brick building was majestically located on a hilltop immediately south of the city. The area around the new museum building was fenced in for the occasion and wooden pavilions, structures and shacks were built alongside it. These contained displays of various kinds as well as a restaurant, a music pavilion and an aquarium. A small pond with a hatching apparatus for salmon fry was the centre of the exposition. Two hundred and seventy flags and pennants, the majority most likely naval, adorned the exposition while a large portal designed by the painter and decorator Henrik Backer marked the entrance. A færing, an open fishing boat used by all northerners, including Sámi and Kven (Mathisen & Sæther 2018), towered on top. Nevertheless, the fishery industry was now presented as an exclusively Norwegian activity. The region’s connection to fisheries was also reflected in the coat-of-arms, which for the occasion was draped by a fishing net on each side and decorated with oars and Norwegian flags. The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

Inside the museum building, the first floor was 37 dedicated to an exhibition of the fisheries industry. The Sámi department was located on the museum’s second floor. There were seven exhibitors, including the merchants Cedorph Ebeltoft, P.M. Hansen and Paul Figenschau “who all dealt rather extensively with ‘Lapp curiosities’ for summer tourists”. The exhibitor Hans Didrik Holst ran a grocery and draper’s shop where he evidently also sold Sámi goods.22 According to an advertisement from Cedorph Ebeltoft written both in Norwegian and in imperfect English and German, the firm’s “Ethnographic Exhibition” offered the: Fig. 8. Live ethnographic display of reindeer herding Sámi at the 1894 exposition. People and Greatest stock of Arctic and Lapp Curiosities. Skin photographer unknown. Perspektivet Museum. mounted and unmounted of Reindeer and other Arctic animals. Complete dresses of Skin and Cloth in reconstructed “natural” settings (Baglo for Laps, Lap-Caps, shoes, utensils of any kind and 2017/2011). Indeed, the very first group that toys and knives and a great variety of Arctic objects. was hired by a German/Austrian impresario Eiderdonn [sic].23 duo when this phenomenon received renewed interest in the last part of the nineteenth The exhibitors Nils Øwre and Martin Arnesen century, was Forest Sámi from Malå in Sweden were non-local merchants living in Deatnu and (1872 – 1878).25 To my knowledge, Forest Sørkjosen. Øwre had acted as a guide for a group Sámi was never hired again as a group. As at of Sámi who were hired by the Alexandra Palace the exposition in Tromsø in 1870, samples of in London in 1885 to demonstrate the reindeer handicrafts were displayed, and some were herding way of life to English spectators (Baglo mentioned in the local newspaper. However, 2017/2011:77–78). Nearly ten years later he none of the products seem to be related to was still in the ethnographic business with a Sámi handicraft. An exception was Mrs. Lund display of reindeer antlers, a Sámi sledge and from Havnnæs in Lyngen who had produced Sámi clothing at the 1894 Jubilee Exposition, “hats and dolls in Sámi costume”.26 Moreover, while Arnesen displayed Sámi winter shoes. an outdoor Sámi camp appears to have been The last exhibitor, “Henrik Mikkelsen Raste, a part of the exposition. A photograph shows Ringvadsø,” was Sámi.24 Raste displayed a group of what seems to be local reindeer winter shoes and works made of antler. The herding Sámi in front of a temporary shelter. reindeer herding Sámi at Ringvassøy were also Slabs of stone dominate the right corner of familiar with commercial ethnography and the the photo. A low wooden structure with an new interfaces it had created for indigenous opening and antlers on top, or what seems to peoples, in particular since the 1870s when be an overturned boat, draws one’s attention to groups of reindeer herding Sámi from Norway the left.27 In contrast to the Sámi camp at the and Sweden were hired to demonstrate exposition in 1870, however, little information their everyday life for spectators in Europe is provided. Cathrine Baglo

38

Fig. 9. L2359 Sámi ethnographic collection, Tromsø University Museum. Model of double Sea Sámi turf hut. Made by «Sjur Olsen Korsfjord Talvik».

Material regimes and the Hamburg was an important figure behind the appearance of Sjur Olsen – tremendous growth and development of this concluding remarks genre but he did not come up with the idea by himself. According to the story, it started with From the 1870s, reconstructions of indigenous his agent who was sent to Tromsø in 1875 to domestic spaces – or live ethnographic displays import reindeer for Hagenbeck. He did not – became a tremendously popular exhibition only bring reindeer back, he also contracted genre, especially in Germany but also in many a group of reindeer herding Sámi “with all other countries in Europe and North America. their belongings” to illustrate the nomadic way Frequent arenas for these kinds of display were of life.28 The six Sámi, 31 reindeer and three amusement parks and zoological gardens, herding dogs constituted the first in a long line but also industrial expositions and world’s of the firm’s successful exhibitions that would fairs. The zoo purveyor Carl Hagenbeck in last well into the 1920s (Hagenbeck 1911; Ames The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

2008; Baglo 2011/2017). As demonstrated announcement was made in both Norwegian 39 in this article, by 1875 Tromsø was already and North Sámi and participants could send familiar with the genre and orchestrated such their objects free of charge by the local coastal exhibitions themselves. The live ethnographic steamer (Beretning 1872:1–6). Sjur Olsen’s displays would soon fall into disrepute, not least model turf hut had one room for livestock due to the establishment of museums and the and one room for people. It was carefully scientific establishment’s efforts to monopolize made from wood, birch bark, turf and small the cultural display. What displays at museums stones, and the construction was attached to and commercial arenas would have in common a wooden board. According to The Account, in relation to the representation of the Sámi, the model was “very beautiful” (Beretning however, was the almost unilateral emphasis 1872:128). It most likely imitated Olsen’s on a nomadic, reindeer herding culture. In this own family dwelling in Korsfjord. According way, the Sámi material culture at museums and to the vicar Fredrik Rode in Alta, Korsfjord commercial arenas acted as material regimes was an exclusively Sea Sámi settlement in contributing to the marginalisation of the Sea 1801, counting 30 families. In 1825, two Sámi to the point that they became invisible in Norwegian families had arrived but the fjord public perception. Interestingly, this emphasis was still predominately Sea Sámi (Rode in was continued in display practices while Minde, 1982). While the Sea Sámi settlements the Sea Sámi culture, when it resurfaced in along the Alta coast were still seasonal, a museum context in Tromsø, was mainly though increasingly based on livestock in the dealt with through research (See Storm, this eighteenth century, many households had volume).29 The Sea Sámi also became invisible become sedentary by the turn of the nineteenth to me. In my efforts to look for Sámi reindeer century (Minde 1982:99). According to herding traits in the Tromsø expositions I the census for Talvik 1865, Olsen was an had overlooked Sjur Olsen, the Sea Sámi with approximately 45-year-old fisher and farmer the Norwegian name. But the transformative who lived at “Guodegieddo” with his wife, five capacity of museum object L2359, sitting on a children, a maidservant, a fish- and farmhand shelf in the storage room of Tromsø University and another fisher.31 He was registered as Museum had a surprise in hold for me. It was a Sámi (lap) but spoke Norwegian (taler norsk). miniature model of a double Sea Sámi turf hut. The place of residence was registered under The model’s creator was listed as “Sjur Olsen a Sámi name reflecting livestock husbandry. Korsfjord Talvik”.30 While “guode” is derived from “guodohit”, to Sometime during the spring or early summer let graze or lead to pastures, “gieddi” means of 1870, Sjur Olsen from Fielvuotna (Korsfjord) grassland or “eng” in Norwegian. In 1861, a in Talvik, in what is now the municipality of few years before, the aforementioned linguist, Alta in Finnmark, had sent a miniature model ethnographer and author Jens Andreas Friis of a double Sea Sámi turf hut he had made to visited Korsfjord and made a map of the ethnic Tromsø for it to be displayed at the General situation in the area based on types of dwelling Exposition. The organising committee had and language use within the households.32 The invited the region’s population – “fishermen, vast majority of the population lived in turf farmers, industrialists and Mountain Sámi” to huts where the members spoke Sámi or where submit “all kinds of works and products”. The a few members could also speak Norwegian. Cathrine Baglo

40 According to the census for Talvik ten years Lerresfjord, some twenty kilometres north of later, in 1875, Sjur Olsen and his family Korsfjord in 1971, a hundred years after the were still living in Korsfjord, probably at the 1870 exposition, all signs of a Sámi past were same place but at that time registered with a associated with the social stigma and shame Norwegian name – “Sjurseng” – the grassland of the inhabitants, something that had to be of Sjur. In the meantime, Sjur Olsen may concealed and not transferred to the new have been able to buy his own land through generation. It is the contours of this path we see the Land Sales Act of 1863. While the Act indicated in the 1870 and 1894 expositions, as initially took into consideration cultural well as in the census reports of the Sjur Olsen diversity, the 1876 revision would benefit family. However, the driving force behind this Norwegian colonization. It also required was much more than instructions on language the naming of the land in Norwegian “with use, which are only read between the lines in possibly the Sámi or Kven name added in this article. What was in play was a powerful parenthesis” (Bull 2014:52). According to the mix of political assimilation tools working 1875 census, the Olsen family subsisted on alongside popular assimilation-promoting fishing, livestock farming and cultivation of attitudes, as expressed, for example, in the the land. Olsen was still registered as “Lappish” industrial expositions, fuelled by cultural and as speaking Norwegian, but this time the evolutionism, theories of race, nationalism and registrar has added under the heading remarks the much more ambiguous – modernisation. – “speaks Norwegian customarily” (Taler norsk sædvanlig).33 Noter Of course, we can only speculate as to what Sjur Olsen’s intentions were when he made the 1. An important incident in that regard was the model turf hut and sent it to Tromsø. What is publication of the book Für fünfzig Pfennig um die known is that in cooperation with the county Welt: Die Hagenbeckschen Völkerschauen in 1989. and local authorities, the region’s patriotic It was written by the German ethnologist Hilke society sponsored two or three Sámi from each Thode-Arora and based on her Ph.D. municipality so they could visit the exposition. 2. The Norwegian historian Henry Minde points “Of course such a visit, in particular to the to 1851 and the 1980s as the beginning and end Norwegian department, may lead to great of this period, and links them to two events. The influence on the cultural development of the first event was the establishment of Finnefondet Sámi”, The Account stated, “as it gives them [the Lapp fund]. This was a special item on the an opportunity to see what the more civilized national budget, established by the Storting to population may produce, and what they may bring about a change of language and culture. learn from that and use to improve their own The other was the Alta controversy of 1979-81, living conditions and help them develop” which became a symbol of the Sámi resistance (Beretning 1872). It is not known who the Sámi to cultural discrimination and their campaign who went to Tromsø were. We also know that for collective respect, for political autonomy the Sea Sámi would gradually internalize their and for material rights. Henry Minde, 2003. own social ranking on the lowest rung of the “Assimilation of the Sami – Implementation and ladder. According to a study conducted by the Consequences”, Acta Borealia, 20:2, 122. See also social anthropologist Harald Eidheim in Lille Ketil Zachariassen, 2016, “Fornorskingspolitikken The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

overfor samar og kvenar”, https://www. census his position is given as “Merchant”, “speaks 41 norgeshistorie.no. Norwegian and Finnish/Kven”. 3. See for example Ivar Bjørklund, 2017, “Makt 13. In contrast to the general exhibition, the outdoor til å krenke” on northern Norwegian jokes Sámi domestic displays lasted only until August on the Sámi as ongoing harassment https:// 25. The date was probably determined by the nordnorskdebatt.no. migration pattern of the reindeer herding Sámi. By 4. For information on Norwegian Sea Sami culture the end of August, they would leave the summer in the north today, have a look at Thomas settlements along the coast and head inland. Hansen’s article 13 November, 2019. https:// 14. NG.K&H.B.06142, NG.K&H.B.06159, nordnorskdebatt.no/article/sjosamene-ma-ikke- Nasjonalmuseet, Billedkunstsamlingene, and Ill. bevise-noe. 10, Fra Nesna til Nilen, 45. 5. In Norway North Sámi, Lule Sámi, Pite Sámi and 15. Andreas Zacharias Aagaard (b. Talvik 1817) was South Sámi. consul to Oldenburg, Hannover and Austria- 6. Finmarkens Landhusholdningselskab and Senjen Hungary and was among the most influential and Tromsø Landhusholdningsselskab. and highly regarded citizens in Tromsø. He was 7. More specifically to “illuminate these vast listed as the wealthiest person in Tromsø in and in many ways richly outfitted landscapes’ 1894. “Skatteligningen i Tromsø 1894”, Tromsø industries and natural conditions in general,” Stiftstidende, May 6, 1894. and the fisheries in particular.” Beretning om den 16. Fortegnelse over Finnesager i Tromsø Museum med almindelige Udstilling for Tromsø Stift, 1872, 3. et Anhang over en Del av de Ting som mangler 8. “[H]vor maalet maa være at knytte dette (List of Sámi objects in Tromsø Museum with an Forskjelligartede alt nærmere og nærmere appendix of some of the things [still] lacking). sammen”, Beretning, 1872, 4. The objects are divided between the categories 9. Beretning 1872, 13. The exhibition space was “houses and house utensils”, “industry”, “clothing” stated in the ell measurement (cubit). Each floor and “miscellaneous”. Thomsen and Storm, 2002. was 460 ell. The courtyard was 1800 ell. “Det mangfoldige museum”, 2. 10. The terms “Finn” and “Lapp” are known in 17. See for example Beretning, p. 137 regarding the historical sources since the Viking Age. While the coffin. According to the packing list or invoice first term has a Western (Norse or Norwegian) of June 11, 1874, the model of the coffin was origin, the other term has Eastern (Russian or later sold by Fandrem to Tromsø Museum. Many Swedish) roots. of the same models are listed by Just Qvigstad 11. Peder Schmidt (b. 1845), “Hotelvært”, census in the 1885, Katalog over Samlingen af lappiske Tromsø 1875. This display space was 376 square sager i Tromsø Museum on the basis of the 1874 metres or 600 ell. Beretning, 1872, 13. list. 12. Abraham Wilhelm Støren Brun (b. Værdalen 18. Beretning, p. 131. L-119, L-120 and L-121. The 1828). According to the 1875 census for Nesseby original collection also counted a couple of “old and Polmak, he and his wife Helovise, two and little developed” [gamle og høist primitive] daughters, two housemaids, and two lodgers from flintlock shotguns, L-754 and L-756, and two Finland lived at Aarnes/ Oardanjárga in Nesseby. placards with ear marks belonging to reindeer Ove Christian Fandrem (b. Trondhjem 1810). owners in Kárášjohka and Várjat. Qvigstad 1885, According to the 1865 census for Kistrand he was Katalog, 12. The placards are not labelled in the a “merchant without land”. In the 1875 Karasjok new collection. Cathrine Baglo

42 19. County Governor’s Archive, Box 2622, 30. L2359 Unimus.no., http://www.unimus.no/ Arkivverket, Tromsø. ethnografica/trom/6269/?f=html&collection=sam. 20. Advertisement for the exposition, County 31. Census Talvik 1865, https://www.digitalarkivet. Governor’s Archive, Box 2622. no/census/person/pf01038405002395 21. Probably pharmacist Peter Paul Svendsen b. 1847. 32. Friis’ etnografiske kart, https://www.dokpro.uio. 22. “Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, July no/omfriis.html. Friis made similar maps for 12, 1894; “Klasse 3. Finneafdelingen”, County all of northern Norway in the last part of the Governor’s Archive, Box 2622, Arkivverket, nineteenth century. Tromsø; Ytreberg 1946, Tromsø bys historie, Vol. 33. Census Talvik 1875, https://www.digitalarkivet. I, 555. no/census/person/pf01052462002318 23. “Ethnographic Exhibition. Ced. Ebeltoft - Tromsø”, County Governor’s Archive, Box 2622. i. NG.K&H.B.06142, NG.K&H.B.06159, The more detailed Norwegian text reveals that Nasjonalmuseet, Billedkunstsamlingene, and Ill. the other animals included a fox, otter, wolf and 10, Fra Nesna til Nilen, 45. birds. The Sámi costumes could be purchased in both children’s sizes and adult sizes while Arctic References curiosities included Russian towels and walrus teeth. Archival sources 24. Census 1910, Helgøy municipality, constituency Arkivverket Tromsø: of Fagerfjord – Skogsfjordvand. Mikkelsen Raste County Governor’s Archive, Box 2622 is listed as a reindeer herder born in Karesuando Beretning om den almindelige Udstilling for Tromsø in 1870. Stift, 1872, 25. See Baglo 2017, p. 47–58. Live displays of Sámi Digitalarkivet.no: in reconstructed settings started in the 1820s but Peder Schmidt, census Tromsø 1875. “restarted” in the 1870s. Abraham Wilhelm Støren Brun, census Nesseby 26. “Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stifstidende, July and Polmak 1875. 29, 1894. Ingeborg Lund had a sewing shop in Ove Christian Fandrem, census Kistrand 1865, Lyngen. Census 1900, Skjervøy. census Karasjok 1875. 27. See for example the front page on Ottar, 2015, nr. Henrik Mikkelsen Raste, census Helgøy 1910. 3, “Det eksotiske nord”. Ingeborg Lund, census Skjervøy 1900. 28. The Sámi were, among others, Ella Maria Andreas Zacharias Aagaard, census Tromsø 1875, Josefsdatter Nutti, m. Eira and her husband and taxation census Tromsø 1894. two children. Josefsdatter Eira was also known as Nasjonalmuseet, Billedkunstsamlingene: “Hamborgar-Ellen” among her peers. Cathrine, NG.K&H.B.06142 Baglo, 2015, “Sameleire I Tromsø som turistmål, NG.K&H.B.06159 fotomotiv og møteplass», Ottar 3(306):25–30. Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum: 29. The Sea Sámi were included in a three or four Fra Nesna til Nilen: Akvareller fra Hans Johan Fredrik showcases in the exhibition “Samekulturen” Bergs reiser, catalogue 2007. (1972). To compensate a travelling exhibition on Tromsø University Museum: “Kystsamisk bosetning” (Coastal Sámi settlement) Katalog over Samlingen af lappiske sager i Tromsø was made in 1981–1982. See also «Kystsamisk Museum ved Just Qvigstad, 1885. L-119, L-120, Bosetting», Ottar (4)1982. L-121, L-745, L-746. The disappearance of the Sea Sámi as a cultural display category

Fortegnelse over Finnesager i Tromsø Museum med 1775–1965. https://www.domstol.no/globalassets/ 43 et Anhang over en Del av de Ting som mangler, upload/finn/sakkyndige-utredninger/ not dated. jordsalgslovgivningen-kirsti-strom-bull.pdf Evjen, Bjørg 2007. “Custodial reindeer and custodial Newspaper articles goats. Part of reindeer herding and animal “Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, August husbandry.” Rangifer 2, 79–91. 18 and 21, 1870. Evjen, Bjørg & Lars Ivar Hansen 2008. “Kjært barn har “Skatteligningen i Tromsø 1894”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, mange navn.” In Bjørg Evjen & Lars Ivar Hansen May 6, 1894. (eds.). Nordlands kulturelle mangfold: Etniske “Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stiftstidende, July 12, relasjoner i historisk perspektiv. Oslo: Pax. 1894; Fonneland, Trude 2019. “The Samekulturen exhibition “Udstillingen i Tromsø”, Tromsø Stifstidende, July 29, – a social actor at the Tromsø University 1894. Museum. Knowledge production and shifting circumstances”. Nordisk Museologi 3: 118–133. Literature Friis, Jens Andreas 1881. Fra Finmarken (Lajla): Ames, Eric 2008. Carl Hagenbeck’s Empire of Skildringer. Kristiania: Cammermeyer. Entertainments. Seattle: University of Washington Fulsås, Narve 1999. Historie og nasjon: Ernst Sars og Press. striden om norsk kultur. Oslo: Universitetsfor- Baglo, Cathrine 2001. Vitenskapelige stereotypier: Om laget. konstruksjonen av samene som kulturhistorisk Grenersen, Geir 2015. “Finnefondet: et enhet i tida fram mot 1910. Master’s dissertation. fornorskingsinstrument eller et ekstra Tromsø: Universitetet i Tromsø. lønnstillegg?” Historisk tidsskrift 94:4, 609–633. Baglo, Cathrine 2015. “Sameleire i Tromsø som Hagenbeck, Carl 1911. Dyr og Mennesker: turistmål, fotomotiv og møteplass.” Ottar 3, 25–30. Oplevelser og Erfaringer. København/Kristiania: Baglo, Cathrine 2011/2017. På ville veger? Levende Gyldendalske Bokhandel, Nordisk Forlag. utstillinger av samer i Europa og Amerika. Hansen, Lars Ivar 1990. Handel i nord: Samiske Stamsund: Orkana akademisk. samfunnsendringer Ca. 1550–Ca. 1700. Baglo, Cathrine 2015. “Reconstruction as a trope of Dissertation. Tromsø: Universitetet i Tromsø. cultural display. Rethinking the role of ‘living Hansen, Thomas. 2019. Sjøsamene må ikke bevise exhibitions.’” Nordisk Museologi 2, 49–68. noe. https://nordnorskdebatt.no/article/ Baglo, Cathrine & Hanne Hammer Stien 2018. “Alt sjosamene-ma-ikke-bevise-noe. eller ingenting: Annerledesgjøren og agens i to Lantto, Patrik 2000. Tiden börjar på nytt: En analys (post)koloniale kunstprosjekter.” Kunst og Kultur av samernas etnopolitiska mobilisering i Sverige 3, 166–185. 1900–1950. Umeå: Umeå universitet. Bjørklund, Ivar 2017. “Makt til å krenke.” https:// Latour, Bruno 1987. Science in Action. Cambridge, nordnorskdebatt.no/article/makt-krenke. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Brun, Abraham W. 1873. Katalog over Finnesager ved Latour, Bruno 2005. Reassembling the Social: An Industriudstillingen i Drammen 1873: Finnelivet i Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Norden, henflyttet til Syden. Vadsø. Oxford University Press. Bull, Kirsti Strøm 2014. Jordsalgslovgivning. Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2019. “Johan Nuorgam: Sámi En rettshistorisk gjennomgang av Squanto and cultural broker”. Nordisk Museologi jordsalgslovgivningen i Finnmark i perioden 3: 77–95. Cathrine Baglo

44 Mathisen, Mariann & Arne-Terje Sæther 2018. Welt: Die Hagenbeckschen Völkerschauen. Berlin Nordlandsbåt og draug: En felles kulturarv. & New York: Campus verlag. Tromsø: Kasavi. Thomsen, Elsebeth & Dikka Storm 2002. “Det Minde, Henry 1982. “Trekk fra samenes historie i mangfoldige museum – samlingene ved Tromsø A l t a”, Altaboka 1982, 87–103. Museum Universitetsmuseet.” Ottar 4, 3–12. Minde, Henry 2000, Diktning og historie om samene Tromholt, Sophus 1885. Under Nordlysets straaler. på Stuoranjárga, Rapport I, Skoddebergprosjektet. Kjøbenhavn: Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag. Dieđut 4. Kautokeino, Tromsø: Sámi instituhtta, Ytreberg, Nils A. 1942. Handelssteder i Finnmark, Sámi dutkamiid guovddáš. historie, handelsliv, reise og fest. Trondheim: Bruns Minde, Henry 2003. “Assimilation of the Sami – bokhandel. Implementation and consequences.” Acta Borealia Ytreberg, Nils A. 1946. Tromsø bys historie 1. Tromsø: 20:2, 121–146. Peder Norbye. Niemi, Berit Roth 1983. “Varanger før og nu: En Ketil Zachariassen, 2016, “Fornorskingspolitikken skildring fra 1872.” Varanger Årbok 1983, 59–70. overfor samar og kvenar, https://www. Niemi, Einar 2014. “Nils Stockfleth.” Norsk biografisk norgeshistorie.no/industrialisering-og-demokrati/ leksikon. https://nbl.snl.no/Nils_Stockfleth; artikler/1554-fornorskingspolitikken-overfor- Nordli, Mikkel Berg & Harald Gaski 2019. samar-og-kvenar.html. “Sjøsamer”. Store norske leksikon, https://snl.no/ Aarseth, Bjørn (ed.) 1982. Kystsamisk Bosetting, Ottar 4. sj%C3%B8samer. Nordin, Jonas M, & Carl-Gösta Ojala, 2018. Internet-sources “Collecting, Connecting, Constructing: Early J. A. Friis’ etnografiske kart, https://www.dokpro.uio. Modern Commodification and Globalization no/omfriis.html. of Sámi Material Culture”. Journal of Material L2359 Unimus.no, http://www.unimus. Culture 1: 58–82. no/felles/bilder/web_hent_bilde. Opdahl-Mathisen, Silje 2019. “A record of php?id=9588961&type=jpeg ethnographic objects procured for the Crystal Palace exhibition in Sydenham”. Nordisk Museologi 3: 8–24. Cathrine Baglo, PhD, Investigator for Reiersen, Olve, 1998, “Ole John Reiersen – også the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation forfatter”, Menneske og miljø i Nord-Troms, 18. Commission Storm, Dikka 2019. “The role of museum institutions [email protected] in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War UiT - The Arctic University of Norway II years”. Nordisk Museologi 3: Sidetall. P.O. box 6050 Langnes Thode-Arora, Hilke. 1989. Für fünfzig Pfennig um die N-9037 Tromsø, Norway Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 45–60

Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

Abstract: The National Museum of Finland is repatriating their entire Sámi collection to the Sámi museum Siida in Inari. This article illustrates the type of collected material that is to be returned, and what kind of tradition of representation the Sámi museum Siida will have to deal with in the repatriation. A remarkable part of the Sámi collections in the National Museum of Finland has been provided by the well-known Finnish Lappologist, T. I. Itkonen. Due to his many research trips in 1912–1927, altogether 91 per cent of his collections originate from the Skolt Sámi area in the Pechenga region and Kola Peninsula. In exhibitions curated by Itkonen for the National Museum, the Skolt Sámi objects seem to have been relatively well represented, although subjected to the almost compulsory representation of reindeer herding. Because of Itkonen’s collection, the repatriation of the whole Sámi collection of the National Museum to the Siida Sámi Museum has an especially poignant meaning for the Skolt Sámi community.

Keywords: Skolt Sámi, National Museum of Finland, T. I. Itkonen, Sámi collections, Sámi exhibitions, Siida Sámi Museum.

Many studies have attested that reindeer have favored nomadic Sámi reindeer herding herding constitutes an essential, and often a as the dominant image of Sáminess, while the stereo-typical, element of Sámi representations minor Sámi cultures – the Skolt Sámi together in museums, while the diversity of Sámi with Inari Sámi in Finland – have been cultures has often been overlooked (Webb underrepresented or unrepresented (e.g. Olsen 2006; Silvén 2014). This argument concerns 2000; Potinkara 2015). the majority of museums which have followed In 2017, the National Museum of Finland the ideas of the Lappologist research tradition. decided to repatriate their whole Sámi A recently strengthened argument is that even collection to the Sámi museum Siida in Inari, the museums owned by the Sámi themselves which is owned and administrated by the Sámi Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

46 themselves. It contains a total of 2,611 inventory small-scale reindeer herding was only one part numbers, and up to 4,000 Sámi objects, mostly of their annual cycle. from Finnish Sápmi, constituting the largest In this article, we examine Itkonen’s ethnographic Sámi object collection in Finland emphasis on the Skolt Sámi culture and (See Harlin 2019). Thus, this article poses the why he directed his research trips to the critical questions: What kind of Sámi collection east, instead of the west where the Northern is being returned to the Sámi, and what kind of Sámi reindeer people lived. We also examine prerequisites for representation does the Siida how Itkonen’s interests were reflected in the museum offer? later exhibitions of the National Museum of Museums have been powerful forums Finland, especially considering the variety for distributing images of Sámi culture, of Sámi groups. The Skolt Sámi collections which has been exhibited in the National deserve special attention due to the ongoing Museum of Finland, beginning already in repatriation process, since the role and 1923 when the first Finno-Ugrian exhibition representations of the “minorities of the was opened. The Sámi were presented as Sámi minority” in Nordic museums need northern representatives of the large Finno- to be properly addressed. Like museums, Ugric language family (See Harlin 2019, researchers also have to translate the 49–50). After that, there have been two other provenance of knowledge on the Skolt Sámi exhibitions, and one of them is the focus cultural heritage into an accessible form. of this study, which is the tradition of Sámi The collections of the National Museum museum representation in the National of Finland have been studied in several Museum of Finland. The Sámi collections are publications (Schvindt & Sirelius 1922; Sihvo a combination of items from many collectors, 1977; Varjola 1982; Härö 1984; Talvio 1993). but the material provided by T. I. Itkonen There is, however, only one master’s thesis constitutes a fifth of the Sámi items, altogether (Puurunen 2002) that addresses the history 545 objects at the National Museum. and accumulation of the Sámi collections, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968) was a although they have been the subject of several Finnish linguist, ethnographer, and researcher publications about the material culture of the of religion, whose status as an expert on Sámi Sámi (see especially Itkonen 1948 I–II). culture was largely based on the expeditions As for the material for this article, we use he made in his youth to Kola Lapland and the archives of Itkonen, as well as his accounts the Skolt Sámi area, as well as from his of his travels which his son, Terho (also a extensive research career. The collections of linguist and professor), later collected into the Itkonen, however, have a surprising character book Lapin-matkani (My travels to Lapland, compared to the prevailing idea of the 1992). Another main source are the diaries dominant nomadic reindeer herding imagery of the National Museum of Finland, where among the Lappologists. Itkonen’s collections the objects he collected during these travels mostly originate from the Skolt Sámi area in are recorded (SU 4904, 4922. 4954, 5069 and the Peäccam or Pechenga region and Kuâlõk or 5076). Similarly, we use the introductory Kola Peninsula. 91 per cent of his collections material connected to the exhibitions in the are of Skolt Sámi origin. The Skolt Sámi mostly National Museum of Finland from the 1920s made their living on mixed economies, where to the 1960s, with photographs taken from Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

exhibitions archived in the Picture Archives of amanuensis in the Archaeological Commis- 47 the Finnish Heritage Agency. sion (later National Board of Antiquities, now the Finnish Heritage Agency) of the University of Helsinki in 1919, working in Collector, linguist, ethnologist the ethnographical field. He then became Toivo Immanuel Itkonen grew up in Inari curator of the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum in Finnish Lapland because his father Lauri in 1932–35, and director of the ethnographic moved to Lapland in the 1890s to work as the department of the University of Helsinki vicar of Inari where he worked for fourteen in 1935–1955. He was mainly an expert on years. Many of Toivo’s brothers became Sámi material culture, and as a positivist, important “Sámi friends”, administrators, and he believed that only systematic empirical researchers of Lapland – for example, Itkonen’s work could produce sufficient cumulative older brother, rural police chief L. I. Itkonen, data for making reliable conclusions also in and his younger brothers, vicar Tuomo Itkonen the human sciences. This led him to produce and professor of linguistics’, Erkki Itkonen. intensive collections of knowledge, similar Their professions reflect their background as to the work of J. K. Qvigstad in Norway and local upper-class Finns, who were in contact K. B. Wiklund in Sweden. Many of Itkonen’s with the Sámi in the Inari region. All of them views on the development of the Sámi culture had rudimentary or good skills in Northern were linked with the theories of evolution from Sámi and/or in the Inari Sámi language. In his time; this implied that cultures develop their childhoods, they learned many “a Lapp hierarchically from more primitive stages to ways” concerning clothing or knowledge of advanced levels. This was the reason for the reindeer herding and fishing (See Itkonen T. urgency to collect as much information and 1991:9–19). material culture as possible, as they believed Itkonen started his studies of linguistics and that cultures were in danger of disappearing. ethnography at the University of Helsinki in There was also an emphasis on highlighting 1912, when he also made his first linguistic archaic characteristics of the Sámi culture. and ethnographic expedition to the Skolt Itkonen also had a diffusionist view of Sámi area. The collections of Sámi objects culture, that is, he emphasized the role of cultural that Itkonen brought from his expeditions to loans spreading from “centers” to “peripheries,” the National Museum of Finland consisted of rather than independent invention, discovery, hundreds of small objects, as well as complete or innovation by the “marginal cultures” buildings. In 1916, at the age of 25, Itkonen themselves. In this view, the direction of published his doctoral thesis in linguistics influences could be retraced by comparing the concerning Eastern Sámi dialects. Apart from cultural forms of neighboring cultures. The Sámi linguistic studies, he also published collections (or Lapps, as previously called) culture was of folklore, both from Inari Sámi and Skolt considered highly interesting for diffusionist Sámi traditions in 1917 and 1931. researchers because genuine and primeval His working career, however, started with traces “from the childhood of mankind” could his ethnographic studies, as his master’s thesis be found among them, as stated by a prominent in ethnology was titled Reindeer Herding Finnish ethnologist, Kustaa Vilkuna, a younger among Enontekiö Sámi (1916). He became colleague of Itkonen (see also Lehtola 2017). Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

48

Fig. 1. Saamšiǩ, a hat that is used by married Skolt women. Itkonen purchased this saamšiǩ (SU4904:21) in 1912 from Ââlgažjäu’rr. The seller was widow Mosnikoff. Photo: Ilari Järvinen, Antell collections, The National Museum of Finland.

In the 1910s, when Itkonen started his career, of 1920, the Pechenga region was annexed to Finland was still a part of Russia as the Grand Finland, thus Finland acquired a new Sámi Duchy of Finland. After the independence of group: the Skolt Sámi. Finno-Ugric researchers, Finland in 1917 and the Russian Revolution, who had made earlier expeditions to visit the socialist Soviet Russia, later Soviet Union, the small Finno-Ugrian peoples in Northern closed all its borders. In the Tartu Peace Treaty Russia and Siberia, had to turn their fieldwork Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

trips toward the north. Especially the Suenjel record “vanishing knowledge”, he attached a 49 (Suonikylä) Skolt Sámi area became a popular detailed description of the process of crafting attraction among Finnish researchers. Along these objects. The context for collecting items with Samuli Paulaharju, a teacher, collector, that were about to disappear from everyday use and author (Aarekol 2016), Itkonen already was the ideology that the Skolt Sámi culture had a long acquaintance with the Skolt area. was inevitably on the verge of destruction, so it was important to preserve at least part of it. The comparative method was a means Saving a vanishing culture to measure the “originality” of objects. The In 1912–1927, T. I. Itkonen pursued a total of real ideal of this originality, however, seems six research trips to the Sámi area in Finland to have been based on its “otherness”. For a and Russia. Most of his trips were to the Lappologist, forms of Western civilization Skolt Sámi communities, but he also visited were crucial evidence of the degeneration of the Deatnu (Tana) river valley where the the “Lapp” culture. He observed, for instance, River Sámi population lived; he also visited that the Skolt Sámi did not use antler spoons Enontekiö, the home of the nomadic reindeer like the other Sámi, but Russian wooden Sámi; and Inari, the ancestral lands and waters spoons, which were not considered “genuine” of the Inari Sámi. Only the reindeer Sámi Skolt Sámi objects. Such an “alien influence” area of Soabbat (Sompio in Finnish) was left was not interesting to him. Itkonen also had a outside of his studies. He got funding or a somewhat nostalgic opinion when mentioning scholarship from the Finno-Ugrian society1 that contemporary ornamentation of the for some journeys (1912, 1913, 1926) to Skolts was not as skillfully and nicely done as collect objects for the National Museum and before, or that some objects, like birch bark to take ethnographic notes, but also to study “plates,” were rare. Other unfortunate outside the language (Itkonen T. 1991:57; Puurunen influences that he mentioned were that Skolt 2002:38). Some trips were focused primarily Sámi would carve an orthodox cross in their on linguistic studies (1914, 1927). wooden bowls, vessels, and washing paddle, Considering his collections during his as well as into children’s cradles and bathtubs. first journey, evolutionist theories seem to be The latter, in the form of a sledge or ǩe’rres, involved in Itkonen’s interest in relic types of were used by children in the wintertime for clothing, clothing that was becoming rare and, tobogganing (SU 4904:30). in most cases, was no longer used. These relics Comparing objects was also linked to were headgear, e.g. triiviǩ and female outfits typology theory that was predominant in or määccaǩ that had become unfashionable, Finnish ethnological and archaeological because most of the Skolt Sámi used a Russian object studies in Finland at the time. When outfit called sarafans. The search for “original” comparing common items of different Sámi objects was based on the idea that the Skolt groups, such as wooden bowls and vessels, Sámi represented the most original stage of Itkonen made hierarchical conclusions about the Sámi culture. Itkonen also considered root their developmental stages. He compared or birch bark objects, as well as a rare object, different types of chests or ǩeäiss or kijssá or a meat vessel made from bark and used on giisá, which the Skolts used as seats; some of travels, characteristic of Skolt Sámi culture. To them even had a game board painted or carved Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

50 on the lid. He collected a lot of objects that were used for loosening and producing the inner bark of pine for nutrition. These were typical for the forest area from Inari and Skolt Sámi to the Sámi groups in Sweden. One category Itkonen clearly was interested in were different kinds of bags and pouches, which he meticulously described. He collected some exceptional bags made from bird heads or paddles, and he was very interested in bag mouths of antler and wood. Itkonen pointed out that the bags and mouths that Inari Sámi made were beautiful and well made, in addition to Skolt and mountain Sámi handicrafts (SU 4904:57). He also mentioned that bag mouths were sometimes given as a bridal gift among Skolts. He concluded that since they are made by young people, they are primitive in appearance. Again, Itkonen mentioned that these objects are disappearing. One can easily see from this collection that Itkonen was extremely focused on handicraft or tuâjj. He was especially interested on techniques and ornamentation. For instance, Fig. 2. T.I. Itkonen and Miss Snellman from Muonio he collected many distaffs for spinning. These pose in Inari Sámi garments. This picture was taken were often given as presents to brides or for a museum catalogue in 1914. The museum godmothers; they were valued and beautifully personnel often posed in the Sámi garments, a rather carved (SU 4904:122). It is rather interesting strange habit from today’s museological perspective. how he was able to buy these objects, since Photo: The Finnish Heritage Agency. they were considered to be precious by the Skolt Sámi. Interest in ornamentation was The collections of Itkonen from the journey typical in the ethnology of Finland and Sweden in 1913 (SU 4922) are surprisingly similar in those days, and Itkonen gathered many to those he collected the previous year. This carved objects that were used in handicrafts, time, Itkonen also gathered toys and games, in producing fish nets, shoelaces, or needle like percc, as well as dried food (SU 4922). holsters. He also bought objects that were Collecting duplicates reflects that Sámi objects related to moving and harnessing reindeer, were valuable as exchange material with other such as storage chests used in travels, a sledge, European museums, which was a common and a root stitched boat. In each case, he very practice at that time. In this setting, the Skolt meticulously described the objects, their Sámi objects were valued as archaic and exotic preparation techniques, and their usage (SU items for exchange. For example, Skolt Sámi 4904). objects were traded to the National Museum of Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

Denmark in Copenhagen (SU 4904, 4922). In Itkonen did not speak Skolt Sámi. When 51 addition to the Skolt Sámi collection, Itkonen bargaining for items among the Skolts, they purchased only a limited number of objects had their own expressive behavior for fixing from Inari and Enontekiö. the price (Itkonen 1991:57–80; I. Itkonen to When examining the information about the T. I. Itkonen 11.5.1912. TIIA. KA.).It was an people behind the collected items, it is rather absolute precondition to have a skillful travel curious that the first trip he made as a student companion, because there were no official produced the best documented part of his roads in the area; Skolt villages were far apart collections (SU 4904), in addition to the trip from each other, and the Russian maps were in 1926 (SU 5069). From these two trips, the out of date. There were also other reasons for museum diary contains exact descriptions of using a local guide. Skolt Sámi people were the use of the objects and their names in the eager to know who was traveling in their area Skolt Sámi or Inari Sámi languages, reflecting and for what purpose, but especially people in the quality of his linguistic skills. The name of the inland were still a bit afraid of travelers, as the seller was also always mentioned.2 During there were various kinds of vagabonds or even other trips, the lack of information concerning deserters on the move. Having a guide was the sellers may reflect the standard of collecting helpful in meeting people, buying objects, or practices at the time. Itkonen may have thought interviewing people, not to mention, getting a that no future scholars or viewers would be place to stay (Itkonen 1991:62, 77). interested in the sellers. Recording the place Itkonen wrote admiringly about Piäkká and names that related to the objects seemed much his skills in the wilderness. The same applied more important, so the development of the to Pekka’s follower as guide, Uula Morottaja in collection of items was more associated with the 1920s, who later even started to buy objects the environment, than with the person or the for the museum independently. Itkonen family from which they were purchased. Also had also already used Skolt Sámi guides on at the museum the objects were catalogued his first trip, such as Kiureli Moshnikoff, and stored in a certain order, which followed Huotari Moshnikoff and Iivana Feodoroff. He the scientific typologies of objects, not their admired Kiureli, for instance, because of his social context, nor the handicraft makers or knowledge, his expertise in nature, and his their families. This emphasized the anonymity social competence (Itkonen 1991:110–147; of “folk art” or “folk handicraft”. Puurunen 2002:38). Even with the moneybag that Itkonen was carrying with him, collecting was not as unproblematic as one would Local guides and reluctant sellers imagine. Itkonen laments: “There were plenty During his travels, Itkonen never traveled of old objects available, however the Skolt alone, but had a local guide. Already on his Sámi, especially the elders, were not very eager first journey, he hired Inari Sámi Pekka Saijets to sell them.” People were reluctant to tell about or Nyere Piäkká (Nuoran-Pekka in Finnish);3 their old habits and beliefs after such a short he was already an experienced guide, since he acquaintance. According to Itkonen, this sullen had earlier guided e.g. German ethnographers. characteristic increased toward the inland As a regular guide for Itkonen, Piäkká also (Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran vuosikertomus assisted greatly with the language, since 1912:13–14 in Puurunen 2002:36) Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

52 Itkonen also noticed that the Skolt Sámi commented that antler objects have been so were not willing to name the price of the popular for collectors and buyers that they are objects, but instead answered by saying, vanishing or, if they are made at all, they are “Jieč tieđak” (you know best), but he did “inferior”. Among Inari Sámi, it was impossible not understand the social norms in such a to buy silver objects, as well as belts and spoons, situation. Despite the “hidden code” he and because they were expensive and rare. There Nyere Piäkká used to communicate a proper were rings, but even though the decorative price, not everything was for sale. There were leaflets were broken, sellers demanded the members of the Skolt society, such as an old whole price (Itkonen, I. 1910). highly religious man, Ohnas in Källajäurr, who Thus, there were many collectors “on the was not at all interested in the visitors or not road”. For some Sámi, this could be a good eager to sell anything (Puurunen 2002:36). opportunity to trade and make money, even According to Itkonen’s diary, Iivana Fofonoff to the extent of selling all of their available in Madsašjaur, for instance, had the most items. Other Sámi people were not always as handsome bag mouths, but he would not sell willing to sell their wares, and they probably them, not even for five rubles, since they were often experienced the situation as awkward. his father’s and grandfather’s heirlooms. In The visitors rushed to the stocks and sheds Nuortijärvi, Itkonen mentions that everyone in order to dig out the valuable objects. Some traded something, but it required much work, people probably did not tolerate it, while some as negotiations about prices took time and indicated their feelings about the traders by demanded bargaining. Julius Konietzko, who selling their items for high prices. One can collected objects for the museums of Hamburg assume that many Sámi did not consider these and Berlin, was even thrown out of a storage kinds of trading practices honest and equal, in Sulkusjärvi by the energetic matron of the but they often felt pressure to sell their items, house (Itkonen, T.I. 1991:60–66, 97–98; SU and maybe sometimes they got fed up of the 4904:57). persistent collectors (see e.g. Lonetree 2012). Other collectors complained about similar difficulties. In 1919, Eliel Lagercranz noted in Exhibitions creating imageries Karesuando that Ossian Elgström, a Swedish artist, had bought a lot of objects so that there During the twentieth century, there were three were not many interesting items remaining to Sámi exhibitions in the National Museum of be purchased. According to Lagercranz, the Finland, inaugurated in 1923, 1948, and 1974, Sámi put “senseless prices [...] on useless things” as part of a larger Finno-Ugric exhibition; the and that the quality of the ornamentation is “the fourth exhibition was displayed in 2000–2017. poorest”. In his report to the National Museum, Currently there is no Sámi exhibition at the he complained that the Karesuando Sámi National Museum of Finland, as Sámi history had been “spoiled” in Norway by tourists and is presented, though in a minor scale, as part they were “tearing high prices” (Lagercranz, of the centenniel celebration of Finland’s E. 1919, 1931). Also, Ilmari Itkonen, Toivo independence exhibition. It is clear that the Immanuel´s brother, wrote to the director of National Museum had an important role in the National Museum in 1910 that all “scrap” creating representations of the Sámi or “Lapp” costs money and nothing is free. He also culture for the Finns, since it had millions of Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

visitors over the century. Countless school of this interpretation seems to be that rather 53 children visited the museum, and for many than depicting Sámi cultures in a rational generations, the Sámi exhibition was the way, they chose to distinguish them from only knowledge they received about the Sámi Finnish people as the zeit geist required. people, therefore it is only fair to say, that Old guidebooks and picture material reveal this presentation became very influential in that the exhibition aimed to introduce the Finland. whole scale of Sámi life through objects the The first Sámi exhibition in the National Sámi had produced and used, for example Museum of Finland was opened in 1923 as in their livelihoods of hunting and fishing. part of a larger Finno-Ugrian exhibition. The Furthermore, there was a large presentation of general atmosphere was favorable for such equipment for preparing and eating food, like an exhibition, as Finnish scholars, and even wooden bowls and containers. Storage items politicians, emphasized that Finland was one made of roots and birch bark, Sámi coffins of the leading “advanced” nations among made of wood, and smaller objects for storing the Finno-Ugrian peoples. One trait in the female utensils were also introduced. exhibition was also to highlight the Finnish Several genuine looking mannequins repre- culture to the detriment of the Swedish sented all the Sámi groups in Finland. These minority in Finland, who were represented mannequins were made by an artist4 to look as in a subsidiary role (Talvio 2016:186, 189, Sámi as possible, that is, to represent the Sámi 235–237). The Finno-Ugrian exhibition was “race” and appearance.5 On the wall behind mainly designed by intendant U.T. Sirelius, them, other items were displayed, like belts, who was also the first professor of Finno- woolen cloths, headgear, reindeer harnesses, Ugrian Ethnology at the University of Helsinki bags, and pouches. Some of the mannequins and a “mentor” to Itkonen, who produced the represented children, and childhood was exhibition as his assistant curator together with depicted with Sámi cradles and toys, as well Tyyni Vahter. The whole exhibition consisted as a Skolt-Sámi bathtub for babies made from of six rooms, with the exhibition on Sámi wood. Handicrafts had a central role, with culture taking place in its own room (Suomen many different objects; in addition, jewelry and Kansallismuseo 1933:67–68, 71–72, 75). accessories as well as religious objects, both In a guidebook written ten years later in contemporary and historical, were presented. 1933, the Sámi culture, along with other The centerpiece in the exhibition was a “nomad cultures,” was presented as belonging harnessed reindeer from the Enontekiö area. to the most primitive level of the Finno-Ugric This was a typical and fashionable “Lappish” language group. According to the guidebook, equipage that was a popular way of presenting the Sámi did not racially belong to the Finno- Sámi culture in museums at the time (Mathisen Ugrian family, but after having lived alongside 2017:58). Many of the objects, such as a sledge, neighboring peoples, they had forgotten their were related to reindeer, its harnessing, and own language and adopted a new one. The using reindeer as a draught animal. As a leaflet reflects the material culture and living curiosity, food was exhibited usually in a dried conditions of the Sámi as primitive, such form, for example reindeer tongues and fat, as as herding, hunting, and fishing (Suomen well as blood stored in a reindeer stomach (See Kansallismuseo 1933:67, 71–72). The meaning also Baglo, in this volume.). Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

54 The Sámi exhibition displayed a great in Itkonen’s book, Suomen lappalaiset I-II number of objects to the visitors in rather (Lapps of Finland), a huge, even encyclopedic, small localities. The walls and vitrines were project on “everything concerning the Sámi”. full of Sámi objects, reflecting the rich variety The variety of the different Sámi groups was of the collections. Yet the information in the presented, but there was no written information leaflet was not very informative, since the use to reveal the methods. Itkonen and Vahter of the objects, for instance, was described only used the whole Sámi collection of the museum, briefly, if at all. Today, the grouping of the and the exact amount of Skolt objects is objects seems a bit strange, as in some cases it difficult to determine; there was no written is difficult to perceive why some objects were information about the exact objects that were presented together. Sometimes the rallying used in the first two Sámi exhibitions.6 When point was the material the objects were made the guests arrived in the exhibition, they met of, sometimes the context they were used in, the “Lappish” equipage, a harnessed reindeer and sometimes a scientific typology. as a draught animal, carrying open Sámi Already the first exhibition, which lasted up chests (giisas) on both sides. As a complement, to the Winter War (1939–40), seems to have different kinds of Sámi sledges and several created a popular “story of Lappish culture”. Sámi storage chests were hanging on the wall. From then on, the exhibited themes, and even This way, the mobility of the (reindeer herding) objects, started to stabilize as the core aspects of Sámi culture was highlighted. There were Sámi representation, also in later exhibitions. parts of harnesses, skis, reindeer hides used in Although the whole collection of the National travels and different kinds of carriers used like Museum contained over 2,600 items, the same rucksacks, but also bags and a rosna, a special objects seem to have been displayed through backpack or carrying object used by the Skolt all exhibitions in the twentieth century (See Sámi (Kansallismuseo 1966, 605:1–4). Harlin 2018:49–50). This was an interesting According to the guidebook, “the most way to combine the “otherness” of the Sámi primitive” clothing is used in winter, such as culture into a certain familiarity for the visitors čehporas, a bear or wolverine fur collar used who were taught to know what to expect in the by men in earlier times. Also woven wool exhibitions. clothes, produced by Skolt and Utsjoki Sámi, The same could be seen in the new were displayed. All kinds of household items exhibition, which was opened in 1948, after were described according to their material, WWII. This time the exhibition was curated such as birch bark, wood, antler, leather, and by Itkonen as the department manager and root; these traditions were known in other Vahter as the intendant. It was also given much Sámi areas, too, for example in the Sodankylä more space; out of the eight rooms of the whole area, but they are still practiced only among exhibition, Sámi cultures were displayed in the Skolt, Lule and South Sámi today. There three rooms (Talvio 2016:186, 189, 235–257). was also a presentation of objects used for The new exhibition presented Sámi culture loosening the inner bark of pine for nutrition, in a more systematic way, and dealt with which was especially practiced in the forest different themes: carriers and vehicles, dresses area by the Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Sámi and household items, livelihoods, technology from the Swedish side of Sápmi. Items related and beliefs. The division reflected the themes to reindeer milking, like the milking vessel Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

náhpi, milk sieve, containers, cheese molds and presented in the exhibition, while the material 55 a cheese dryer also presented the livelihoods. culture of the Inari Sámi remained nearly Highlights of the exhibition were the imperceptible (cf. Baglo, in this volume). In same mannequins that were used in earlier the guidebook, the Sámi material culture was exhibitions. There was summer and winter described as simplistic, but did reflect artistic clothing from Utsjoki, Inari, and the Vuotso skills. Reindeer were considered invaluable, area in the other vitrines. Mannequins were because they could be utilized in so many ways for example dressed up as a Sámi family from (Talvio 2016:186, 189, 235–7.) Utsjoki, wearing winter clothes. In addition, This storyline turned out to be long lasting, a girl from Utsjoki and an Inari Sámi man because the new exhibition was not opened were dressed in summer outfits. Some of the until in 1974. The third exhibition lasted until clothing, like the bear or wolverine fur collar, the end of the twentieth century, displaying čehporas and the horn hat, ládjogahpir had 183 objects and it also introduced “Lappish” already gone out of use when the exhibition equipage and garments from different Sámi was made For example, the njálfahtta, a groups on eight full-sized mannequins. poncho-like garment used by women, was The pre-Christian Sámi religion was now no longer used on the Finnish side of Sápmi, highlighted with a historical drum of a Sámi but is still used today in the Julev Sámi area. noaidi or “shaman,” although not from the Many items connected to clothing, dried food, Finnish area, but from the Southern Sámi area bags, and ornaments, which were the same in Sweden. The drum was on loan from the as in the former exhibition (Kansallismuseo the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm, and the 1966:605:5–11). museum had only one drum from the Finnsh The last room presented reindeer herding, side of Sápmi in their collections. That drum while fishing and hunting were briefly was a lot bigger and very rare, as there are only mentioned not to mention farming. Thus, the two such drums in existence today. presentation focused on characteristics of Sámi In the year 2000, the Sámi exhibition of cultures that differed from Finnish culture and the National Museum of Finland returned livelihoods. Again, handicrafts were discussed, to its roots — now the Sámi culture was especially how the Skolt women still used again displayed in only one room with a spindle and distaff and how they made fine vast number of objects, 248 items altogether. woolen clothes with a “primitive” standing It was based on the old collections of the loom. Differences in female and male work museum, which emphasized the traditional and missions were discussed in the guidebook. nature of Sámi society. The modern Sámi A vitrine displayed a mannequin dressed as culture was represented with a video from a a Skolt man and a wife in winter outfits, and reindeer corral in 1999 (see Harlin 2019:50). there was also a girl dressed in a Skolt Sámi Thus, the rather old-fashioned, one-sided and summer dress. Three vitrines presented objects exotic representations of the Sámi remained related to religion, including bibles and some stable, although the world within the Sámi excavated material from Sámi burial sites. area was undergoing dramatic change after One glass case was filled with toys and games World War II (see Lehtola 2015). For many (Kansallismuseo 1966: 11–21). It seems that leading Lappologists during the post-war the reindeer Sámi and Skolt Sámi were often years, it was difficult to accept that the Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

56 “genuine” Sámi culture was vanishing. Authors of the ancestors. Skolt Sámi activist Pauliina and photographers, such as school inspector Feodoroff states: Antti Hämäläinen, wanted to maintain and distribute their images of the pre-war time, In Skolt Saami context, I think the need is even more even if they saw the modernization of Lapland vital since we have no access to the ancestral lands, not which made the images old-fashioned (Lehtola even to our ancestors’ old dwelling sites or storages, 2017). where we could find an ancient wife´s headdress In 1949, Itkonen also traveled to Inari worn by a great-great-grandmother, as families that and Utsjoki with his family. The land he had have stayed in their areas for a long period of time can been familiar with during his travels was no do. My people were left without an inheritance from longer the same. The childhood landscape had where to form a living bridge between ancient and vanished as his old home village of Inari had contemporary design. We, who have been born in been burned to the ground during the war. The exile, don’t know how the Skolt Saami world looked border now divided the traditional areas of the like as a whole, what our people considered beautiful Skolt Sámi, who had been resettled to new areas and harmonious. The whole legacy is in a handful of on the Finnish side of the border. According objects in our families (Pauliina Feodoroff 2019). to his son Terho, the Sápmi that Itkonen had grown to know and admire no longer existed. Considering the central role of the Skolt Sámi Therefore, he never returned to Sápmi, except in the early collections of the National Museum in his memories (Itkonen, T. 1991:19). of Finland, one can wonder how this role later changed so radically. It is clear that even in the permanent exhibition (1998–2022) of the Siida Conclusion Sámi museum, for instance, the imperceptible In his collecting practices, Itkonen mostly role of the Skolt Sámi and Inari Sámi cultures focused on the Skolt Sámi and only partly have been obvious, reflecting the discrepancy on other Sámi groups, although he made his between the prevailing representation of the master’s thesis on nomadic reindeer herding. North Sámi cultures and the minor Sámi Thus, the dominant part of Itkonen’s Sámi groups. The interesting questions therefore collections in the National Museum of Finland are: If the Skolt Sámi were emphasized in the was of Skolt Sámi origin. You can also see that collections and works of Itkonen, how did in the exhibitions of the National Museum, this diversity diminish later, and how did the the Skolt Sámi objects were well represented, Skolt Sámi remain only a historical relic in the although the source material does not give exhibitions? details for evaluation of the content. When the The main reason for Itkonen’s interest in collection of the National Museum of Finland Skolt Sámi culture was his motivation to study – gathered, studied, and presented in so many eastern Sámi languages. As a polymorphous ways – is repatriated to Sápmi, it will receive scholar, however, he combined ethnologist, a momentous task. For the Skolt Sámi, who folkloristic, and linguistic practices on every have an especially difficult history with many trip. His field trips in 1912–1927 reflected his forced diasporas from their own homelands, background as a person who had grown up in the repatriation has a specific significance in the Sámi area, which could be seen, for example, mediating the traditional knowledge and spirit in his use of the services of local Sámi guides. Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

With his research, numerous publications, collected many objects that were already going 57 collections gathered, and influences on the out of use, in most cases, due to the influence Sámi representations, Itkonen became one of of colonialism and neighboring cultures and the most prominent figures in the history of new influences. Itkonen was not interested Lappology in Finland. This was also reflected in in the changes underway in Sámi culture, but his long-lasting career at the National Board of rather focused on features he considered to Antiquities. Considering the Sámi collections be “genuine”, “original” and “pure”. For this in the National Museum of Finland, the role reason, he also concentrated on objects that of Itkonen cannot be overestimated, as Nina especially distinguished the Skolts from the Puurunen suggests (Puurunen 2002:33). other Sámi peoples. Thus, the large collection In some part of the exhibitions, the Skolt of Skolt Sámi culture can partly be explained Sámi were subjected to the almost compulsory by the understanding of Itkonen’s time, that is, reindeer equipage or the representation of that the Skolt Sámi represented most archaic reindeer herding, which later changed into and original form of Sámi culture. something of a stereotype for all Sámi culture.7 This does not, however, entail that nomadic Notes reindeer herding would have been (over) emphasized in the exhibitions, because wild 1. One of the oldest and largest scientific societies deer/reindeer have been a very important in Finland. It was established in 1883 and it quarry, and later herding, animal also for Skolt aims to support Finno-Ugric languages and the Sámi as well as for the Inari Sámi. Some of the research related to the culture, ethnology, folklore Skolt Sámi were still seminomadic into the and prehistory of these peoples (Finno-Ugrian 1920s and 1930s. For many others, reindeer Society) were an important part of the diverse economy, 2. From the trip in 1926, for instance, we can read and they also carried strong symbolic meaning. from the museum diaries that he purchased Considering reindeer as a stereotype in old outfits, like määccaǩ, a sarafan and a female Sámi representations is always a problematic hat from Uljaana and Naska Moshnikoff. From generalization, since the stereotype is more Kiureli Moshnikoff, he bought a small wooden in the way one looks at something, rather meat vessel and a traveling Sámi coffin, from than the object itself. There can be “frozen” Huotari Moshnikoff a root vessel, from the representations of the reindeer and the Sámi, Sverloff family two bark boxes and from Inari as well accurate and creative representations. Sámi Juhan Matti Saijets a small Sámi coffin, bark Many of Itkonen’s theoretical starting box and shoelaces. The information is much more points are outdated, and he can be criticized precise than from the journey to Suonikylä and for his conclusions and opinions related to the Nuortijärvi in 1913, for instance, when he only ideas of his time, such as the understanding writes that about half of the population was still in of Sámi as “a less developed race” or culture the winter village. Thus, we can only guess which without possibilities to survive in the modern families sold him objects (Itkonen 1991:93–94, world (Lehtola 2017). Our study shows that SU 4922). these theoretical ideas directed his collecting 3. Nyeri Piäkkä was named after his homestead in practices to some extent. In view of collecting the village of Nellim, located by a strait in Lake items of a supposedly vanishing culture, he Inari, a nyere in Inari Sámi language. Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

58 4. At the Museum of the Student’ Association 982: Itkonen, Toivo Immanuel: On the Skolt (founded 1876) which became later 1893 a part Sami buildings [Koltanlappalaisten of State History Museum/Finnish National rakennuksista].1913. Museum, the mannequins was made by artist K. 983: Itkonen, Toivo Immanuel: Texts on living habits A. Söderman in Stockholm, Finnish artists Carl of the Lapps [Kirjoitelmia lappalaisten elintavoista Wilhelm ”Ville” Vallgren and Carl Lenngren I-II]. 1913. (see Th. Schwindt & U. T. Sirelius. Suomen 984: Itkonen, Toivo Immanuel: Reindeer ylioppilasosakuntain kansatieteellinen museo vv herding among the Lapps of Enontekiö 1876-1893, SMYA XXXIII (1922), page 8-9. We [Enontekiönlappalaisten poronhoito]. 1916. thank the anonymous referee for this tip. 987-1006: Paulaharju, Samuli: Collections from Inari 5. This was the way that all the mannequins were and Kola Laplands from the year 1914 [Keräelmät made to the Finno-Ugric exhibition. They were Inarin ja Kuolan Lapista vuodelta 1914]. supposed to look as racially real as possible. 6. Contrary to the old exhibition, the vitrines now Photo archive (Kuva-arkisto) had signboards and there were a lot less objects, Kansallismuseo. Finno-Ugrian Exhibitions I and II while the thematic order made the exhibition a lot [SUK-Näyttely I ja II] VIII2: 5A4. easier to handle. The exhibition and guidebooks Kansallismuseo. Exhibitions in Ateneum 1894, (1951 and 1957) completed one another, but the 1903, and at the National Museum 1908– 1955 guidebook worked also without the exhibitions. [Näyttelyt Ateneumissa 1894, 1903, KM:ssa]. In addition, a small leaflet Pictures from the VIII0: 17D4. collections (Suomen Kansallismuseo 1954:59–60) Section of the National Museum [Suomen presented examples of skillful ornaments and a Kansallismuseo -osasto (SKM)]: harnessed reindeer from Enontekiö. Main catalogue of the Finnish ethnographic object- 7. It would be fruitful to compare the 1923 collections [Kotimaisten kansatieteellisten exhibition and its followers with the Swedish esinekokoelmien pääluettelo] Arthur Hazelius Scandic Ethnographic Museum Thematic file the Sami object-collections (opened 1873) which had an exterior diorama of [Saamelaisten esinekokoelmien aiheenmukainen Samis, shown also at the Paris world exhibition kortisto] 1878. The museum became later Nordic Museum Diaries of the Finno-Ugric collections [Suomalais- (Swe. Nordiska Museet), where the Sami ugrilaisten kokoelmien diaarikirja] exhibition was rebuilt by Ernst Manker, opened Main catalogue of the Finno-Ugric collections 1947, and again rebuilt in the 1970s. [Suomalais-ugrilaisten kokoelmien pääluettelo] Verifications, Finno-Ugric collections [Suomalais- ugrilaisten kokoelmien verifikaatit]: References Ilmari Itkonen 1910 to the leader of the National Archival sources Museum 14.5.1910. Suomen Kansallismuseo. National Archive of Finland (Kansallisarkisto, KA) Lagercranz, Eliel 1919 to U.T. Sirelius. Suomen Collection of T. I. Itkonen (T. I. Itkosen kokoelma, Kansallismuseo. TIIA) Lagercranz, Eliel 1931. Account of the collection Finnish Heritage Agency’s Archive (Museovirasto, MV) of ethnographic objects in Lapland by Eliel Manuscript archive of ethnography (Kansatieteen Lagercrantz 1919–1920 [Kertomus Eliel käsikirjoitusarkisto, KTKKA): Lagercranzin kansatieteellisten esineiden Skolt Sámi Heritage, Toivo Immanuel Itkonen (1891–1968), and the Sámi Collections at the National Museum of Finland

keräilystä vuosina 1919–1920 Lapissa]. Suomen ja ajanvietot. [Plays and hobbies of the Lapps.] 59 Kansallismuseo. Helsinki: Lapin Sivistysseura. Itkonen, Toivo Immanuel 1948. Suomen lappalaiset Nordiska museet vuoteen 1945 I-II. [Lapps in Finland.] Helsinki: Huvudliggaren för föremålaccessioner. WSOY. The archive of The Finno-Ugrian Society (Suomalais- Itkonen, T. I. (Toivo Immanuel) 1991. Lapin-matkani. Ugrilaisen Seuran arkisto, SUSA) [My travels in Lapland.] Ed. by Terho Itkonen. The minutes of the board of the The Finno- Helsinki: WSOY. Ugrian Society [Suomalais-Ugrilaisen Seuran Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2012. Saamelaiset suomalaiset – johtokunnan pöytäkirjat] 1912–1914 kohtaamisia 1896–1953. [Sámi-Finnish Relations in 1896-1953.] Helsinki: SKS. Unpublished sources Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2015. “Second world war as a Feodoroff, Pauliina. Oral information 12 November trigger for transcultural changes among Sámi 2018 people in Finland.” Acta Borealia 32:2, 125–147. Feodoroff, Pauliina. Correspondence 21 January 2019 Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2016. “Itkonen, T. I.” In Mats-Olov Guttorm, Anni. Email-correspondence 2 May 2019 Olsson (ed.). Encyclopedia of The Barents Region. Havas, Honna. Pers. com. 26 April 2019 Volume I. Oslo: Pax forlag, 328–329. Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2017. “Vanishing Lapps, progress Internet resources in action. Finnish lappology and representations Bååstede. https://norskfolkemuseum.no/en/ of the Sámi in publicity in the early 20th century.” ba%C3%A5stede Arctic and North 27, 83–102. Finno-Ugrian Society. https://www.sgr.fi Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2018a. “Our histories in the Ä´vv 2018. http://www.skoltesamiskmuseum.no/ photographs of the others. Sámi approaches to visual materials in archives.” Journal of Aesthetics Literature & Culture 10:4, article 1510647, https://doi.org/10 Aarekol, Lena 2016. “Samuli Paulaharju.” In Mats- .1080/20004214.2018.1510647 Olov Olsson (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Barents Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2018b. “´The soul should have Region, Volume II. Oslo: Pax Forlag, 149–150. been brought along.´ The settlement of Skolt Harlin, Eeva-Kristiina 2019. “Returning home. The Sami to Inari in 1945–1949.” Journal of Northern different ontologies of the Sámi collections.” Studies 12:1, 53–72. In Thomas Hylland-Eriksen, S. Valkonen & J. Lonetree, Amy 2012. Decolonizing Museums: Valkonen (eds.). Knowing from the Indigenous Representing Native America in National and North. Sámi Approaches to History, Politics and Tribal Museums. Chapel Hill: The University of Belonging. London: Routledge, 47–66. North Carolina Press. Härö, Mikko 1984. Suomen muinaismuistohallinto Magnani, Natalia 2018. Making Indigenous Future: ja antikvaarinen tutkimus. Muinaistieteellinen Land, Memory, and “Silent Knowledge” in a toimikunta 1884–1917. [Formation of the Skolt Sámi Community. Dissertation. Oxford: administration and research of antiquities in University of Oxford. Finland.] Helsinki: Museovirasto. Mathisen, Silje Oppdahl 2017. “Still standing. On Itkonen, T. (Terho) 1991. Saatasanat. [Introduction.] T. the use of dioramas and mannequins in Sámi I. Itkonen: Lapin-matkani. Helsinki: WSOY, 9–19. exhibitions.” Nordisk Museologi 1, 58–72. Itkonen, Toivo Immanuel 1941. Lappalaisten leikit Olsen, Bjørnar 2000. “Bilder fra fortida? Eeva-Kristiina Harlin & Veli-Pekka Lehtola

60 Representasjoner av samisk kultur i samiske of Finland.] Historiallinen aikakauskirja 1, museer.” Nordisk Museologi 2, 13–30. 1–34. Potinkara, Nika 2015. Etnisyyden rakentuminen Talvio, Tuukka 1993. H. F. Antell ja Antellin kahden saamelaismuseon perusnäyttelyissä. [The valtuuskunta. Helsinki: Museovirasto. formation of ethnicity in the main exhibitions Talvio, Tuukka 2016. Suomen Kansallismuseo. Ikkuna of two Sámi museums.] Dissertation. Jyväskylä: menneeseen ja tulevaan. [Past and present of University of Jyväskylä. the National Museum of Finland.] Helsinki: Puurunen, Nina 2002. “Saamelaisuus Museovirasto. Kansallismuseossa. Suomen kansallismuseon Varjola, Pirjo 1982. “Suomen kansallismuseon saamelaisten esinekokoelmien muodostuminen, yleisetnografinen kokoelma.” [The Ethnografic karttuminen ja analyysi.” [Sáminess in the collection in the National Museum of Finland.] National Museum of Finland. The Formation, Suomen Museo 1981, 51–86. Accumulation and Analysis of Sámi Collections Varjola, Pirjo 1990. The Etholen Collection. National in the National Museum of Finland.] Master´s Board of Antiquities of Finland. Helsinki: National thesis. Helsinki: University of Helsinki. Board of Antiquities. Schvindt, Theodor & Sirelius, U.T. 1922. “Suomen Webb, Sharon 2006: “Making Museums, Making ylioppilasosakuntain Kansatieteellinen museo vv. People: the Representation of the Sámi through 1876-1893.” Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistyksen Material Culture.” Public Archaeology 5:3, 167–183. aikakauskirja XXXIII, 3–22. Sihvo, Pirkko 1977. “Kansallismuseon kotimaisten kansatieteellisten kokoelmien syntyvaiheita.” Eeva-Kristiina Harlin, Master of Arts [Development of first ethnographic collections [email protected] at the National Museum of Finland.] Ethnologia Fennica 1-2, 47–61. Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies Sihvo, Pirkko 2001. Palava mieli. Kansatieteellinen University of Oulu arkeologi Theodor Schvindt. [Ethnographic PO Box 1000, 90014 University of Oulu archeologist Theodor Schvindt.] Jyväskylä: Gummerus. Silvén, Eva 2014: “Constructing a Sami Cultural Veli-Pekka Lehtola, Ph.D., Professor of Saami Heritage. Essentialism and Emancipation.” cultural studies Ethnologia Scandinavica 44, 59–74. [email protected] Sirelius, U.T. 1916. “Suomen Kansallismuseo, sen synty, kehitys ja nykyiset laitokset. Historiallinen Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies katsaus.” [Formation, development and University of Oulu contemporary activities of the National Museum PO Box 1000, 90014 University of Oulu Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 61–76

The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

Dikka Storm

Abstract: This article examines the roles of two Norwegian museums; the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo and Tromsø Museum in Northern Norway, in relation to the production of Sámi research from the end of the nineteenth century until the Post World War II years. By emphasising the academic development of Ole Solberg, Just Qvigstad, Gutorm Gjessing, Knut Kolsrud and Ørnulv Vorren and the development of professional networks, the article calls attention to the establishment of a research strategy in 1913, the establishment of the Institute of Comparative Research in 1923, and the effects of these for studies of Sámi culture and society. Moreover, the article argues that the ethnographer Ørnulv Vorren and Tromsø Museum became important contributors to the advancement of Sámi research and the bolstering of the Sámi ethno-political movement.1

Keywords: History of ethnography, Norway, Ethnographic Museum in Oslo, Tromsø Museum, Institute of Comparative Research of Human Culture, studies of Sámi cultures.

In this article, I will illuminate different development in relation to the development perspectives related to research on Sámi of networks of professional groups is taken culture, history, and society at the Ethnographic into consideration, I focus on a particular Museum in Oslo, and what would become strategy of scientific research on the Sámi. I the ethnographic department at Tromsø specifically consider the role of Ole Solberg Museum from the end of the nineteenth (1879–1946) and his students and recruits, century until the post-World War II years. the archaeologist and anthropologist Gutorm Using a biographical approach, where Gjessing (1906–1977), and the ethnographer the importance of individual academic Ørnulv Vorren (1916–2007), but I will also Dikka Storm

62 shed light on other noteworthy figures in this During a longer stay at the University of Leipzig, network. As Solberg, both Gjessing and Vorren he wrote his thesis in ethnography on religious were directors of the Ethnographic Museum in practice among the Hopi Indians (Isachsen Oslo, and/or at Tromsø Museum for more than 1948:42), with archaeology and anthropology half a century. By illuminating their manifold as subsidiary subjects. From 1914 until the approaches, I want to explore how Sámi 1930s, he continued to do fieldwork in Sámi research was developed in a collaboration settled areas such as in Aarporte/Hattfjelldal between the universities and the ethnographic and Sážžá/Senja, among others (Solberg museums. I am specially interested in how 1934–1944:3–5). His main goal was to build the studies of the Coastal Sámi culture and up the museum as an institution of research societies were integrated, in spite of the and mediation. That implied recruitment of explicit goal of studying reindeer herding. researchers within each field, the accumulation The concept of the Coastal Sámi included the of the different collections, and attending to focus on different groups of the Sea Sámi, the the everyday tasks of the museum (Gjessing reindeer herding Sámi, the ‘Markabygd’ Sámi, & Johannessen 1957). Also included, was the and a combination of these.2 Moreover, the building up of the library, as well as publishing. process of the establishment of the Institute Solberg stimulated his recruits to become co- of Comparative Research of Human Culture editors and to publish source material, in in Kristiania [Oslo] in 19233 was a model and addition to their own studies. Solberg was an inspiration for studies on Sámi culture and a skilled collector who made use of both society, which have had a lasting impact until a qualitative and systematic approach. He today. built up the collections in relation to his own research (Hopi and Sámi), as well as acquired items from other collections from all over the Ole Solberg and the coining of a world, as well from indigenous peoples, such Sámi research plan as the Inuit (Greenland, Alaska), and the Sámi Ole Solberg started his museum career as in Northern Norway (Isachsen 1948:42–43, associate professor (1906–1908) at the Museum Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:45,121, 145–146; of Ethnography in Oslo, and later he became a Bouquet 1996:47–59). During World War II research fellow in ethnography (1912–1917) the Ethnographic Museum, which was located at the University of Kristiania. In 1917, he in the center of Oslo, was occupied by the was appointed professor and director at the Germans. Solberg sold his own flat, and when museum (Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:42). his house was confiscated, he lived at the loft of Solberg’s studies of the prehistoric inhabitants the museum while looking after it and the part of the island of Dálmmat/Kjelmøy in Varanger, of the collections which were not evacuated. was according to the archaeologist Inger Storli In connection with the upheaval of the (1986:47–48) central to the development of the Union between Sweden and Norway in 1905, study of the so-called Sámi Iron Age (1909). the first case to be settled between the two Solberg carried out studies of the Sámi in nations was the disagreement on reindeer Sweden (1902) and the Hopi in Arizona (1903– herding management and the grazing areas 1904) (Solberg 1906; Gjessing 1962:142–145; within the two states (Isachsen 1948:45). Klausen 1981a:141–153; Kyllingstad 2008:340). Solberg’s (1928/1913:10–15) approach to the The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

the research on other themes such as language, 63 physical anthropology, and law, among others, they were taken care of by researchers in different disciplines at the university. Solberg played a central role in this process, as he had connections to both the museum and the university and he had profound knowledge of the cultures and history of East Finnmark (Isachsen 1948:40–49; Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:36–49; Storm 2010:343–345). Inspired by the the German-American anthropologist Franz Boas5 (1858–1942), Solberg (in Stang 1928:12) elaborated how the research on the culture of the Arctic People could be executed (Storm 2010:344). He listed ten objectives, or areas, which he found relevant to expand on and concretize relating to the existing sources and the possibilities to engage researchers representing the various disciplines and/or Fig. 1. Ole Solberg (1879–1946), professor of themes (Solberg in Stang 1928:10–15). These ethnography and director of the Ethnographic objectives, or areas, were listed as follows (here Museum in Oslo 1917–1946. Kulturhistorisk museum, Universitetet i Oslo. Painting: Eivind the endonym “Sámi” is used rather than the Engebretsen. Photo: Ann Christine Eek. exonym “Lapps/Lappish”, which was dominant at that time and written by Solberg): issue was formulated in the “Memorandum”,4 1. to shed full light on the activities in which became the basis for the development connection to the reindeer; herding/ of a research program at the Institute of husbandry industry, as an economic basis Comparative Research on Human Culture ten to focus on the “the real Culture of the years later (discussed in detail below). The Sámi”; program was based on the question brought 2. Sámi ways of settlement including the about by the “Reindeer grazing commission” nomadic camp and its organisation, also and the management of the border-crossing the transition to permanent settlements; reindeer herding in the northern part of 3. the material culture of the Sámi compared Norway and Sweden (Stang 1928:10–23; to the Scandinavian, Qven, or Russian Isachsen 1948:45; Storm 2009:13–44). Focusing material expressions; on reindeer herding, Solberg developed a 4. collection of folklore, specimen of music, comprehensive strategy to approach and customs and legal conceptions. develop research on Sámi societies, culture, 5. studies of the pre-Christian [“old”] history and language. Research at the religion; Ethnographic Museum followed the themes 6. linguistic research; sketched out in the strategy. In connection to 7. research in the early history of the Sámi; Dikka Storm

64 8. archaeological research within the areas reindeer herding population have generated inhabited by the Sámi; a particular culture; the Sea Sámi have lived 9. physical-anthropological studies: on loans from the Norwegians”.7 The plan was 10. research in psychology.6 further elaborated by professor Fredrik Stang (1928:10–23), the leader of the institute. He This rather ambitious program was to be worked out an even more detailed and updated accomplished during a five year period. When plan, tying the different perspectives from the period was over, a solid understanding Solberg and Qvigstad together. of the first seven areas was expected. The The research on Sámi culture and society plan had a holistic perspective and applied a is an example which shows the importance comparative approach to build up knowledge of the Institute of Comparative Research on by exploring each theme. The main focus was Human Culture as a national research arena. on reindeer herding and husbandry, which was The institute has been thoroughly examined considered to express the “true” Sámi culture by the historian Jon Røyne Kyllingstad (Solberg 1928:13). The perspectives of Sámi (2008), who analysed its establishment, social history and prehistory were also to be collected responsibility, and objectives as an arena where and compared with physical anthropological the researchers could work across diciplinary studies. After Solberg became the director borders, elaborate transborder knowledge of the Museum of Ethnography in 1917, he production, and the results of these processes. withdrew from the process. As most Scandinavian research at the time, the studies at the Institute of Comparative Research on Human Culture and Museum of Just Qvigstad – further Ethnography, was also influenced by German elaboration of the plan research traditions (Kyllingstad 2008:9–10). Just Qvigstad (1853–1957), a linguist in Sámi Topics, theories, and methodologies covering and Finnish, folklorist, and former rector at the first half of the twentieth century were the Teachers College in Tromsø, replaced changed due to to the influence of the Anglo- Solberg. At the time, Qvigstad was continuing American social science tradition, which his research on North Sámi language, folklore, became of great interest after World War II. and placenames as senior research fellow with Building up the institute as an institution grants from the government (Hansen 1992). and arena for the production of knowledge In 1924, at the age of 71, Qvigstad presented and research of international importance was his elaborated version of the plan on Sámi an intensive process during the 1920s and cultural research in his introductory lecture 1930s. Besides invited international expertise, at the Institute of Comparative Research on the visiting researchers mainly represented Human Culture (Qvigstad 1925:60–82; Jølle the University of Oslo and other scientific 2004:314). Departing from a comparative institutions in the capital. In addition, the perspective on the reindeer Sámi population, strengthening of research at the national level Qvigstad (1925:74) characterized the Sea Sámi and recruitment was emphasised. From 1927 population and economy, one of the groups and onwards, researchers from the rest of the of the Coastal Sámi, echoing a diffusionistic country were encouraged to participate by way perspective on loans of culture: “Only the of grants (Stang 1930:7). There were several The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

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Fig. 2. Just Knud Qvigstad (1853–1957) in conversation with his successor Ørnulv Vorren (1916-2007). Both were northerners. Qvigststad grew up at Lyngseidet in Troms. Vorren grew up in Neiden in Finnmark. Tromsø University Museum. visiting researchers from Northern Norway The development of a cross- as Qvigstad was from Tromsø. Besides several disciplinary approach assignments, Qvigstad had been the manager The arena and milieu at the Institue of of the “Lappish [Sámi] collection” of Tromsø Comparative Research on Human Culture Museum while being an unpaid member became important for the development of of the board of the same museum during a cross-disciplinary approach where the the period 1884–1934 (Hansen 1992:55). research of Sámi culture took place in a Through Qvigstad’s correspondence, there multidisciplinary context. In a centennial is information about some objects which report, Gutorm Gjessing and Marie Krekling were gathered for the Sámi collection at the Johannessen (1957:46, 55–57), one of the museum. But his collection was mostly in the few female professionals at the time, was fields of oral and linguistic information, mainly responsible for a similar development which Sámi language, Sámi placenames, information took place at the Museum of Ethnography in on sacred places and religious activity, the Oslo. The study of culture of the Arctic peoples land use in connection to reindeer herding was led by professor Solberg as part of a wide management, and of folklore. approach to ethnographic studies. He put Dikka Storm

66 special weight on recruitment and research on was on Sámi and Norwegian settlement and the Sámi in Norway. In addition to research, economies, as well as the religious situation Solberg emphasised work in the museum. and social relationships in Northern Norway. With his knowledge, experience, qualifications and expertise, Solberg was an active supplier Teaching and recruitment of terms and conditions for the development of research on Sámi society and culture. He The teaching of ethnography was one of the remained influential until his death in 1947 tasks Solberg developed from 1913, and which (Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:150–151). The he emphasised further as professor at the research, collections, mediation and other Museum of Ethnography from 1917 (Isachsen tasks at the museum were incorporated into a 1948:45). The recruitment of students took methodical, systematic working strategy. The place in cooperation with the Institute of comprehensive “Memorandum” from 1913 Geography at the University of Oslo. The was a basic element of the plan (Stang 1928:10– teaching took place at both institutions 15).8 This was later confirmed by, among others, (confirmed by Ø. Vorren in interviews by Johannes Falkenberg (1944:54; Gjessing & author in 1993). The human geographer Johannessen 1957:56), one of Solberg’s recruits Fridtjov Isachsen (1906–1979) (1948:41, and students. In the introduction to his 45–47) described the cooperation between ethnographic study in East Finnmark in the Solberg and himself. Solberg kept to a formal 1930s, he referred to the research strategy as a attitude. At the same time he gave in-depth reason and starting point for the study. presentations and induced in the students a Publication was one of the main tasks good sense of constructive critiscism, style, of the Museum of Ethnography and was and form. He was seriously concerned about instrumental to the mediation, as well as the the students gaining the competence to work at building up of a library (Isachsen 1948:45–46; a museum (Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:42). Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:86–90,151). The He pointed out that the tasks of working at a museum’s publications cover many different museum were very specialized and demanded areas and disciplines and in particular, consist certain professional, occupational, and acade- of publications on Sámi historical sources mic qualifications. Above all, however, the and historical sources of the Inuit in Kalaalit work required a long practical education. This Nunaat/Greenland. In relation to the research demand was not met by choosing an incidental on Sámi culture and society, a series of or casual applicant to the position as director, monographs were published from the period he expressed. Besides Solberg’s earlier works, of 1920 to 1941, while the archival series there are only a few publications which can “North Norwegian collections” was published be connected to teaching (Isachsen 1948:45; during the period 1932–1947 (Gjessing & Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:44–45). Johannessen 1957:86–90; Storm 2010:345– During the 1930s, there were students 346). In both series, many new studies were within the philological field who combined published, including studies conducted by geography and ethnography with topics of the recruits and important source material, research on Sámi culture and society. In 1938, which later formed the basis for research the teaching was organized in such a way that on Sámi culture and society. The main focus once a week, professor Isachsen gave lectures The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

in Northern Norway, led to the recruitment of 67 students in geography and ethnography who wanted to specialise in Sámi research. Among these students were the already mentioned social anthropologist Johannes Falkenberg (1911–2004) who worked at the Museum of Ethnography in Oslo, as well as Knut Kolsrud (1916–1989) and Ørnulv Vorren. During his lifetime, Falkenberg (1944) combined areas of research, themes, and approaches in contemporary studies of the settlement, material culture, and economy of the Sea Sámi population in East Finnmark (Gjessing 1947:49; Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:86–90). As a senior researcher at the end of his career at the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo, Falkenberg (1953, 1978, 1982, 1984, 1988) focused on the South Sámi and their situation, especially with regard to reindeer herding around 1900, a phase that was characterized by radical changes. The study was closely connected to the initial strategy of Solberg. During the Fig. 3. Knut Kolsrud (1916–1989), one of Solberg’s 1940s and 1950s, Falkenberg (1948) conducted recruits, later curator at Norsk Folkemuseum (Norwegian Museum of Cultural History) and studies of kinship in Aborigininal societies in professor of ethnology at the University of Oslo. North West Australia. Norsk Folkemuseum. Knut Kolsrud and the study of the Coastal Sámi at the Domus Academica, in Urbygningen, according to the accounts of Ørnulv Vorren Another recruit of Solberg was the ethnologist (Storm’s interviews of Vorren 1993).9 Isachsen Knut Kolsrud (Gjessing & Johannessen 1957:57, is known to have been a brilliant lecturer 86–90; Rasmussen 1990:136–137; Rogan 2002: and very systematic in his introduction of 323–324). His field of expertise included geographical method. It seems there were few geography and sociology, which influenced lectures and the students were mostly left to his choices of studies and methods. His fend for themselves, studying in the reading main focus was Coastal Sámi settlement and room at the Museum of Ethnography. To take economy in different regions, especially in the the exam, the candidate had to give a lecture counties of Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, on a chosen theme. The oral examination was from the sixteenth century onward.10 Through conducted by Solberg and Isachsen. studies of archival material and fieldwork, he Solberg’s knowledge and research on Sámi focused on demographic conditions and the culture, from prehistory to contemporary times, material and everyday life in his contemporary Dikka Storm

68 works. As pointed out by the historian Fredrik W. Thue, the studies of ethnography/ anthropology witnessed a growth after World War II, as did the social sciences in Norway in general, not least inspired by the development at universities in the USA (Thue 1997:155– 167). From 1946 to 1949, Kolsrud attended lectures in anthropology and held a position as a research assistant at the Chicago Natural History Museum (Rasmussen 1990:136–137; Rogan 2002:323–324). Back in Norway, he became the curator at the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo. During the period of 1950 to 1960, he was also a senior lecturer at the University of Gothenburg. From 1961 to 1986, he was a professor in ethnology at the University of Oslo. He introduced his students to a whole new focus and understanding of the history and culture of the Coastal Sámi. The point of departure was his work on the Coastal Sámi population and economy in Ofuohtta/ Ofoten in Troms and at Čoalmmenuorri/ the Fig. 4. Guttorm Gjessing (1906–1979) recieving the sound of Rognsund in Finnmark, as well as J.K. Qvigstad prize at Tromsø Museum’s centennial other Coastal Sámi settlements (The authors in 1972. Tromsø University Museum. notes from Kolsrud’s lectures in Ethnology 1968–1969). to the Áltavuotna/Altafjord. The communities Kolsrud’s doctoral thesis on the Coastal Sámi where Kolsrud (1955/1943) conducted field- in Ofuohtta/ Ofoten was completed before work during the war in 1942, were located on 1946, and the next year it was published in the the islands of Stierdná/ Stjernøya and Sievju/ series “North Norwegian collections”, edited Seiland (Gjessing 1947:49). Sámi handicraft, by Gjessing. Gjessing referred to Kolsrud’s practice and knowledge had gained new value thesis as “…methodologically it is primarily during the years of World War II due to lack historical and the author stresses particularly of material goods and food. Kolsrud (1961:5– the demographic evaluation of the material, 6) developed his later study of the Sámi the ethnographic treatment being secondary” settlements in the fjords of Ofuohtta/ Ofoten as (1947:49). Meanwhile, Kolsrud went to an answer to the comments made by Gjessing Chicago to study. Because of the war, the (1951) during the dissertation. Through the master’s thesis was published after the doctoral comparative study of the Sámi settlement in thesis. The master’s thesis was a contemporary the fjords of Ofuohtta/ Ofoten, Divtasvuodna/ study of the coastal Sámi population along Tysfjord in Nordland and Várjjat/ Varanger in Čoalmmenuorri/ the sound of Rognsund – a Finnmark, he analyzed their opposite cycles of sound in West-Finnmark in the south leading land use. The settled population was here to be The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

understood as “a processual concept” where of Ánddasuolu/Andøya north in Viester-Álás/ 69 the population was located on several dwelling Vesterålen (Gjessing 1938; Storm 1997; Løvlid areas throughout a year. 2009). Two years later, together with his wife, The anthropologist Gutorm Gjessing he co-published mapping and discussion of the (1906–1979) was trained as an archaeologist sources of the Sámi dress culture in a cultural at the University of Oslo where he graduated historical perspective (Gjessing & Gjessing in 1931. In the late 1920s, he was engaged 1940).11 Simultaneously, in connection with in different positions, among them, at the the findings of sown boats and burials at the Department of Historical and Antiquarian at outer coast of Troms (Bårdset, on the North- Tromsø Museum. During the summer seasons Kvaløy island) and Nordland (Iksnašše/ he participated in research and fieldwork Øksnes, Skogsøya, Viester-Álás/Vesterålen), related to cultural heritage management. From these questions were discussed (Gjessing 1936, he contributed as curator, “a professional 1938; Gjessing 1941). The excavations reflect humanist” as he expressed it himself, and as the composite ethnic population, and his the manager of the Department of Historical- approach followed the same approach as Antiquarian, until the spring of 1940 and the Solberg at Dállmát/Kjelmøy. But as Gjessing outbreak of World War II when he moved to Oslo later recognized, and expressed in a retrospect: (Tromsø Museum Årsberetninger; Gjessing 1947:47). While working in Tromsø, Gjessing Not until 1936, sixty-four years after its foundation, carried out a series of important projects and was a professional humanist appointed to the studies in North Norwegian archaeology museum, and for several reasons an archaeologist – projects on rockcarving as well as other was chosen. He has more than enough tasks to carry projects. One project was the systematizing out in his own field, without embarking on “Lapp of the different cultural historical collections. studies” (Gjessing 1947:47). The Sámi [Lapp] collection was expanded with detailed drawings and comments. He acquired Ørnulv Vorren, the establishment broad experience, qualifications and skills on of a new department and a new research and different tasks at the museum, as research plan well as knowledge of the ethnic composition of the North Norwegian population. According Until the mid 1930s, it seems like the to the cultural anthropologist Arne Martin emphasis on research of Sámi culture, history, Klausen (1981b:226), this period gave rise to and language was taken care until then by a permanent interest in ‘circumpolar societies’ Qvigstad and the theologian Kristian Nissen and ‘cultural space’ – concepts he created, and (1879–1968), as members of the board of the which became part of the disciplinary vocabu- Tromsø Museum, but as Gjessing’s comment lary. indicates, the daily operation was in great need In connection to archaeological findings of a humanist or social scientist to take on this and excavations, Gjessing became involved responsibilty at the museum. At that time, in questions about Sámi culture and society. plans were articulated to establish and develop Amongst other topics, he problematized the a department with special responsibility presentations of the thousand year old textile for Sámi ethnography. This was realized in finding at Skjoldehamn south, at the island 1949 when Ørnulv Vorren was employed as Dikka Storm

70 curator at the new department – a position the Rockefeller Foundation in the USA 1946– he shared while working as a teacher at the 1947 (Klausen 1981b: 227, 230; 2001:304; Teacher’s Training College (Gjessing 1947:47; Jølle 2004:325). He also expressed a critique Aarseth 1994, Storm 2007a,b). From 1952, the of the ideal of objectivity within the social position as curator was turned into full-time, sciences. Within the first years at the museum, and Vorren was appointed head curator at the Gjessing (1947:54) clarified his view in the department in 1959. Moreover, the University introduction of “Norwegian Contributions of Tromsø was established in 1968 and the to Lapp Ethnography”. The emphasis was Tromsø Museum was incorporated in 1976. on the study of the Coastal Sámi population Five years before, in 1971, Vorren became a and settlements from a combined approach, professor in Sámi ethnography (Fulsås 1993). drawing on archaeological, historical, and At the beginning of his commitment to the ethnographic perspectives: field, Vorren (1950/1951) formulated “a main program for ethnographic research among the From the historical-ethnographic point of view, the Sámi”. It was a comprehensive plan of both study of Coast Lapp Culture will be crucial; without regional and thematic studies on the Sámi it, the question of the origin of Mountain Lapp culture cultures in Norway. In contrast to previous cannot usefully be tackled. The ancient Coast Lapp research on Sámi culture, it was grounded culture should be approached through a cooperation in fieldwork and communication with between the disciplines of archaeology, history, and representatives of Sámi cultural organizations ethnography: several indications suggest that we have and institutions. Besides the publishing of overrated the inland character of the Lapps (Gjessing books and articles, Vorren took a scientific 1947:54). and systematic approach to building up the Sámi ethnographic collection at the museum, The approach was developed further during and he put great emphasis on mediation by Gjessings stay at the London School of developing the exhibition “The Sámi culture”, Economics in 1952 (Gjessing 1954:1, 4). His which was opened in 1973 (see Fonneland, this intense involvement in contemporary Sámi volume). society led to participation in the process of the growing Sámi ethno-political movement, and in the group that formed the Oslo Sámi Gjessing turns to (historical) Særvi (The Oslo Sámi Association) – the first anthropology – and the Coastal Sámi political organization. He was appointed Sámi a member of the Sámi Commision of 1956, After World War II and the death of Ole Solberg, due to his political involvement, but also as Gjessing was invited to apply for the position professor at the Museum of Ethnography. of the director of the Museum of Ethnography Throughout the years, he participated in public, in Oslo. In 1946, he was appointed director as as well as, scientific discourses by stating his a professor in cultural anthropology, in spite views and interests to the press, both in popular of his archaelogical background (Klausen articles and in scientific publications (Klausen 1981b:227). Gjessings change in research 1981a:155–156; Gjessing 1973). The catalogues orientation toward cultural anthropology was at Tromsø Museum demonstrate the interest inspired by a visit as a sholarship-holder to and systematic approach Gjessing used for The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

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Fig. 5. Ørnulv Vorren inspecting a diorama in the exhibition Samekulturen (1973–). Tromsø University Museum. Photo: Kjell Fjørtoft. the collections. During work at the Museum roles of two researchers: the archaeologist/ of Ethnography, Gjessing took the initative to ethnographer/anthropologist Ole Solberg, organize the transfer of the Sámi collection and the archaeologist and anthropologist from the museum to Norsk Folkemuseum, Gutorm Gjessing, both of whom established also in Oslo, grounded in the perspective comprehensive research strategies or programs that the collection should be part of a larger, on Sámi culture and society. However, the national context (Gjessing & Johannessen ethnographer Ørnulv Vorren continued this 1957:230–231). legacy by followed up with a new research strategy for the next generation of scholars in Northern Norway. With a background in Concluding remarks: Research in Vorren’s comprehensive research program, my the long run objective has been to reflect on and discuss the In this article, I have demonstrated the intentions and content of earlier programs and development of research on Sámi culture strategies, as well as illustrate their impacts. and societies from the last part of the By way of a biographic approach, I have nineteenth century, until the post World War examined the research and work of Solberg II period. In particular, I have discussed the and Gjessing, both of whom worked at the Dikka Storm

72 Ethnographic Museum in Oslo. Moreover, and Nordland, in addition to studies on the apart from international scientific studies, the pre-pastoral Sámi society based on the hunting two researchers carried out substantial studies of wild reindeer. in Northern Norway. Gjessing worked at the Through his “Memorandum”, Solberg Tromsø Museum for more than a decade. Their summed up a strategy that was useful not only work and research led to cooperation with local in the political context of reindeer herding representatives and to the establishment of the management across the Swedish-Norwegian Department of Sámi Ethnography at Tromsø border, but also for the plans of the Institute Museum in 1949. Vorren, one of the recruits of Comparative Research on Human Culture. of Solberg, started to map his future tasks, Evidently, the strategy was also to give his evidently inspired from his former teacher and research, teaching, recruitment of students, colleague. The “Main Program for Research and work at the Ethnographic Museum in Oslo among the Sámi” (Vorren 1950/1951), was a platform. By way of his research with roots an academic platform and key to the future in archaeology and practice in Tromsø and ethnographic research of Sámi culture in elsewhere, Gjessing continued and developed combination with Vorren’s assignments at the a broad approach as an anthropologist and Tromsø Museum. professor at the Ethnographic Museum in An analysis of the earlier programs and Oslo. In Tromsø, Qvigstad, the humanist strategies make visible why the question of specialized in language, folklore, and religious the Coastal Sámi were included and realised studies, from 1920 until his death in 1957. in the themes of the culture, history and With this backdrop, the need for a humanist social relations in spite of the earlier, political or social scientist to embark on Sámi Studies emphasis on the reindeer herding society is, according to Gjessing, obvious. This during the turn of the century 1900s (see was the background and the purpose of the Baglo, this volume). By way of focusing on each establishment of the “Department of Sámi researcher, and their perspective on approaches Ethnography” at the Tromsø Museum in to Sámi research, as well as their engagement 1949. in museum tasks, the article sheds light on the great efforts and interest in enlarging the field Notes of study on Sámi culture, history, and society. The focus on Coastal Sámi societies was one 1. Acknowledgement: I wish to thank the of the themes which became a large part of research group of the “SoDi-Sámi” – “The the Sámi Studies during the 1930s, and in the Societal Dimensions of Sámi Research” for the decades to follow. However, spatial and social opportunity to present this part of my research, studies of reindeer herding mangement, as as well as the institutions of The Arctic University it was stated in the initial reserach program Museum of Norway and Centre of Sami Studies, in the beginning of the twentieth century, UiT, The Arctic University of Norway. was followed up by Falkenberg and Vorren. 2. For the term, “Markabygd Sámi” see for Falkenberg focussed his studies in the south example Dikka Storm, “Sámi Natural Resource Sámi area, at Røros, while Vorren focussed Exploitation in a Markebygd and Its Significance his spatial studies on the contemporary Today?” Acta Borealia 10.2 (1993): organization of reindeer herding in Finnmark 47–61. The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

3. I have earlier discussed the meaning and role eiendommelig kultur; sjølapperne har levet på lån 73 of the institute in relation to research in Sámi fra nordmændene…” (Qvigstad 1925:74) culture, history and society (Storm 2010). 8. https://snl.no/Ole_Martin_Solberg – 4. “The decision of the Board to embark upon Downloaded 24092015; Solberg participated a study of the culture of the arctic tribes was 1909 as a Norwegian expert in the negotiations based on a memorandum by Professor Solberg, about the questions about the reindeer grazing dated Oct. 21, 1913 [..] The Board expressed its at the court in Copenhagen, Denmark (cf. Wiki agreement with the main points in Professor O. Solberg; https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_ Solberg’s memorandum at a meeting held on Martin_Solberg – downloaded 02052016. Nov.13, 1923; and it appointed a committee to 9. Domus Academica, urbygningen; Universitets- deal with the details of the plan and assume the anlegget ved Karl Johans gate i Oslo stod ferdig direction of the work undertaken. Work had since i 1852. Bygningen på østsiden av Universitets- been done in several directions in accordance plassen kalles til daglig for Urbygningen. Navnet with the plan thus drawn up”. Stang 1928, p.15; kommer av ‘uret’ som henger i ett av vinduene, cf. Kyllingstad 2008. https://www.muv.uio.no/uios-historie/bygninger/ 5. Franz Boas (1858–1942) born in Westfalen, at sentrum/urbygningen/ that time Preussia. He had his education from 10. The thesis about the Coastal Sámi people in Heidelberg, Bonn and Kiel. While working Ofoten was completed before 1946 and later at Berlin Kongelige Etnologiske Museum he published in the serie “Nordnorske samlinger” began his anthropological studies at Baffin (Kolsrud 1947) was finished before 1946 at the Island, Canada. He emigrated to USA in 1885, Museum of Etnography. The serie was edited by and started as curator at American Museum of Gjessing, at that time director at the museum Natural History in New York and in 1899 got (Gjessing 1947:49). the position as professor in anthropology at 11. Gjessing dated the textiles of the Skjoldehamn Columbia University; Gjessing 1962:144; Hansen finds to the period of the 15th or 16th century. 1992 pp. 57–58; https://snl.no/Franz_Boas. But in resent years some parts of the textiles are 6. 1. Full belysning av reindriftsvirksomheten, dated to about 900 to 1100 after AC. som grunnlag for ”dagens ekte samiske (lappiske) kultur”; 2. Samiske bosetningsformer References inkludert nomadens leirtype og organisering, samt overgangen til fast bosetning; 3. Samenes Archival sources materielle kultur sammenlignet med skandina- Ørnulv Vorren 1950/1951. Hovedplan for viske, kvenske eller russiske materielle uttrykk; 4. forskningsarbeidet ved Samisk-etnografisk avd. Innsamling av folklore, musikktyper, tradisjon, (Main strategy for research at Department of sedvane og rettsoppfatninger; 5. Studier av Sámi Ethnography), Tromsø Museum. Stencil 34 den gamle religionen; 6. Lingvistisk forskning; pp. Enclosed five Maps. Archive, Research group 7. Forskning i samenes tidlige historie; 8. of Sámi ethnography, Department of Cultural Arkeologiske undersøkelser innen de samiske Science, Tromsø University Museum, UIT. bosetningsområder; 9. Fysisk-antropologiske Dikka Storm & Ørnulv Vorren 1993 “Interviews of studier; 10. Psykologisk forskning (Solberg Ørnulv Vorren 1993”. Archive, Research group 1928:10–15). of Sámi ethnography, Department of Cultural 7. “… Kun renlapperne har frembragt en Science, Tromsø University Museum, UIT. Dikka Storm

74 D. Storm 1968–1969 “Personal notes from the senmiddelaldersk nordnorsk mannsdrakt.” Viking lectures of Knut Kolsrud”, Institute of Ethnology, B II, 27–81. University of Oslo, Archive, Research group Gjessing, Gutorm 1941/1935. “Båtfunnene fra Bårset of Sámi ethnography, Department of Cultural og Øksnes. To nordnorske jernalderfunn.” Tromsø Science, Tromsø University Museum, UIT. Museums Årshefte 58. Gjessing, Gutorm 1947. “Norwegian contributions Literature to Lapp ethnography.” The Journal of The Royal Bouquet, Mary 1996. Sans og samling…hos Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Universitetets Etnografiske Museum/ Bringing it All Ireland 77, 47–60. Back Home…to the Oslo University Ethnographic Gjessing, Gutorm 1954. Changing Lapps. A Study Museum. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, Universitets in Culture Relations in Northernmost Norway. etnografiske museum. London: Department of Anthropology, The Falkenberg, Johannes 1944/1941. “Bosetningen ved London School of Economics and Political Science. indre Laksefjord i Finnmark. Optegnelser fra Gjessing, Gutorm 1962. “Ole Martin Solberg”. In Einar 1938.” Nordnorske samlinger II:2, 54–161. Jansen, Jonas Jansen, Øyvind Anker, Gunvald Bøe Falkenberg, Johannes 1948. Et steinaldersfolk i vår tid. (eds.). Norsk biografisk leksikon. Bind XIV. Oslo: Australias innfødte. Oslo: Olaf Norlis Forlag. H. Aschehoug & Co., 142–145. Falkenberg, Johannes 1953. “Slektskapssystemet Gjessing, Gutorm & Marie Krekling Johannessen hos Snåsa-samene.” In Nils Lid (ed.). Studia 1957. De hundre år – Universitetets etnografiske Septentrionalia, bind 5, Liber saecularis in museums historie 1857–1957. Oslo: Forenede honorem J. Qvigstadii: d IV aprilis A.D. MCMLIII Trykkerier. editus: Pars II. Oslo: Aschehoug, 69–86. Gjessing, Gutorm & Kristian Nissen 1951. Falkenberg, Johannes 1978. “Om øremerking av rein “Finnefolket i Ofoten. En doktordisputas”. Norsk hos Røros-samene. Kultur på karrig jord.” In geografisk tidsskrift 13:3–8, 279–313. Festskrift til Asbjørn Nesheim. By og bygd 26. Hansen, Lars Ivar 1992. “Just K. Qvigstad’s Oslo: Norsk folkemuseum, 37–76. Contribution to the Study of Sámi Culture”. Acta Falkenberg, Johannes 1982. “Sámiske bruksområder Borealia 9:2, 47–68. og stedsnavn i Rørostraktene”. Åarjel-saemieh/ Isachsen, Fridtjov 1948. “Minnetale over Professor Samer i sør. Saemien Sijte - Årbok 1982/83, 66–79. Dr. O. Solberg”. Det norske Videnskaps-Akademi i Falkenberg, Johannes 1984. “Fra nomadisme til fast Oslo årbok 1947, 40–49. bosetning blandt samene i Røros-traktene (1890 Jølle, Harald Dag 2004. “Nordpolens naboer.” In årene – 1940 årene).” Åarjel-saemieh/Samer i sør, Einar-Arne Drivenes & Harald Dag Jølle (eds.). Saemien Sijte - Årbok 1984/86:2, 7–28. Norsk polarhistorie Bind 2. Vitenskapene. Oslo: Falkenberg, Johannes 1988. “Innføringen av Gyldendal, 259–327, endnotes 518–522. reinbeitedistrikter i Sør-Norge”. Åarjel-saemieh / Klausen, Arne Martin 1981 (Klausen 1981a). Samer i sør, Saemien Sijte - Årbok 1988:3, 19–37. Antropologiens historie. En oversikt over fagets Fulsås, Narve 1993. Universitetet i Tromsø 25 år. utvikling fra de eldste tider frem til i dag. Oslo: Tromsø: Universitetet i Tromsø. Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. Gjessing, Gunvor & Gutorm Gjessing 1940. Klausen, Arne Martin 1981 (Klausen 1981b). Lappedrakten, en skisse av dens opphav. Oslo: “Minnetale over professor Dr. Philos. Instituttet for sammenlignende kulturforskning. Gutorm Gjessing”, i Årbok 1980, Det norske Gjessing, Gutorm 1938. “Skjoldehamndrakten, en Videnskapsakademi, 224–232 The role of museum institutions in relation to research on Sámi culture, history, and society in Norway until the post World War II years

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76 Aarseth, Bjørn 1994. Ørnulv Vorren – humanistisk Ole Solberg forsker og formidler. In Dikka Storm, Nils https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Martin_ Jernsletten, Bjørn Aarseth & Per Kyrre Reymert Solberg - accessed 24092015 (eds.). Festskrift til Ørnulv Vorren. Tromsø: https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Martin_ Tromsø Museum, Universitetet i Tromsø, 14–22. Solberg - downloaded 02052016 https://snl.no/Ole_Martin_Solberg - accessed The web 24092015 American Museum of Natural History Oslo / Kristiania http://www.amnh.org/about-the-museum/ Kristiania changed to Oslo from the 1st of history/history-1869–1900 - Downloaded 15th of January 1925 https://snl.no/Oslo (downloaded 19 April 2016 February 2016) Franz Boas https://snl.no/Franz_Boas - Downloaded 15th of April 2016 Dikka Storm, Curator http://global.britannica.com/biography/Franz- [email protected] Boas by Sol Tax - Downloaded 15th of April 2016 Gutorm Gjessing The Arctic University Museum of Norway, https://snl.no/Gutorm_Gjessing - accessed UiT The Arctic University of Norway 06122018 Postboks 6050 Langnes https://nbl.snl.no/Gutorm_Gjessing - downloaded N-9037 TROMSØ, Norway 06122018 Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 77–95

Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

Veli-Pekka Lehtola

Abstract: The role of “Squantos” – different kinds of intermediators, cultural interpreters, or cultural brokers coming from native societies – has been important in encounters between Indigenous peoples and the outside world. The article describes a North Sámi broker, Johan Nuorgam, the founder of the Sámi museum in Inari, Finland. Due to dramatic incidents as a young man, he left his reindeer Sámi life to move to Helsinki, the Finnish capital in the beginning of 1930s. He worked as an informant for Finnish researchers, as a guide in a Finnish outdoor museum, a collector of Sámi artefacts, and an editing assistant in a North Sámi magazine. All this later made Nuorgam a pioneer in Sámi media and politics, as well as in museum management. In this article, I interrogate Nuorgam as a “Squanto”.

Keywords: Johan Nuorgam, Sámi museum, cultural broker, Squanto, Sámi exhibitions, outdoor museums, collecting Sámi artefacts, Sámi material heritage.

At the borders of different cultures there administration (Karlsson 1995:75–76; Lantto has always been a need for interpreters and 2000) or the research related to the Sámi mediators who have crossed these boundaries, often referred to as Lappology (Hansen 1992; both linguistically and culturally. These cultural Lehtola 2017). A special group of these experts brokers has emerged from both native and have been called “Sámi friends” in Nordic non-native worlds. The latter ones – outsiders Sámi research, referring to their efforts to coming to familiarize themselves with native intermediate between the majority and the people – have always been more visible since minority. They could be priests or other they came from the literary societies which officials with working experience in the Sámi could record and distribute their experiences area, researchers, or other individuals who for large audiences. were interested and involved in Sámi issues In Sámi culture, the role of non-native (See e.g. Jernsletten 1997; Rydving 2010.) experts and connoisseurs working or visiting It seems, however, that behind many in the Sámi area has been studied to some prominent civil servants or researchers who extent, especially the politics of the colonial have become known as experts in Sámi issues, Veli-Pekka Lehtola

78 there is usually a Sámi person to whom they These years of learning later made Nuorgam a owe gratitude for their (profound) contact pioneer in Sámi media and politics, as well as with local culture and its knowledge. While museum management. the expertise of such civil servants and The Squanto phenomenon is quite common researchers has attracted attention and praise, in different parts of the colonial world. The the intermediators, cultural interpreters or incomer – let it be a settler, a civil servant, or cultural brokers have often remained nameless a researcher – encountered at the interface figures. of cultures an extra-ordinary person who James Clifford has used the term “the Squanto belonged to the Indigenous population and phenomenon” to describe the surprising bi- could open doors to his own culture for the lateral nature of cultural encounters. Squanto outsiders. Squantos have also had a significant was a Native American from the Patuxet tribe role in the relations between the Sámi and of the East Coast of North America who, in Nordic societies. They were Sámi catechists or 1620 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, encountered ambulatory teachers, churchwardens, or even British Pilgrims who had migrated to the New Sámi priests. They could be public figures, such World. The incomers would have perished as the famous Sámi intellectuals or political in the foreign circumstances without local pioneers, including the author Johan Turi, expertise. However, they received a guide in the journalist Anders Larsen, or the Sámi the form of a Native who spoke good English politician Elsa Laula-Renberg. and helped them manage through the first The main reference for Clifford, however, severe winter. Squanto’s quite exceptional were the men or women in native communities background allowed him to understand the who have been crucial for outsiders to obtain difficulties of the incomers and guide them local Indigenous knowledge, but who have to local traditional knowledge (Clifford usually not been credited in the final report 1997:18–19). Squanto is often perceived as an or research findings of the non-native visitor. ambiguous figure because he was considered As Clifford notes, these “informants” are often to have expedited the subsequent downfall introduced as casual “locals” whom the incomer of his own culture at the same time (Deetz & seems to have met coincidentally and who may Deetz 2000). have been made routinely started to share his In this article, I call attention to Inari Reindeer or her cultural knowledge. On the contrary, Sámi Johan Nuorgam, who personified Squanto they “turn out to have their own ‘ethnographic’ characteristics and was a cultural interpreter in proclivities and interesting histories of travel”, many ways. The starting point of his life was to and end up being anomalous or problematic continue a traditional lifestyle in the footsteps figures even in their own context (Clifford of his Reindeer Sámi parents in the Iijärvi region 1997:16–19). in Inari. He lost sight in one eye in an accident These intermediators or cultural brokers in his youth and the treatment took him to have typically grown out from their own Helsinki for many years. Due to his extensive culture at some point, usually by setting out to, linguistic and cultural knowledge, he became or ending up among, the majority population an informant for linguists and professors, as for an extended period. Upon their return, well as a guide and artefact collector for the they received the role of intermediator or Sámi exhibition of the National Museum. guide due to their linguistic and cultural Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

worked as background figures for researchers 79 and civil servants. For example, Inari Sámi “Nuoran-Pekka” Saijets, who had made his own “excursions” to the Arctic Sea coast and Pechenga already in his early life, provided invaluable help in ethnologist T. I. Itkonen’s field studies and artefact collection (Lehtola 2012:313–316). Reindeer Sámi Juhani Jomppanen, who had led the “Lapp caravan” to Germany in 1910 and became perhaps the best-known Sámi as “the Lapp gentleman” in Finnish publicity in the 1920s and 1930s, worked as vicar Tuomo Itkonen’s assistant, who initiated several projects. Geodesist Karl Nickul’s special role as a Sámi friend was closely connected to his friendship with Skolt Sámi Jakk (Jaakko) Sverloff, who had advanced to sergeant major in the Russian army during World War I and emerged as trustee of the Suenjel Skolt village in late 1930s (Lehtola 2005a; about Sverloff see also Hirsti 1972). Many priests also had Sámi interpreters Fig.1. In 1930s, Johan Nuorgam worked as a touristic for their sermons. In addition to linguistic guide in the Inari hotel. Photographer Aarne skills, successful mediation between a Finnish Pietinen made an artistic composition. Siida Sámi clergyman and a Sámi interpreter required museum. knowledge of the culture and customs of both groups. As Nancy L. Hagedorn has noted, in skills, but also because they themselves were order to properly translate, “interpreters had similarly as interested in other cultures as the to have a clear understanding of the hidden, incomers. They have wanted to cooperate and culturally prescribed meanings and values have certainly understood their own value in that metaphors conveyed” (Hagedorn 1988:60, monetary terms, as well as in their increased 64). When focusing on these meanings and status in their own community. values, it is relevant to speak about cultural In the Finnish Sámi territory, these Squantos interpreters. are clearly discernible already in the early 20th In this article, I will use the concept cultural century. They were extraordinary personalities broker to highlight the ways that Nuorgam in their own communities – respected but also embodies Clifford’s concept of Squanto. inconsistent figures whose local life histories, Nowadays the term cultural brokering is like oral tradition in general, are partly mostly used to refer to the act of linking forgotten. There is, however, more source different cultural groups to enhance practice information available about those who have and communication in health services, social Veli-Pekka Lehtola

80 issues and refugee processes (Lindquist of Johan had moved from Deatnu Valley 2015:9–11; Brar-Josan & Yohani 2017). In as a reindeer herder. The region was also Indigenous studies (Hagedorn 1988; White transited by reindeer travelers – both Sámi and 2010/1991; Kidwell 1992; Szazs 1994a, b; Finns – who journeyed the traditional Sámi Michie 2003) the term refers to individuals “highway” from Inari to the Arctic Ocean or who cross cultural and social boundaries the Norwegian Varangerfjord, where traffic because of their own will, but obviously also connections were mainly directed to at the in order to gain something from the mediation beginning of the twentieth century. of valued resources that he or she does not Many stories, which Nuorgam later told directly control. The subheadings in my article to researchers and which have later been come from “the Philosophy of life from Iijärvi”, published in the Sámi language (Nuorgam which Nuorgam passed on to researchers in 1982), originated from childhood and the life the 1930s, and which T. I. Itkonen published in of a reindeer hand. These included traditional four articles (Itkonen 1934–1935). tales of Stuorr-Ántte-Anna’s magical skills, reindeer Sámi customs, and different mythical beings. Nuorgam could also talk extensively “Man is not born with lasso in hand” about everyday philosophy of life from – Reindeer hand’s path to the proverbs to natural knowledge. The young world man worked as a reindeer hand for two rich Niillas-Jon Juhán or Oivoš-Juhán or Johan Reindeer Sámi, “Leaská-Káre” or Karen Panne, Nuorgam (1910–1978)1 was the son of a a widow reindeer herder, and Piera Siri who Reindeer Sámi from the area of the Iijärvi herded his reindeer on the northeast side lake. It was a solid Sámi-speaking country in of Lake Inari near the Norwegian border. his childhood. Nuorgam expressed later that The reindeer hand was assigned the task of he was ten when he saw the first man wearing preventing Norwegian reindeer from mixing Finnish clothes, in about the year 1920, “and with Siri’s reindeer. This also concerned the it was a great wonder for him then”. He (told last wild reindeer in the area. that he) learned Finnish at the age of thirteen, The direction of Nuorgam’s life changed but still in his adult age among Finns he had when he was about twenty: his eye was to “think in Lappish (Sámi) before saying badly injured in a reindeer accident. Finnish anything” (Uusi Suomi September 21, 1934). professor Frans Äimä, who was conducting This seems to refer to the lack of multicultural linguistic field work in the Inari area and influences, which is characteristic for many who had noticed Nuorgam’s evident aptitude other native and non-native brokers: these in language as well as traditions, invited him brokers were often born in the borders to Helsinki to receive treatment from an eye between cultures “with a foot in each culture”, surgeon. At the same time, he himself acquired for instance, as children of multiethnic families a language master whom he could meet daily. (Szasz 1994a:8–9; Hämäläinen & Truett 2011). The treatment for the eye was not successful, A closer look, however, reveals that even if and consequently Nuorgam could not return the early Finnish contacts were missing, the to reindeer work. Instead, he remained in the North Sámi Nuorgam family was living in capital for a total of five years (Ravila 1934, the Inari Sámi area, where the grandfather 7–8; Itkonen 1960, 2). Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

good. But as lice have taken to communism, 81 when there was a big red louse on his neck each morning, and bright red it was” (J. Nuorgam to T. I. Itkonen 29.8.1932. TIIA. KA). After Ravila left, Nuorgam stayed in the north to work for the reindeer herding cooperative. He continued his collecting work and delivered a large number of artefacts to Itkonen, some of which he bought with his own money in order to receive potential remunerations later. Messages came from the field in all kinds of weather: “Now that there was frost and ink had frozen, I wrote with a copying pencil at first while Martti Saijets was warming the ink. Excuse me for doing so” (J. Nuorgam to T. I. Itkonen 8.9., 10.11. and 29.12.1932. TIIA. KA; Ravila 1934, 8).2

“People will run out of nets before fish run short in the lake” – Open- Fig. 2. At the beginning of 1930, Johan Nuorgam air museum guide and professors’ assisted many Finnish researchers. Linguist Paavo assistant Ravila collected a lot of linguistic and folklore material from him. National Museum of Finland. The National Museum of Finland had founded an open-air museum on an island called Seurasaari near Helsinki. The initiator of the Apart from Äimä, other researchers were Seurasaari attraction, A. O. Heikel had been excited about the young man’s extensive inspired by the work of Arthur Hazelius and knowledge of grammar and his rich vocabulary, the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm but he also had endless knowledge of the Sámi (Niiranen 1987:57). Heikel wanted to present way of life and beliefs. In 1932, Nuorgam Finnish folk culture, but in the 1910s “a participated in fieldwork for the first time Lapp section” was also built there. The first when he toured with linguist Paavo Ravila to acquisition was “a Lapp tent – in a special board- collect language samples in the Inari region constructed shelter” brought from Menesjärvi and especially in Iijärvi, where they stayed in in Inari. According to the museum’s guidebook Nuorgam’s home. “A civilised person finds it incomprehensible At T. I. Itkonen’s request, the men also how man can live throughout the year in such delivered artefacts to the National Museum. a flimsy dwelling” (Guidebook for the outdoor “Puorre Tuoktär” (“Good Doktor”), or museum 1913. KM). “A reindeer and a young Itkonen, received humoristic descriptions Sámi boy from Nuorgam and skilled with in letters written in slightly broken Finnish: his lasso” were also brought to the open-air “Ravila said that it would have been otherwise museum in 1914 (Niiranen 1987:60). A later Veli-Pekka Lehtola

82 annual report specified that the reindeer “was work in Helsinki also as a caretaker. We happen to brought alive from Inari in winter 1914, but be informed about a Lapp youth Johan Nuorgam was not placed in the Lapp tent until April from Inari, who is suited for both purposes and who 1915, after university preparator Mäntynen worked here already last year with good success as had stuffed it with plaster and iron” (Annual language master for Lapland researchers and last report 1916. KM.). summer also as a Lapp hut dweller and presenter In 1932, the National Museum of Finland of Lappish life for museum visitors in the Lapland noted that Mountain Sámi (fjällappen) section founded in the open-air museum. As a Johan Nuorgam had acquired three storage diligent, regular and otherwise stout man and skilled structures for the open-air museum (VIII woodworker, he could carry out caretaker tasks in Friluftsmuseet på Fölisön. Helsingfors 1937. the Open-Air Museum for the time being and appear KM). The artefacts brought by Nuorgam were daily as “an attraction” in the Lapland section at an indication of a new phase where intendent appointed hours. T. I. Itkonen purposefully began to develop the Sámi section. He wanted Nuorgam to work in Itkonen suggested that the State Archaeological the Lapp section of the open-air museum as a Commission could apply for 12,000 marks janitor and presenter. from the available funds of the Finnish In February 1933, Itkonen wrote to the State Government for hiring a caretaker. He could Archaeological Commission that the Seurasaari live for free in the empty kitchen on the upper open-air museum had expanded into a whole floor of the Open-Air Museum office and “village” with a total of 80 buildings in varying janitor house (T. I. Itkonen’s letter to the State sizes and sorts. It nevertheless had only one Archaeological Commission 31.1.1933. KM). janitor, whose tasks included overseeing the The museum published a press bulletin already museum’s property and orderliness, making the same spring: minor reparations to the buildings, arranging and participating in cleaning as well as New attraction in the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum shovelling snow in winter, like shovelling snow For a long time there have been two Lapp buildings off the roofs of buildings and the long roads. in the Open-Air Museum, near the Seurasaari bridge, The previous janitor “fell irremediably ill e.g. a log hut brought from Suonikylä in Pechenga from excessive strain and worry”. To arrange and a bear cache put together on top of a long pole. funding for hiring a caretaker in addition to a Reindeer Lapp buildings have now been erected janitor, Itkonen argued, beside them “on the fjell”, including a movable cloth hut used by a nomad family, meat drying rack When the recently founded Society for the Promotion (“suödnjir”, written in mixed orthography), storage of Sámi Culture has taken action to bring some platform (“luövvi”) and canopy covered with birch native Lapp to Helsinki for literary work carried out bark (“luökti”). here in the Lapp language, such as writing an ABC- Mountain Lapp Juhani Nuorgam from Inari lives book and reading book, editing a Lapp newspaper there and presents Lapland’s life, throws lasso, softens and translating Lapland-related decrees to the Lapp shoe grass, explains food management and vehicles language, the board of the Society for the Promotion to the audience – the display includes various types of Sámi Culture and the warden of the Open-Air of sledges and skis – even sings yoiks. The Lapland Museum have agreed that the Lapp in question could section opens on Sunday, May 12th at 12 hours and Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

is then on display also on weekdays in June and July based on Finnish orthography and that it 83 between 12 and 18. (Undated advertisement text, substituted Finnish words in a Lappish form for probably from spring 1933. KM). missing Lapp language words. He supported the new orthography, rather than using the The work was not particularly ideal, for Albert Norwegian spelling, because it made it easier Hämäläinen wrote, evidently already after for the Sámi to read their own language (Uusi the first summer, that despite the demanding Suomi September 21, 1934). job the janitor was in a greatly unfavourable Nuorgam was a candidate for the post of position next to other janitors of the Finnish chief editor in the Sabmelaš newspaper, which Heritage Agency in respect of fringe benefits. was founded in 1934, but then Finnish linguists The dwelling was quite small, only a diminutive decided to take on that task themselves. The kitchen and room, and it lacked conveniences, deciding factor was perhaps Nuor¬gam’s such as central heating or toilet (Undated inexperience in literary expression, but there advertisement text, probably from spring 1933. may also have been a more general lack of KM.). confidence in the ability of an uneducated The work as a guide in Seurasaari lasted “Lapp” to act reliably. This is also suggested for two summers. Seeing the operation of the by the fact that Nuorgam did not even belong open-air museum probably kindled a spark in to the board of the Society for the Promotion Nuorgam to start planning a similar solution to of Sámi Culture, which worked for the Inari a few decades later. When the section was development of his own kin and culture. threatened the following winter with closing Instead, Nuorgam could work as an assistant down, and Nuorgam with unemployment for the Society for the Promotion of Sámi (J. Nuorgam to T. I. Itkonen 20.5.1933 and Culture and Sabmelaš as much as he liked. 25.6.1934. TIIA. KA), researchers arranged When a university linguist or professor faced other work at the University of Helsinki. The a problem with North Sámi language, he Uusi Suomi newspaper in 1934 described: “The only had to sprint downstairs to ask for the university department of phonetics is in a small, answer from the janitor. Nuorgam translated dilapidated-looking stone building on the texts written by Finns, proofread for linguists corner of the Hallituskatu and Fabianinkatu and also wrote texts himself. When Ravila streets. A young Lapp Johan Nuorgam now and Itkonen checked the new orthography works there as a janitor and at the same time of Tuomo Itkonen’s ABC-book in the Sámi as the Lapp language master, and his presence language, Nuorgam acted as a native language and skill are a great benefit to Lapp language master (Itkonen 1960). students and researchers” (Uusi Suomi Sep- Paavo Ravila and T. I. Itkonen interviewed tember 21,1934.). substantial collections of traditional, as well The new orthography or spelling style of as, linguistic material from Nuorgam. In so-called Lapin Sivistysseura (Society for 1934, Ravila published a collection of stories the Promotion of Lapp Culture) that Ravila in German based on interviews of Nuorgam. was developing was probably influenced by Ravila’s work had Sámi language transcription, Nuorgam. It was introduced in 1934 and it was which made it somewhat difficult for the based on the dialect Nuorgam represented. Sámi themselves to read. Nuorgam was not Nuorgam described in publicity that it was mentioned as an editor of the book alongside Veli-Pekka Lehtola

84 Ravila, but in the foreword he received high A man cannot last long here” (Uusi Suomi praise as a storyteller and guide (Ravila 1934). September 21, 1934). Also, Itkonen published many sets of folklore In 1935, Nuorgam received a scholarship collected from Nuorgam in the Kalevala from the Society for the Promotion of Sámi Society yearbooks (1934–39). At the end of Culture and the Finno-Ugrian Society for a trip the collections, he credited Nuorgam as the to Utsjoki. Now he had his own notebook where storyteller (Itkonen 1934–37, Itkonen 1938, he recorded traditional knowledge. Regarding 1939). the collecting of artefacts, hearsay has it that The tradition that Nuorgam mediated to he had a dream of acquiring a shaman’s drum, Itkonen remained alive in researchers’ texts. but the rumour proved to be unfounded. The When Itkonen published his magnum opus collected objects, consisting of many rarities, Finnish Lapps I–II in 1948, he also included the reflected Nuorgam’s desire to demonstrate his material he had collected from Nuorgam. It no own expertise to the Lappologists (T. I. Itkonen longer constituted a separate entity; Itkonen to I. Itkonen 27.9.1935. TIIA. KA.) Nuorgam’s included it as general Northern Inari Mountain collections from the 1930s were repatriated Lapp tradition (Itkonen 1948 I–II). The oral to the Siida Sámi museum by the National history of a single storyteller then merged Museum of Finland in 2018 to be displayed in into a researcher’s extensive composition of the exhibition of Johan Nuorgam. the general characteristics of Sámi culture. In History was made in 1936, when Nuorgam 1982, a Sámi publishing house, Jårgaleaddji, founded the Syysjärvi youth club in his home reprinted Nuorgam’s stories in a booklet under region. It was the first Sámi association in his own name. Paavo Ravila was mentioned as Finland, although it originated as a branch of a “recorder” (Nuorgam 1982). the Society for the Promotion of Sámi Culture by means of a 1,450-mark grant. The society had assigned him to clarify “the wishes of Lapps “You won’t catch any fish if you concerning their own educational pursuits in don’t get your feet wet” – Always Northern Inari and Utsjoki” (Katsaus 1937, on the move 9–10). About thirty people participated in the Nuorgam probably considered his stay in founding meeting, which is the same number Helsinki as a learning experience which of people as in the first meeting of the Society brought him knowledge he could later benefit for the Promotion of Sámi Culture in 1932 in from. However, he did not enjoy his stay very Helsinki. The meeting was opened by Sammeli much in the south where life often felt “strange Valle, who emphasised the importance of and tedious”. This was the case especially preserving Sámi culture. Kaisa Kangasniemi in autumn when the Sámi man missed the read thoughts from a book about the tasks of changing seasons of the north. Nuorgam youth clubs in general. made observations of living in a city: “In The goal of the new club was defined as Lapland you may walk continuously through educating the Sámi people in a way that the a day and night, and then you can still work national feeling inherited from ancestors for another day. But here you get tired quite (maddar-aččiin arbijuvvum albmuglašvuot- quickly. A short walk downtown is already tamek) could be preserved and developed tiring. The air is so heavy and oppressive. by the new society. Nuorgam himself was Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

elected chairman and Hannu Musta became of the association (Syysjärvi youth club annual 85 the vice chairman. The board also consisted report 1936. LSS board minutes Oct 2, 1936. of reindeer herders Uula Högman and LSSA, KA.). Sammeli Valle, as well as freeholder Matti There is little information about develop- Sarre. The secretary was Maria Mattus, who ments in Nuorgam’s life in the late 1930s and was the first, and until 1948, the only woman during wartime. He is known to have worked in the whole administration of the Society as a tourist guide at a hotel in Inari, where for the Promotion of Sámi Culture (Minutes the press photographer Aarne Pietinen took of Syysjärvi youth club founding meeting a famous photograph of him. Due to the eye 7.6.1936. LSS board minutes Oct 2, 1936. LSSA, injury in his early life, Nuorgam belonged to KA; “Lapin Sivistysseuran hallituksen jäsenet” the home reserve of the Finnish army and was see Bálggis – Polku 1984, 113–114; Sabmelaš not called to duty until the last days of the 3/1936, 3). Winter War. In the Continuation War against In joint meetings with the Society for the Soviet Union, he served at the Pechenga the Promotion of Sámi Culture, the youth front in the north as a stretcher bearer in Unit club considered collecting and recording Pennanen’s medical corps. traditional and oral knowledge as its foremost After being wounded in the front lines in task. While the decency and humility of 1943, Nuorgam convalesced in the Oulunsuu ancestors was emphasised, educational work war hospital in Oulu, which later became his was aimed at opposing harmful customs, such home town for many years. Nuorgam was as “drunkenness and overdressing”. Activity in trained to be an air raid protection man, and the youth club seems to have been lively the he served as such in Pechenga at first, and first summer. It arranged lecture events in also later during the Lapland War in Oulu and the Syysjärvi region, where the speakers were Kemi. Evidently while holding these duties, he Sammeli Valle and Matti Mattus, in addition became acquainted with the Finnish woman, to Johan Nuorgam. In an event arranged in Laura Soronen, who worked in the women’s the Inari parish village at Midsummer, the auxiliary services at the home front in Oulu. lecturers were the vicar Tuomo Itkonen and At Christmas 1944, or during the Lapland War, Johan Nuorgam, whose subjects were “Youth they got married. Nuorgam found work after club requirements” and “How can we work for the war as a janitor at the Oulunsuu school, the good of our people” (Syysjärvi youth club where the war hospital had operated.3 annual report 1936. LSS board minutes Oct 2, 1936. LSSA, KA). “Not by force but by cunning” – The club announced in its yearbook that Journalist, politician, executive it had published its own club paper named manager Sabmi, which all club members could write in. Despite the vigorous beginning, the activity of Nuorgam was a “disciple” of the Society for the local association seems to have dwindled the Promotion of Sámi Culture, who in his right away in the first year. The reason was post-war activities, carried out the lessons probably the depletion of Nuorgam’s grant, he learned in Helsinki. He began to use his after which he returned to Helsinki. The locals skills as a Sámi-speaking journalist and from were not active in maintaining the operation experience from his Finnish club activities. Veli-Pekka Lehtola

86 The Samii Litto association, founded by Sámi livelier and fresher. As a radio journalist, in 1945, got an active member in Nuorgam, Nuorgam had acquired good experience from who worked as an organiser in the association journalist work and could use his relations to together with Antti Outakoski’s family during get a lot of people to contribute to the paper. his years in Oulu. They were involved in Nuorgam also edited the weekly Finnish-Sámi making Sámi communications history when Tunturisanomat newspaper, which covered the Sámi radio started its operation in Oulu in Sámi and more generally North Lapland’s 1947 (Lehtola 1997; Lehtola 2012). affairs; the chief editor was Pekka Lukkari. Samii Litto’s first chairman was Nilla Samii Litto arranged reindeer races, enter- Outakoski, who represented a radical line tainment, and educational events, which towards Finns and the Society for the Promotion attracted hundreds of people. For example, of Sámi Culture. Nuorgam represented a lectures were given to more than 500 listeners conciliatory approach, and he wanted to make in Karigasniemi, Inari and Nuorgam in practical work for the Sámi people rather 1951. Subjects ranged from the Sámi pioneer than act in public as a politician. In 1949, the Isak Saba to sports from earlier times. The association founded an executive manager next year, a total of nine lecture events post, and the location was Inari. Outakoski did were arranged with several speakers. There not apply for the executive manager post but was a total of almost a thousand listeners.4 focused on his theological studies. The elected The events were popular, partly because in executive manager, Nuorgam, moved with his Nuorgam’s time, Samii Litto did not exclude family in January 1950 to Inari, where Samii the local Finnish population – the events were Litto’s headquarters – a small barrack building arranged in cooperation. Samii Litto also – also became the family’s home for years. The developed regular cinema activity. living room functioned as a meeting place of The sports activities of the association the association and entertaining venue for expanded in the early 1950s, so much so numerous guests (Applications to executive that the local sections had to be founded in manager post, Board minutes Aug 15, 1950. different villages. There were four of them in SLA). the Utsjoki parish in 1952, five in Inari and The following years were the most fruitful one in Vuotso. Sports ranged from athletics time of Samii Litto. Samii Litto acquired a to Sámi skiing competitions. The association Rapid press and proofing machine in 1949 arranged four competitions in a year: summer from Oulu. It was more economical to own a and winter competitions in Karigasniemi and a print shop than have the material printed in summer competition as well as the Feast of the the south. It also enabled the Society for the Annunciation competition in Inari (Annual Promotion of Sámi Culture to decide to move reports 1950–1953. SLA). the editing office of the Sabmelaš newspaper The operation of Samii Litto fell apart in to Inari and print it together with Samii Litto. 1952–1953 because of personal disputes. The Nuorgam became the chief editor (Minutes of situation had become heated over the folk board meeting Nov 27, 1950. Board minutes high school issue, and the result was that 1947–1962. SLA). while Jomppanen and Nuorgam were busying After moving to the Sámi territory and themselves with the school construction, the into Nuorgam’s hands, Sabmelaš became “Nilla branch” of the association seized power Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

87

Fig. 3. As the executive manager of Samii Litto, Nuorgam even envisioned a trade mark for Sámi duodji or handicraft (“Sami kalvu”), which is shown in the photograph by Matti Poutvaara at the beginning of 1950s. Tourist Union of Finland. in the summer of 1953. According to later fee forms were handed out only to “reliable reasoning, the “rebels” were concerned about persons” from then on. All others were wiped the financial status of the association caused from the lists – they had not paid membership by Nuorgam’s (and Jomppanen’s) inefficient fees (which they were not reminded of either) actions (J. Nuorgam’s statement 20 April 1950, (Minutes of annual meeting Nov 2, 1953).5 see also other Minutes 1946–1953. SLA; Lapin Samii Litto began to operate on a narrower Kansa 26 July 1970; Lapin Kansa 5 January basis during the 1950s, and it was even 1971). referred to as “a two-man organisation”. Only After various stages, Jomppanen, who was Johan Nuorgam from the old active members already an experienced politician, brought the continued beside Jomppanen. Samii Litto, rebels under control. They were dismissed from which regarded itself as the representative of the board and the association. Jomppanen also all Sámi in Finland in the 1960s, met with the made more purges in the association at the same fate as the Society for the Promotion of same time, for the summer meeting had given Sámi Culture in the 1940s, when young Sámi good means for making them. Membership challenged the association they considered Veli-Pekka Lehtola

88 corrupt and toothless (J. Nuorgam’s clipping “Time is the best teacher” – collection from 1969–1971, when the affairs of Establishing the Sámi Museum Samii Litto were heatedly disputed. Clippings. SLA.) Directly after returning to Inari, Nuorgam Thinking about the role of Nuorgam as a apparently began to plan utilising his own cultural broker or a middleman, an interesting museum experience for the benefit of the Sámi contradiction in the Sámi ethnopolitical community and the bolstering of Sámi cultural movement occurred already from the start. In his heritage. In 1959–1963, Samii Litto and political view, Nuorgam represented a “middle Nuorgam established the first Sámi museum in ground” with a sympathetic or conciliatory all of Sápmi and from the very beginning, it was attitude towards the Finns. Contrary to this, planned and administered by the Sámi people the radical wing of the Samii Litto movement, themselves. As is often suggested, the museum represented by Outakoski, emphasized the was a colonial structure that was adopted by antithetical position between the Sámi and the Sámi themselves. In addition, it has been the Finns, arguing ethnic differences in more suggested that the Sámi museum also adopted essentialized, sometimes even racial, terms the outsiders´ models for representing native (See Lehtola 2005b). cultures, thus repeating the representations of The actions of Jomppanen in Samii Litto the majority (Olsen 2000; Potinkara 2015). overcame the inner opposition for a while, There is also another possible interpretation. but the distinction between the reconciling The early Sámi museum can be considered and radical factions in the Sámi movement to actively extend the ideas of cultural appeared another time at the end of 1960s, brokerage, to be an institutionalized Squanto when the radical Sámi movement began to phenomenon. Just as an individual broker, the challenge not only the outsider Sámi friends, institution was equally allied to both sides, but also the “older generation” attitudes. reading “both maps” of the two cultures and Young “radicals” made several attempts to changing roles depending on circumstances gain a foothold in Samii Litto and even began and necessities. It could be an insider and to establish a new national Sámi organisation. an outsider simultaneously in two worlds, Balancing between the fronts, Nuorgam took knowing how the “other side” thinks and a historic initiative in 1971 to found a Sámi behaves and being able to respond accordingly democratic representative body, a parliament, (Hagedorn 1988:61; Szazs 1994a:6). in Finland (Lapin Kansa 1971). The state- The Sámi museum constructed by Nuorgam appointed Sámi committee was, in a sense, reflected his own experiences and skills an attempt at making a compromise in this from both sides. In a post-war situation, he dispute. In 1972, the government founded understood that some adaptation to the new a Sámi delegation with 21 members, the environment was a necessity for his own first Sámi parliament in the whole world. people. The means of securing the support The older generation and younger activists and interest of the majority was to visualize represented opposing views in many respects and institutionalize Sámi heritage, which in the delegation. Nuorgam was a member of seemed to be disappearing. He started to bring the Sámi parliament in 1973–1975 (Lehtola together Sámi knowledge and heritage with the 2005a). “European” museum institution, especially it´s Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

special trait of the outdoor museum, leading By the end of the year, the association had 89 from Skansen in Stockholm to Seurasaari in received over a hundred museum artefacts, Helsinki. three huts, four ordinary granaries, and The reconstruction caused by the Lapland two bear caches. Mapping old dwelling and War gave the impulse for founding a museum. habitation places started under the direction Along with new standard houses, also many of forest technician Lauri Arrela. Nuorgam Sámi adopted Finnish values, which lead himself directed the collection of oral history. to deprecation of their own culture. They The project gained new momentum in started to reject and deface “old fashioned” 1960, when the chief of the botanical research Sámi things. Even artefacts that were in good institute at the University of Turku and director condition had to make way for plastic and of the Kevo Subarctic Research Institute, porcelain, and were demoted to secondary professor Paavo Kallio, became inspired by purposes, such as milking pails in cowsheds, the project. He arranged a collection together or they were thrown away completely. They with the student unions of his university, and could also end up as “children’s playthings or it produced 851 donated artefacts “and some other such places where they are in danger of of them were quite rare, even ones that have getting lost altogether”, as Nuorgam himself been assumed lost from this region long noted (Nuorgam 1984). ago”. Students made valuable interviews and He started to collect artefacts and he advised building measurements (Sainio 1963:120– people to collect and donate museum pieces in 123). Sabmelaš. The idea of establishing a museum Financing the actual museum building was probably derives from the Seurasaari Open-air a problem. Kallio’s role is significant in that Museum in Helsinki, as he had worked there in the association could acquire a seven-hectare the 1930s. Thus, the open-air museum in Inari lot on a hill on the north side of Juutuanjoki was closely related to Skansen in Stockholm, river from the National Board of Health. In which had inspired the establishment of a 1961, the Ministry of Education granted half similar institution in Seurasaari (Niiranen a million marks for founding an open-air 1987:57). museum in Inari. The project received many In the 1950s, the idea of founding a museum donations, some quite large. The grants made was in the air in several places, Saimi Hakasalo, it possible to dismantle the so-called Tirro teacher at the Koppelo school, had collected village, an entity of Inari Sámi log houses artefacts in Ivalo, where she planned to from 18th and 19th centuries, and move it to establish a local museum with support from the museum area. local Finnish freeholders. The Ivalon Pirtti Nuorgam seems to have wanted to building of the Society for the Promotion shatter the prevailing representation of the of Sámi Culture also collected artefacts, “homogeneous” Sámi culture by including especially of Skolt Sámi origin. In March 1959, all Finnish Sámi groups. The differences were the board of Samii Litto took a unanimous highlighted through the introduction of the decision in favour of the project. Nuorgam major dwelling types in the Inari area with was the museum’s originator and practical their accompanying buildings and artefacts. implementer, while the well-connected Erkki The fisherman village represented traditional Jomppanen had the skills to get support for it. Inari Sámi culture, the nomad village depicted Veli-Pekka Lehtola

90 Western Inari Reindeer Sámi culture and the basic elements of majority depictions. Items Skolt village depicted the eastern habitation representing the old mythology, such as sieidis type. The Tirro village in the heart of the or shaman drums, were not displayed. It is museum already represented new log building possible that Nuorgam considered them to habitation or farming culture. The two-hectare be too exotic for the museum for the Sámi “hunting area” presented trapping equipment themselves, but the more probable explanation and techniques. is that he did not want to give any kind of Following Hazelius’ line of thought, reason for the Christian or Laestadian Sámi Nuorgam considered that the environment to be offended by the display. Samii Litto had of the museum should also correspond with faced some episodes of this kind in earlier years. the culture being displayed. Therefore, the Thus, the sensitive issues concerning their own artefacts should not be placed in glass cabinets views of the Sámi seem to be considered in this but outside in the terrain. Nuorgam designed respect. his museum in the shape of a lasso with a route The museum was opened to the public in almost a kilometre long. The start of the round June 1963. It became a large-scale cultural from log houses, which presented such things broker institution between the Sámi and as musical instruments used by catechists or others. There were about 2,500 visitors in ambulatory teachers, reflected Nuorgam’s wish the first summer, but the number increased to renew the image of Sámi culture, which was rapidly. It exceeded 14,000 visitors in 1966, not mere hut habitation. and was already over 21,000 at the beginning However, war also constituted a boundary of the 1970s. The Sámi Museum became an for Nuorgam’s museum thinking, which outstanding and extensive sight that attracted derived from the ideals of the Finnish Lapland large numbers of tourists from home and researchers he knew. Retreating German troops abroad. Cooperation between the museum had constructed lines of defence with dugouts and the University of Turku proved important and trenches on the hill during the Lapland and enduring, as it lasted for decades. Students War. They were located right at the beginning continued collecting both artefacts and oral of the outdoor museum circuit and depicted history during their summer camps (Lehtola the most essential cause for the radical change 2003:470–472). in old Sámi culture. Nuorgam, however, never commissioned repairs to this clearly museum Conclusion item, which would have given the museum round a startling opening by contrasting the When the Finnish-American junior researcher, traditional Sámi and the “destructive modern Pertti J. Pelto, was planning his doctoral thesis world”. He rather followed the ideal of his at the University of California in Berkeley in the Finnish Lappologist friends that only the old middle of the 1950s, he was thinking about a Sámi culture was valuable and “genuine”. subject connected to “Lapps” or the Skolt Sámi. The Sámi museum in Inari focused on His acquaintances in Helsinki recommend everyday material culture of the Sámi before to him that he stop in Inari to get real local the World War II. The exhibition can be seen traditional knowledge from a certain Johan to repeat the “ethnographic present” of the Nuorgam. At his place, Pelto received proper outsider museums, but it also lacked some instructions on “how to conduct himself, what Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

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Fig. 4. In addition to royal visitors, the ambassador of Japan, Toshio Yamanaka visited museum at the 1970s. Photo: Teuvo Lehtola. you need when you go to the field”. Nuorgam life. Since the 1960s, he helped linguists on told him about the modern life of the Skolts, their way to the Sápmi, and tourists, as well as instructed the researcher in the use of forest visitors to the Sámi museum. Journalists knew skis, and advised him to choose proper boots where to go to when they needed information and switch his coat to “a Lapp coat” of fur about Sámi affairs. Johan Nuorgam was the (Pertti J. Pelto’s interview Aug 22, 2016). standard interviewee and photographic model The event was not unique, but rather a rule for southern journalists, especially after the in Nuorgam’s life. He worked as a guide and museum was founded. gateway to Sámi culture for outsiders his whole Like cultural brokers generally, Nuorgam Veli-Pekka Lehtola

92 was shuttling between two cultures, or as Szazs rub together”, but “these borders have become defines it: pathways that link peoples rather than barriers that separate them” (Szazs 1994a:3). Moving across these frontiers demanded extraordi- Juggling between cultures also resulted nary skill. Intermediaries became repositories of in difficulties for the brokers. According to two or more cultures; they changed roles at will, in Szazs (1994b: 294–297), their role demanded accordance with circumstances. Out of necessity, trustworthiness which “locked them into their lives reflected a complexity unknown to those positions that offered rewards but often living within the confines of a single culture. They countered those rewards by immeasurable knew how the ‘other side’ thought and behaved, and difficulties”. This was due to both their own they responded accordingly. (Szazs 1994a:6). society and the outsider demands. This resulted in a kind of juggling act: “if the juggler did not What was Johan Nuorgam gaining, then, suspend the apples and oranges in the air, one from his intermediation, as Szazs (1994a:8–9) of the two sides or the juggler suffered the suggests? There is no knowledge of if Nuorgam consequences”. Szazs refers to the notion that received any material rewards; rather, it seems the connection of brokers to their own society that the publishing activities incurred financial was not without difficulties: they were not the loss for him, as well as most of the guidance he greatest heroes among their own people (Szasz gave to researchers or Finnish politicians. 1994a:15). More important for him was the respect Nuorgam’s guest books indicate that and affection Nuorgam got from the Sámi and his relations to different Sámi groups were Finns, as well as international guests, like Pelto, lively. Many later influential persons found or the Sámi from other countries. This kind inspiration or additional energy for their of appreciation must have brought personal Sámi work at Nuorgam’s.6 He was not, satisfaction to Nuorgam, who in a way had however, unanimously acknowledged or well- lost his everyday status in the reindeer Sámi reputed among the Sámi people in Finland. society. The broker role also offered a sense The reason for this was also his middleman of power to a certain degree, but it seems that attitude, which annoyed the more radical Sámi Nuorgam ceded at least a part of this role to policymakers. Nuorgam and Jomppanen were Jomppanen, who was using his authority in clearly perceived as representing a corrupt local and national politics. establishment who had to retreat. The role of There have been a great variety of cultural Nuorgam as a forerunner of promoting his own brokers among Indigenous peoples. Some culture and rights were blurred for decades. were inter-preters, or linguistic brokers. Others Nuorgam’s greatest achievement was the served as traders, and thus as economic Sámi Museum, which can be considered brokers. Some acted as spiritual intermediaries, a consistent and composite result of the others were educational or political brokers. events in his life, especially his introduction Nuorgam seems to cross all these boundaries in to museum management in the National his multifaceted activities. Szazs describes the Museum’s Seurasaari. Apart from the roles lives of brokers as juggling the ways of different of informant, journalist, and politician, he so¬cieties, and often with apparent ease. They learned during his trips to the south how his were acting at frontiers “where cultural borders own cultural heritage can be preserved and Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

developed through the museum institution. 5. In member lists between 1953–1954, as well as 93 This lesson was vitally important in the post- the end of the 1950s, hundreds of members have war years, when also the Sámi were overcome “resigned” due to “non-payment” of membership with “the craze of modernisation” and the old fees”. Minutes 1946–1960, SLA. culture became despised. 6. E.g. relative girl Helvi Nuorgam-Poutasuo At the same time, Nuorgam’s idea of a Sámi often “escaped” from the Ivalo dormitory to her Museum constituted an interesting culture- uncle in Inari. Inspired by social influencing, historical continuum in the development of she became one of the most pivotal agents in the European museum institution. The Sámi developing the official status of the Sámi language Museum developed by Nuorgam (as well as in Finland and the Nordic countries in the 1970s. Siida, which has expanded its operation) has Lapin Kansa 6 August 1978. proved that it could be made into a distinctive mediator of cultures, an institutional “Squanto References phenomenon”, which relayed its own story to the Sámi themselves, and another story to Archival sources visitors from outside. Kansallisarkisto (KA, National Archive of Finland) Lapin Sivistysseuran arkisto (LSSA, The Archive of Society for the Promotion of Lapp Culture) Notes Minutes of Syysjärvi youth club meetings in 1936 1. The exact date of birth was March 10, 1910. His T. I. Itkosen arkisto (TIIA, The Archive of T. I. father Jouni (Jon Nilsson) Nuorgam had moved Itkonen) there from the Finnish Deatnu Valley where also Correspondence between T. I. Itkonen and J. Nuorgam Johan’s brother later “returned”. In Sámi naming and 1933–35 forms, Niillas-Jon Juhan refers to the family Kansallismuseon arkisto (KM, Archive of the National background or three generation continuum to Museum of Finland) Juhán, son of Niillas’s son Jo(un). Oivoš-Juhán, Ulkomuseon opaskirja (Guidebook for the open-air on the other hand, is a geographical reference to museum) 1913 his native home, Kitinlompolo in Iijärvi inInari. Annual report 1916 2. Nuorgam delivered e.g. a rarity, a snow scraper VIII Friluftsmuseet på Fölisön. Helsingfors 1937 made of horn, an artefact resembling a Lapp T. I. Itkonen’s letter to the State Archaeological knife, used for shaking snow from the fur coat Commission 1933 and feet when entering a hut. T. I. Itkonen to I. Undated advertisement text, probably from spring Itkonen May 27, 1933. TIIA. KA 1933 3. Nuorgam’s wife Laura was the daughter of agent Saamelaismuseo Siidan arkisto (SM, Sámi Museum K. A. Soronen from Haukipudas. Laura’s son Juha Siida’s archive) (born 1940). Samii Litton arkisto (SLA, The Archive of Samii Litto) 4. The lecturers were Nuorgam, J. E. Jomppanen, Annual reports 1950–1953 Pekka Lukkari, reindeer husbandry adviser Documents 1946–1960 Vilho Kiuru, tecnician M. Räsänen, teacher Eino Board minutes 1950 Lukkari and catechist Jooseppi Lukkari. The Minutes of annual meeting 1953 lectures were delivered in Sámi, except for those J. Nuorgam’s clipping collection from 1969–1971 of the Finnish speakers. (Leikkeet) Veli-Pekka Lehtola

94 Interviews Itkonen, T. I. 1939. “Inarin tunturilappalaisten Saija Nuorgam (granddaughter of Johan Nuorgam) 12 joikuja.” Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 19, 9–16. January 2018 Itkonen, T. I. 1948. Suomen lappalaiset I–II. Helsinki: Pertti J. Pelto 22 August 2016 WSOY. Itkonen, T. I. 1960. “Johan Nuorgam 60-jahkasaš.” Newspapers Sabmelaš 1–2, 2–3. Sabmelaš 3/1936, 3 Jernsletten, Regnor 1997. “Reindrift, samevenner og Uusi Suomi 21 September1934 samisk etnopolitikk i Norden 1945–1975.” In Lapin Kansa 26 July1970; 5 January 1971; 6 Bjørn-Petter Finstad, Lars Ivar Hansen, Henry August1978 Minde & Hallvard Tjelmeland (eds.). Stat, religion, etnisitet. Rapport fra Skibotn-konferanse, Literature 1996. Tromsø: Sámedutkamiid guovddaš, 277– Brar-Josan, Novjyot & Sophie C. Yohani 2019: 300. “Cultural brokers’ role in facilitating informal Karlsson, Christer 1995. “Experternas roll i and formal mental health supports for refugee samepolitiken.” Politologen 1, 43–49. youth in school and community context: a Katsaus 1937. Katsaus Lapin Sivistysseuran 5-vuotiseen Canadian case study.” British Journal of Guidance toimintaan 1932-1937. Helsinki: Sana. & Counselling 47:4, 512-523. Kidwell, Clara Sue 1992. “Indian Women as Cultural Clifford, James 1997. “Traveling Cultures”. In James Mediators.” Ethnohistory 39:2, 97–107. Clifford, Routes: Travel and Translation in the Lantto, Patrik 2000. Tiden börjar på nytt. En analys Late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard av samernas etnopolitiska mobilisering i Sverige University Press, 96–116. 1900–1950. Umeå: Umeå universitet. Deetz, James & Patricia Scott Deetz 2000. The Times Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 1997. Saamelaiset – historia, of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth yhteiskunta, taide. Inari: Kustannus-Puntsi. Colony. New York: Random House. Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2003. “Nousun ja tuhon vuodet Hagedorn, Nancy L. 1988. “‘A Friend to go between (1939-1965).” In Veli-Pekka Lehtola (ed.). Inari them’: The interpreter as cultural broker during Aanaar – Inarin historia jääkaudesta nykypäivään. Anglo-Iroquois councils, 1740–70.” Ethnohistory Inari: Inarin kunta, 350-487. 35:1, 60–80. Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2005a. “Research and activism Hansen, Lars Ivar 1992. “Just K. Qvigstad’s in Sámi politics: The ideas and achievements of contribution to the study of Sami culture.” Acta Karl Nickul towards securing governance for the Borealia 2, 47–68. Sámi.” Acta Borealia 1, 153–169. Hirsti, Reidar 1972. Suenjelfolket – Ved veis ende? Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2005b “The Radical Sámi Oslo: Tiden. Movement and Establishing of the Sámi Hämäläinen, Pekka & Samuel Truett 2011. “On Parliament in Finland, 1969–1973.” In Peter borderlands.” The Journal of American History Sköld & Per Axelsson (eds.). Igår, idag, imorgon 98:2, 338–361. – samerna, politiken och vetenskapen. Umeå: Itkonen, T. I. 1934–1935. “Elämänviisautta Inarin Centrum för samisk forskning, 161–178. Iijärveltä I–III.” Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 14, Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2012. Saamelaiset suomalaiset. 56–67; 15, 77–89; 17, 33–53. Kohtaamisia 1896-1953. Helsinki: SKS. Itkonen, T. I. 1938. “Tunturilappalaisten kansantietoa Lehtola, Veli-Pekka 2017. “Vanishing Lapps, progress Inarista.” Kalevalaseuran vuosikirja 18, 54–62. in action. Finnish lappology and representations Johan Nuorgam: Sámi Squanto and cultural broker

of the Sámi in publicity in the early 20th century.” “de andra”, Samer om “‘de andra’”. Identitet och 95 Arctic and North 2, 83–102. DOI:10.17238/ etnicitet i nordiska kulturmöter. Umeå: Umeå issn2221-2698.2017.27.94. universitet, 259–265. Lindquist, Johan 2015. “Brokers and Brokerage.” Sainio, Matti A. 1963. ”Inarin saamelaismuseo.” International Encyclopedia of Social and Kotiseutu 1, 120–123. Behavioral Science, 2nd edition. Amsterdam: ”Sámi Čuvgehussearvvi stivra 1932–1984.” In Elsevier. Johannes Helander, Matti Mykkänen, Erkki Michie, Michael. “The role of culture brokers in Nickul, Tarmo Salo & Lasse Sammallahti (eds.). intercultural science education.” Paper presented Bálggis. Polku. Sámi Čuvgehussearvvi 1932–1982 at the 34th annual conference of the Australasian Lapin Sivistysseura. Helsinki: Lapin Sivistysseura Science Education Research Association held in 1984, 113–115. Melbourne, 10–12 July 2003. See http://members. Szasz, Margaret Connell 1994a. “Introduction.” In ozemail.com.au/%7Emmichie/culture_brokers1. Margaret Connell Szasz (eds.). Between Indian htm. and White World. The Cultural Broker. Norman Niiranen, Timo 1987. Axel Olai Heikel. Suomalaisen and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 3–20. kansatieteen ja arkeologian tutkija. Helsinki: Szasz, Margaret Connell 1994b. “Conclusion.” In Snellman-instituutti. Margaret Connell Szasz (eds.). Between Indian Nuorgam, Juhani 1982. Dološ dábit ja vierut Idjajávrri and White World. The Cultural Broker. Norman guovlluin. Bajasčálli: Paavo Ravila. Deatnu: and London: University of Oklahoma Press, Jår’galæd’dji. 94–300. Nuorgam, Johan 1984. “Nuoraid searvi ráhkaduvvon White, Richard 2010/1991. The Middle Ground: Anár Čovčjávrái.” Sabmelaš 6, 10. Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Olsen, Bjørnar 2000. “Bilder fra fortida. Region, 1650–1815. Cambridge: Cambridge Representasjoner av samisk kultur i samiske University Press. museer.” Nordisk Museologi 2, 13–30. Potinkara, Nika 2015. Etnisyyden rakentuminen kahden saamelaismuseon perusnäyttelyissä. Veli-Pekka Lehtola, Ph.D., Professor of Saami Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä. cultural studies Ravila, Paavo 1934. Reste lappischen Volksglauben. Ges. [email protected] und hrsg. von Paavo Ravila. Helsinki: Suomalais- ugrilainen seura. Giellagas Institute for Saami Studies Rydving, Håkan 2010. “Samiska överhetspersoner University of Oulu i Sverige-Finland under 1600-talet.” In Elsa PO Box 1000, Mundal and Håkan Rydving (eds.). Samer som 90014 University of Oulu, Finland Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 96–117

Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research The Nordic Museum in Stockholm and the legacy of Ernst Manker

Eva Silvén

Abstract: This article summarises a study about Sami related research and collecting at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm, with focus on curator Ernst Manker and the period between 1930 and 1970, however, in a slightly broader time context. Manker was a productive and influential actor in the sociomaterial network that comprised a broad range of people and phenomena connected to Sami issues. His legacy (objects, photographs, exhibitions, scientific research, popular travelogues) is analysed both in its historical context and as a complex contemporary heritage, starting from questions about its possible essentialising or emancipating effects. Although based on an asymmetric power relationship between the Sami and the museum, the research and collections are characterised as culturally intertwined constructions. A postcolonial perspective is used to discuss ways of strengthening the Sami dimension of such heritage: physical transfers (repatriation) and promoting Sami knowledge and meaning related to the collections.

Keywords: Sami cultural heritage, Ernst Manker, Nordic Museum Stockholm, actor-network theory, critical/new museology, indigenous knowledge, repatria- tion, sociomaterial networks, museum collections, museum exhibitions.

This article is based on experiences from a institution, including a Sami camp. Despite the long-term study of the Sami representation names, the museum did not have a particular at the Nordic Museum in Stockholm.1 In Scandinavian or Nordic profile, instead it took 1873 the museum opened to the public as on the role of serving as the main museum Skandinavisk-etnografiska samlingen (The of Swedish cultural history.2 Ever since its Scandinavian-Ethnographic Collection). In inception, the Sami have been represented in 1880 it was transformed into a foundation exhibitions, object collections, photographic and the name was changed to Nordiska and other archives as an actual part of what is museet (The Nordic Museum). From 1891 the considered Swedish, but at the same time in a Skansen open-air museum was added to the marginalised and exotic position. The museum Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

has been an authoritative voice through its growing Sami political movement, forced 97 selections, categorisations and displays, and legislation relating to reindeer husbandry, the collections reveal the same ambivalent the building of the welfare state and an and patronising vacillating between up- and expanding modern scholarly research, but downgrading the Sami as in the general also by “scientific”, political and ideological societal discourse. The Nordic Museum is not concepts such as race biology and eugenics, the only museum to suffer from this historical the discriminatory “Lapps-should-be-lapps imbalance, and all over the world efforts have policy” and Nazism.4 It was also a time when been made to change this, with the help of new the museums’ public role was debated and kinds of partnerships and new analytical tools developed with respect to visitors, education for scholarly research. and exhibitions. My aim here is to analyse and discuss the The Nordic Museum’s long interest in construction of the Sami collections at the relation to Sami issues peaked with the work Nordic Museum, its historical context and of Manker. Educated as an ethnographer, its long-term effects. The empirical focus but acting also as an ethnologist, he took will be the mid-twentieth century, and in up Sami research around 1930. After some particular the work of ethnographer and assignments at the ethnographic museums curator Ernst Manker. Theoretically and in Gothenburg and Stockholm, in 1939 he analytically, I have mainly been influenced by became curator of the Sami collections at the new/critical museology, actor-network theory Nordic Museum, where he created the new and decolonising/indigenous methodologies, “Lapska avdelningen” (“Lapp Department”), which will be introduced successively. As an with himself as the only member of staff. He employed curator and researcher at the Nordic carried out contemporary fieldwork as well as Museum, I can also situate myself in the historical research, acquired a large amount of subfield “museology from within” (Gustafsson artefacts and archival material for the museum, Reinius 2018). I have examined the collections gave lectures, wrote articles, published books and also been a part of the team behind the in various languages and took thousands of exhibition Sápmi – om att vara same i Sverige photographs (fig. 1). In the “Lapska arkivet” (Sápmi – on being Sami in Sweden, 2007–) (“Lappish Archives”) he assembled earlier (Silvén 2007, 2009; Westergren & Silvén Sami-related documents and images in the 2008). Later, I have carried out the externally museum’s collections, along with his own funded project Konstruktionen av ett samiskt research material and other acquisitions. kulturarv: Ernst Manker och Nordiska museet Moreover, he curated the cultural-historical (The Construction of a Sami Cultural Heritage: Lapparna (The Lapps) exhibition, which Ernst Manker and the Nordic Museum).3 opened in 1947. Right after, Manker stepped into yet another scholarly field: the emerging archaeological research in northern Sweden, Ernst Manker and the Nordic mainly due to the substantial expansion of Museum hydropower plants. He then participated in Ernst Manker (1893–1972) was professionally examinations of Sami settlements, trapping pit active during the decades around the Second systems for wild reindeer hunting, sacrificial World War, a period characterised by the sites and human graves (fig. 2). Eva Silvén

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Fig. 1. Ernst Manker during fieldwork, with a camera under his left arm. Liddobakte, Finnmark, Norway, early 1950s. Photo: Ørnulv Vorren, Tromsø University Museum.

Manker retired in 1961 but continued study of Sami culture and history and are – of writing for a further ten years and became a course – filled with compelling challenges. well-known researcher of Sami cultural history. “Lappology” was the term for the study of Among his many hundreds of publications are, Sami issues at the beginning of the twentieth on the one hand, a series of popular travelogues century, but Manker entered the scholarly based on narratives and photos from his field field a little too late to be called a “lappologist” tours, and, on the other hand, the scholarly (Pulkkinen 2005; Korhonen 2008).5 Instead he series Acta Lapponica, containing his own was active during the interregnum between as well as other studies. There he published that period and the establishment of modern the two parts of his monumental work Die Sami studies in the 1970s. Although he was lappische Zaubertrommel (1938, 1950), which considered an authority on Sami issues, he did contributed to his honorary doctorate in 1953. not work as an “expert” with governmental The material and collections he created, which assignments, as some of the “lappologists” did. he sometimes called “a central museum for Instead, he contributed to the creation of a Lappish culture”, form a rich source for the new research interface between museums and Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

universities with a focus on materiality, and his 99 extensive social network included scholars in Sweden, the Nordic countries and elsewhere. He also collaborated continuously with the Sami, both publicly known activists and artists as well as the principals of the around fifty local reindeer herding communities, siidas, which he enrolled in a “Lappish body of representatives” and connected to the museum (Silvén 2012). Their first task was to answer his questionnaires, but some of them also assisted during his fieldwork, which he, in turn, compensated in different ways.

Fig. 2. The Sami Anders Ponga performs a joik Contemporary contexts and during a lunch break, with one of the Swedish conjunctions researchers listening in the background. From the archaeological excavations of the sacrificial site at A crucial starting point for my project Seitesuolo. Råstojaure, Könkämä siida, Kiruna 1950. was the question of concurrences (or non- Photo: Ernst Manker, Nordic Museum. concurrences) in a wider perspective, namely the importance of situating Manker in relation to the contemporary political and ideological acted like patrons of the reindeer-herding climate, or conjuncture. How did his efforts Sami. Principally, he always backed the Sami, interact with the radical transformations of but he also reflected the current discourse the time? How did he relate to the growing and its ambivalence between a structural Sami political movement, to the conflicts subordination of the Sami compared to the between the state and the Sami, to the views of Swedish majority and a parallel assessment of race biology and Nazism, and how did he act them as a proud and eminent “race” compared during the war? Finally, how did all this affect to other minorities and indigenous peoples. In the results of his research? Sweden, race biology was for many decades In his collecting and research, Manker a mainstream and legitimate “science”, and maintained the museum’s earlier focus on past Manker adhered to its way of depicting times, although he in fact also documented the different peoples in terms of skull forms and contemporary changes. He acknowledged the “race typical” mental characteristics, even Sami’s right to a modern and comfortable life, as late as in the 1960s. However, he did not but at the same time he could lament the loss conduct any regular racial research, and he of the colourful clothes and the classic reindeer always argued against the most discriminating caravans. He supported the Sami political descriptions. A mutual and close friendship aspirations and contributed on a regular basis developed between him and many Sami, but to Samefolkets Egen Tidning (The Sami’s Own he also reserved the right to describe them in Journal). But he was not an activist, though he the scholar’s distanced, paternalistic view. could occasionally protest when the authorities When in the 1880s the Swedish state decided Eva Silvén

100 that reindeer herding was to be exclusive to the politicisation and nazification of science Sami, it also reserved Sami rights for reindeer (Garberding 2015). After the war, many people owners. In the common discourse, “real” Sami in academia, the business world and leading were reindeer herders, particularly nomads social positions were exposed as more or less in the northern mountains. When Sami organised German sympathisers and Nazis. were represented, the reindeer was usually Publicly, there are no traces of Manker’s present – in museums and other media, in opinions, but in some private correspondence research, literature and popular culture, as he supported Hitler during various stages of the well as in the Sami self-images. This created war, although perhaps more as an expression a gap between the nomadic reindeer owners of a strategic and geopolitical anti-bolshevism and other kinds of Sami – like those living off than an ideological pro-Nazi standpoint. In hunting and fishing, the more stationary forest his work there are no immediate effects, but Sami, Sami settlers, Sami in other professions since he had preferred a victory for Germany, and those living in other parts of the country he must have thought Nazi politics possible (Mörkenstam 1999; Lantto 2004). Early Sami to reconcile with his own research – even if spokespersons in the beginning of the twentieth he might have expected Sweden not to be century, such as Elsa Laula Renberg and Torkel included in the Third Reich. To some extent, Tomasson, advocated a broader, more ethnic as in other comments in his correspondence, definition of Saminess, but to be accepted Manker also seems to have practised the kind of as legitimate actors, they also had to adapt to mainstream anti-Semitism that for a long time the discourse (Lantto 2000:280–282, passim). was accepted in many social environments but Manker certainly knew there were other ways of lost its relative decency after the Holocaust. being Sami, but even for a recognised scholar Anti-Semitism, race biology and the “Lapps- it was an advantage to focus on the symbolic should-be-lapps” policy, all emanated from core of Sami identity. Most of the objects he a set of ideas where the partly synonymous acquired, and a great deal of his publications, concepts “race”, “culture” and “folk characters” were connected to reindeer herding, and in represented something substantial and his exhibition, the long caravan constituted essential, which the scholars should determine a central element. Thus, in Manker’s time, he and the politicians use in realising their view of and other scholars did not – or could not – purity and order. The idea that such a cultural support Sami in other professions and areas core, an essence, exists within a people was being acknowledged as “real” Sami. Another something Manker shared with many of his consequence, in our time, is that these people contemporaries. may not find much source material when they want to reconstruct their history. Manker’s Sociomaterial intertwinements deep and thorough descriptions of reindeer and joint ventures herding are valid, but they are not the whole truth about the multifaceted Sami life and During the first half of the twentieth century culture. and outside the Sami society, a large and During the Second World War, the histori- influential set of people displayed interest cally close relation to Germany became a in issues related to the Sami. They were challenge for Swedish scholars due to the researchers, museum curators and collectors, Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

artists and writers, politicians, civil servants as more dense relationships. Networking was 101 and other “experts”. Together with many Sami, a strategy for Manker; he engaged all kinds of they formed a sphere of interest, focusing on the people for his sake, sometimes by pure lobby- mountains as nature and the Sami as a people, ing. In the publications, academic colleagues as well as reindeer husbandry as industry. received recognition for collaboration during Individually or in groups, each had their fieldwork, help with reports and laboratory scientific explanation model, political agenda analyses, and, when appropriate, for translation and ideological and artistic driving force. They and proofreading. Financiers and publishers acted in cooperation as well as in competition also received their well-earned thanks. But and were intertwined in the construction of above all, Manker addressed the Sami: Sami history and contemporary identity. I have considered this sphere of interest Those who have supplied me with the source material as the human part of what I have called “the for the work, the Lappish informants, they have been mountains’ sociomaterial network”, inspired so many, that I had to put up a special list. My thanks by sociologist Bruno Latour and other actor- to them come last at the bottom of the page– but it is network theorists (e.g. Callon & Latour felt as the first one (Manker 1968:8). 1981/1998; Latour 1992, 1998, 2005). The non- human part of the network refers to all the Manker wrote the agenda, but still it might be materialities that in various ways contributed possible to talk about joint ventures and joint to establishing and stabilising the network. constructions by Manker and the collaborating Among museums, archives and universities Sami. Participating in objectifying yourself, there were objects, images, manuscripts, based on someone else’s manuscript, is diaries and letters to fight for, heavy scientific part of the Sami experience, a practice that publications to compete with, offprints and is shared with other indigenous peoples dedications as humble proofs of friendship, and ethnic minorities. But, needless to say, as well as invitations and congratulations, without the Sami contribution, nothing medals and obituaries serving as high-octane would have come out of Manker’s ambitions, currency. The politicians produced inquiries, and every step required negotiations. There laws and regulations, while the Sami created were decisions to be made about economic organisations, art, literature, journals and the compensation for assistance during fieldwork material culture that was turned into museum and excavations, for acting at Skansen, for collections. In parallel with the human actors, answering questionnaires and as payment all these materialities served as nodes in the for objects acquired for the collections. There network, with the ability to tighten the fibres were questions to be solved before taking and thereby maintain the social relations over photographs: should they be allowed at all, how time. should the image be composed and how should The network did not only connect the the person depicted be dressed (Silvén 2015)? human and non-human, the material and the Collaborative publishing needed agreements immaterial, but also the structural and the about royalties, copyrights and the ownership individual, as well as the public and the private. of the source material. Even if Manker Cross-links and intertwinements emerged and represented a superior cultural authority and cultural borders were bridged, in sparse as well the Sami did not always have the last word, Eva Silvén

102 at least they had an exclusive negotiating situation. To compare, early research about the nineteenth century travelling “living exhibitions” often pictured the partaking Sami as victims of the organisers. Instead, archaeologist Cathrine Baglo has uncovered and revealed the Sami’s active participation, their agency. The contracts between the actors and the exhibition managers can testify to hard negotiations, and if the agreements were not followed, a strike was the ultimate sanction: “The exhibitors were dependent on the exhibition participants; not the other way around” (Baglo 2011:261). Consequently, the Samis’ role in the mountains’ sociomaterial network was more significant than their being informants, photographic objects and guides for Manker and other visitors. Some established themselves as permanent contacts, such as the couple Mattias and Sigga Kuoljok from Sirges siida, in Jokkmokk, Lapland. They Fig. 3. Among the Sami who collaborated with became acquainted with Manker during his Manker were Sigga and Mattias Kuoljok, from field trips and later assisted in various ways Sirges siida in Jokkmokk. Here, they are securing when he created the Lapparna exhibition (fig. the baggage on a stuffed reindeer, accompanied by 3). They also worked for other researchers, Manker, for the exhibition Lapparna, 1947. Photo: mainly linguists, and recorded some joiks. Lennart Nenkler, Nordic Museum. Moreover, the whole family, including five children, were among the main characters in spoke English and had just returned from the semi-documentary film Från vinterviste till Europe (Clifford 1997b:18).6 Lehtola finds sommarfjäll (From Winter Camp to Summer “the Squanto phenomenon” quite typical also Grazing, 1949), which pictured their seasonal among the Sami, with individuals wanting to migrations (Kuoljok 2010). Veli-Pekka Lehtola, cooperate, and applies the concept in a study professor in Sami culture and history, has of Johan Nuorgam, founder of the Finnish pointed out that indigenous people often national Sami museum Siida in Inari. All acted as intermediators, or squantos, referring over Sápmi there were culture brokers, like to anthropologist James Clifford’s term “the the Kuoljok family and Nuorgam, and many Squanto effect” (Lehtola 2019). Squanto, or of them became independent interpreters of Tisquantum, the last survivor of the Patuxet Sami culture and history, in political, artistic tribe of the indigenous Wampanoag, helped and scientific contexts. Manker collaborated the pilgrims who arrived in Plymouth, with several of them – including the teacher Massachusetts in 1620. To their surprise, he and activist Karin Stenberg, the photographer Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

Nils Thomasson, the artists Nils Nilsson Skum 103 and Anta Pirak, as well as the three editors of Samefolkets Egen Tidning: cultural historian Torkel Tomasson, Sami politician Gustav Park and linguist Israel Ruong (figs. 4–5).

The media is the message Manker’s main interest was what he saw as the traditional and disappearing Sami culture, material as well as immaterial. When modernisation and mass consumption began to change older Sami ways of life, like many other scholars and curators he wanted to “rescue” as much as possible for the museum, and for contemporary and future research. But he also saw this as a possibility for the Sami to safeguard knowledge about their own history and culture. Moreover, he seems to have had the idea that this was a way to enable development among the Sami and offer them the same possibilities of a comfortable life in modern Fig. 4. The Sami teacher and activist Karin Stenberg society as other citizens. By leaving no longer and Manker are buying an embroidered reindeer needed artefacts to the museum, the Sami bell belt from the maker Cecilia (Sissa) Nilsson. could, he said, with pride build a monument to Manker and Stenberg took one piece each of the their traditional culture – and move on, since item, one half ending up in the Nordic Museum, the he saw modernisation as natural, inevitable other in the local history museum in Glommersträsk. Snierra, Mausjaur siida, Arvidsjaur 1938. Photo: and righteous. This view gives the museum a Ernst Manker, Nordic Museum. potential emancipatory role in societal change, which has not always been recognised. complex issue formed the background for But did it work that way? Research, my research, and initially I raised two main documentation, collecting and exhibiting questions regarding the impact of Manker’s can have both intended and unintended work: Did the shaping of a “central museum effects on contemporary political and social for Lappish culture” – respectfully preserving circumstances. The museums’ production of what was considered cultural heritage and knowledge and cultural heritage related to history – help to legitimate Sami emancipation indigenous groups has often been criticised for with its aspiration for modern ways of life, creating essentialistic and frozen identities, but change, diversity and the struggle for new at the same time a distinct and documented rights? Or, did the historical representation ethnic character has become an emancipatory lock the notion of the contemporary Sami to an tool for many peoples and minorities (Spivak essentialised, homogenous and unambiguous 1985/1996; Smith, L. 2006; Silvén 2014). This past? Eva Silvén

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Fig. 5. The Sami artist Nils Nilsson Skum during his first visit to Stockholm in 1936. The portfolio contains the manuscript for his major work Same Sita, published by Manker as Acta Lapponica II, 1938. Skum was a reindeer herder in Swedish Lapland, but in 1909 “he was lured off track”, according to Manker, when he at the age of 37 took part in an exhibition tour to Berlin (Manker 1956:50–51). Photo: Ernst Manker, private owner. Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

What could then be the methods for 105 measuring and judging the effects of Manker’s work in that way, in his own time and after, or, for determining the societal impact of Sami research more generally? One way could be to closely examine the historical material itself, analysing how the various categories were constructed and comparing their assumed effects. Following the Latourian line of thought, the museum collections could thus be viewed as actors in the mountains’ sociomaterial net- work, with the power to create and maintain social relations, conceptions and identities (e.g. Callon & Latour 1981/1998; Latour 1992, 1998). Accordingly, my research has led to different answers to the two main questions, depending on the type of media. The aforementioned Lapparna exhibition showed what had become history already at its opening in 1947, and during the more than Fig. 6. Ernst Manker guiding a group of students thirty years it was on display, the distance from the Sami Folk High School in Jokkmokk through the exhibition Lapparna, 1954. Photo: to contemporary Sami life increased. But Nordic Museum. simultaneously the (imagined) border between past and present must have been blurred since certain elements in Sami culture had survived exhibition’s mannequins (fig. 6). The visitors in partly similar forms, such as the dress, used the traditional costume as honorary some handicrafts and the reindeer herding. dress on certain occasions, but not yet as an Moreover, Manker had chosen to write the emancipatory tool as in the later ethnopolitical exhibit texts mainly in the present tense (except movement. Consequently, one effect of the the parts about traditional religion), which has exhibition was to associate contemporary Sami been considered a classic anthropological/ with historical living conditions. ethnographic method for subordination. The collections of Sami material culture, Thus, the Sami were situated in the timeless the artefacts, in the Nordic Museum also had vacuum that anthropologist Johannes Fabian – and still have – an emphasis on past times has termed the ethnographic present, and were and do not reflect the radical changes in living exposed to the denial of coevalness, meaning conditions during the twentieth century.7 that their ways of life were not regarded as The new commodities that were introduced concurrent with the mainstream Swedish among the Sami were not regarded as suitable society (Fabian 1983/2002:31, 80, passim). for acquisition, for example lumber jackets, The adjacent photo from 1954 visualises this wellies, overalls, cotton shirts and dresses, dilemma, when a group of Sami students sun glasses, binoculars, baby pacifiers, alarm happened to mirror themselves in the clocks and sewing machines. What we today Eva Silvén

106 call contemporary collecting was not an issue, frozen conceptions of the Sami. The narrative but that was not the single reason for omitting was often about the break between old and them. Only things that were considered new, between tradition and modernity, and the specifically Sami were supposed to be included photographs visualised, for example, the hybrid in a Sami collection, a restriction that had been mix of modern sports jackets and peaked caps applied to earlier collecting as well. Therefore, together with older parts of the traditional in the Sami collections of the Nordic Museum dress (fig. 7). Obviously, Manker was aware of there are a few razors, eyeglasses and one the discrepancy between contemporary Sami mirror, but no watches, combs, towels, soap life and the museum representations, which cases or crockery, although such items were he explicitly commented on in one of his late also in use among the nomadising Sami. As in books: “While the old cultural forms thus other museums with comparable collections, survived in the halls of the museum, on the both acquisitions and exhibitions were strictly outside modern life found new ways and means edited to an ideal-typical selection, a canon, to carry on – to exist” (Manker 1970:151). in accordance with an idea of a Sami essence.8 Consequently, judged from the material Changing power relations representations, the Sami appear as radically different from other citizens, entirely defined Despite an at many times friendly cooperation, by their unique ethnic character, which in turn there was a fundamental imbalance in the was delimited to traditional and “uncivilised” power relations between the Sami and the expressions, in contrast to mainstream modern- researchers. There was a friction that gradually isation, emancipation and change. changed, but it was not until the 1970s and Still, there is a third category of representa- 1980s that a more radical shift occurred. Then, tions – photography. Manker was a well- the foundation for today’s situation was created known and respected photographer and many through a growing Sami political activism, of his pictures of the more traditional Sami the strengthening of the regional museums ways of life have been used in various contexts, and the establishment of new universities with some of them turning into veritable icons. and colleges in Sápmi – which meant that But there are exceptions that open a crack in new institutions entered the network and the historicising image of the Sami. Among challenged those that had earlier held the Manker’s photographs from his many field leading positions. Increasing cooperation trips, from the late 1920s to the late 1950s, are across the national borders also contributed pictures that show the contemporary use of to transforming the former periphery into a the new types of clothing, household utensils, new centre. The “nation” Sápmi developed into motor vehicles and other kinds of material a node in a new global network of indigenous culture – just the type of objects that were peoples alongside other transnational identity not acquired for the museum collections. building projects around the North Calotte However, Manker included these photographs and the Barents region. As a result, the current in his popular travelogues, which he published power structure in Sami research was explicitly on average every third year during his career. questioned. They were widely disseminated among the Manker died in 1972, just after his 79th public, and must have challenged the other birthday. However, a brief glance at the Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

academics in the museum’s research. Swedish 107 curator Katarina Ågren also referred to experiences from Norway when she gave an account of an interview with the then young student Johan Klemet Kalstad, later professor at Sami University of Applied Sciences (Sámi Allaskuvla/Samisk Høgskole) in Kautokeino. Under the headline “Are the researchers a real nuisance in Sami areas?”, Kalstad had heavily criticised research in Sami areas by non- Sami academics. The following year, 1974, at a conference in Tromsø, the museum curator and scholar Alf Isak Keskitalo gave his famous speech “Research as an inter-ethnic relation”, where he repeated and developed the same criticism as Kalstad and provided a list of requirements for counteracting the asymmetry in Sami research (Keskitalo 1994).9 This new, expanding scholarly conjuncture Fig. 7. “Down from the clouds came AB Lapplands- was handled in different ways by different flyg’s ‘Seabee’ – the mountains’ modern messenger parties. At Tromsø Museum, the exhibition and a popular craft” (Manker 1958:136). The pilot Knut Hedström had transported a couple of Samekulturen (The Sami Culture) opened in reindeer herders and their dogs to Mattias Kuoljok’s 1973, with the artists Idar Ingebrigtsen and Iver summer camp at Lake Pårrojaure. Kuoljok himself Jåks among the participating Sami (Fonneland with a modern cap added to his traditional dress, 2019). But what became self-evident in Tromsø and with the binoculars at hand. Padjelanta, Sirges proved to be more difficult in Stockholm. A siida, Jokkmokk 1954. Photo: Ernst Manker, Nordic Museum. few years later, the Nordic Museum decided to replace Manker’s Sami exhibition. A project group was established, led by the ethnographer subsequent relations between the Sami Rolf Kjellström, Manker’s second successor. and the Nordic Museum will shed some The new exhibition – Samer (The Sami)– was further light on his time in a comparative to have its grand opening on 24 October 1980, perspective. In November 1973, a conference and a month before this the exhibition texts on Sami research was held, one in a series were sent to the Swedish Sami Association of anniversary symposia on the occasion of (Sámiid Riikkasearvi/Svenska Samernas the museum’s centennial (Kjellström 1974). Riksförbund, SSR) for information. The Among the participants were a few Sami, one response was so negative that the opening was of them Ole Henrik Magga from Norway, postponed. SSR appointed a working group, who later became a prominent Sami politician which recommended changes in texts, maps and researcher. At that time he worked at and displays in two comprehensive memos, Tromsø Museum, and in his presentation and almost a decade of conflict had started. he emphasised the ambition to involve Sami Since the exhibition was very detailed, Eva Silvén

108 many of the remarks referred to facts, terms leave the Sami to their previous, passive role when, and wordings, but the Sami also wanted essentially, others speak about them and their culture. the exhibition to speak explicitly about the The choice should not be difficult in 1981. And still, problems caused by extractive industries and it’s not too late, even though it’s at the twelfth hour the ongoing struggle for equal rights. Another (Thomasson 1981). crucial issue was the opening scene. The museum had arranged a tableau showing an The whole 1981 volume of Samefolket witnesses encounter between a bear and a male Sami a year with several important political issues mannequin, dressed in a reindeer fur coat on the agenda – like Skattefjällsmålet in and with a spear in hand. The SSR opposed Sweden (the Taxed Mountain Case, when the this image, arguing that it might strengthen Sami lost a fight against the Crown regarding false conceptions about the Sami wanting to land ownership) and the Alta conflict in extinguish wild species. It was not until the last Norway (about the building of a hydropower month before the opening that it was replaced plant across the Alta river) – in addition to by another male mannequin in a traditional the growing international indigenous context, North Sami dress, lasso in hand and in front of with the formation of the Working Group a huge photo of a reindeer herd in a mountain on Indigenous Populations (WGIP), later landscape. In a time when official definitions the United Nations Permanent Forum on of Saminess and ingrained stereotypes were Indigenous Issues (UNPFII). Sami cultural questioned anew, the display should have been politics and Sami cultural heritage were also problematic, but in the current situation it could highly topical, and demands were made for obviously work as a unifying representation. Sami national museums in all the countries However, the main problem seems to have concerned. In this political climate it was no been the Nordic Museum’s attitude towards longer enough for the Nordic Museum and the Sami. The conflict went public at the other mainstream museums to offer the Sami opening event, 26 March 1981, when the involvement and influence – what was at chairman of SSR, Nikolaus Stenberg, gave a stake was a major shift of authority. However, critical inaugural speech, that was published the Nordic Museum did not manage to cope shortly after in the journalSamefolket (The with this new situation, and in 1989 it finally Sami People), together with an interview with lost its earlier leading role when Ájtte, the a member of the Sami working group and a Swedish Mountain and Sami Museum in comment from Lars Thomasson, influential Jokkmokk, was inaugurated and became the Sami politician and researcher. All criticised main Swedish museum for Sami history and the Nordic Museum for its lack of respect and culture. The purpose was to constitute a Sami sensitivity towards Sami views and values and voice and present Sami perspectives, in line how the Sami had been treated. Thomasson with Kalstad’s and Keskitalo’s arguments. In concluded: connection with the opening, and as a proper repatriation, the Museum of Ethnography in The Sami Department at the Nordic Museum has in Stockholm decided to transfer its Sami object one way a key position regarding information about collection to Ájtte, comprising about 500 items the Sami. The museum can now either enable a real (Kåks 2000). The transaction was both a literal and active Sami participation in that information, or and a symbolic act, which not only added a Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

new actor to the mountains’ sociomaterial exclude the former history; on the contrary, 109 network, but also re-contextualised the objects. museums have mostly been keen to keep a Instead of being elements of an ethnographic record of the provenance of their collections, museum in the capital, they became actors in and even further movements and transactions a national museum of Sami culture, located in are neatly documented. Therefore, it is often the historical Sami core area. possible to follow, or “shadow”, these objects, as economist Barbara Czarniawska puts it, and uncover their “cultural biography”, according to Sami and Swedish: Place and anthropologist Igor Kopytoff (Kopytoff 1986; possession Czarniawska 2007:91, 106). Both concepts can But what kind of material was sent back to be seamlessly connected to the idea of physical Sápmi from the Museum of Ethnography – or artefacts as actors in sociomaterial networks, still remains in the storerooms of the Nordic together with the narrative aspect, insofar and other mainstream museums? Questions as the methodology creates stories around have been asked about whether these and other the objects that intertwine time, space and collections really should be regarded as Sami different sociocultural environments. Hence, cultural heritage, or rather, if they are parts these methods make it possible not only to of a Swedish cultural behaviour that includes disclose the cultural effects of a shift of location collecting and visualising Sami life, culture and belonging, but also help to determine who and history.10 I would like to answer both – may be the rightful recipient in a reversed depending on where the focus is. Firstly, the process, a repatriation. objects themselves are of Sami origin, defined I will present here two examples, both as made, owned or used by Sami people. relating to Manker and the Nordic Museum, Secondly, the collections are obviously joint and which in a long-time perspective show constructions – however unequal – and testify what such changes can do to the identity of to intertwined influences from several types an artefact.11 The first case is a sieidi, a sacred of actors and networks. Thirdly, the identity object, from Sieberbuollda in Sirges siida, of an object is something shaped by varying Jokkmokk. It was originally abducted by two practices; “Sami” or “Swedish” is not an young noblemen during a mountain trip in unambiguous and stable quality, but a created 1900. After lengthy negotiations, the Sami relationship or interface that can change over guides eventually helped them carry the sieidi time and in different contexts – not too different away, which a few years later was donated from a human being’s cultural or ethnic to the Museum of Ethnography. In 1947, identity. The artefacts that were brought to the Manker borrowed the sieidi for the Lapparna museums from Sami environments, whether exhibition, and it was also on display in the they were in use or tucked away to be burned, following Samer exhibition, in both cases were given a partly new identity; with the help representing the historical Sami religion and of denomination, classification and date of the notion of sacred places and objects (fig. 8). acquisition they were incorporated into the In 2002, after repeated pressure, it was finally systematic context of the museum’s catalogue returned to the Museum of Ethnography and and labelled with the museum’s inventory deposited at Ájtte Museum, along with the number. However, this new identity did not already transferred collections. At Ájtte, the Eva Silvén

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Fig. 8. Modeler Sigvard Hedblom, installing the sieidi from Sieberbuollda in the Lapparna exhibition, 1947. Photo: Olof Ekberg, Nordic Museum.

sieidi was once again put in an exhibition on the bones were turned into scientific research Sami religion, but this time along with its material and remained so for the following biography and a detailed description of its fifty years when they were kept in the Nordic abduction from the mountain. The source was Museum, the Osteoarchaeological Research a recently found and now displayed diary kept Laboratory at Stockholm University and the by one of the noblemen. In addition to being a Swedish History Museum, in turn. It was not sacred object, now the sieidi was also evidence until the local Sami association had requested of the circulation of Sami material and spiritual a return of the remains that a re-burial was culture as a dimension of Sami history. performed, in 2001, and then once again The second case is the so-called Shadow Soejvengelle became a Sami ancestor, in his Man, Soejvengelle, in the South Sami language, physical and narrative home environment – buried in Vapsten siida, southern Lapland. however, according to the osteological analysis, In 1950 Manker and his colleagues excavated three hundred years older than in the local oral the grave and brought the remains with tradition. them to Stockholm for further examination By following these and other artefacts over in exchange for a written promise that they the years, it is possible to see how the identities would be returned. Through this transaction, “Sami” and “Swedish” have been geared up Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

and down in relation to the physical transfers 111 between different hands. Every individual or institution along the way can claim to be part of the object’s cultural biography, and it is therefore no wonder that the issue of repatriation can cause conflicts between peoples, as well as nations. Film and media scholar Mark B. Sandberg has stated that the presence of an artefact in a museum is always testimony of a relocation. Ethnographic (and ethnological) objects bear traces of being displaced and it is obvious that they have had Fig. 9. The Duck–Rabbit. Author’s drawing. a home elsewhere and continue to evoke that context (Sandberg 2003:182–183). This is a different from other citizens. Referring to question of an inherent paradox, they are both actor–network theory, such conceptions about here and there at the same time – just like ethnic identity can be considered as black boxes, the sieidi from Sieberbuollda, Soejvengelle’s a useful analytical tool for “truths” that have remains are both Sami and Swedish heritage, been taken for granted and not questioned, simultaneously. I find this perfectly illustrated created by a series of interconnections between by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Duck– human and material actors (Callon & Latour Rabbit optical illusion: the object is the same, 1981/1998:19–20). but by fixing our gaze we can choose to see However, what has been packed may either identity, reinforced by the physical under other circumstances be unpacked, location and the institutional affiliation (fig. 9). and reorganised. Many museums have tried to rewind the process and explore how the “packing” was done, aiming at detecting the Sami and Swedish: Knowledge and mechanisms of subordination and finding meaning other forms of knowledge and meaning in To contest the cultural identity of objects the collections, including indigenous views. and collections, the physical decolonisation Among the many projects on this theme are – repatriation – has its theoretical equivalent the edited volumes Unpacking the Collection. in scholarly discourses, such as postcolonial/ Networks of Material and Social Agency in the decolonising studies, indigenous methodology Museum (Byrne et al. 2011) and the sequel and new/critical museology.12 Here, the muse- Reassembling the Collection. Ethnographic ums have been examined as societal institutions Museums and Indigenous Agency (Harrison, with particular focus on their production of Byrne & Clarke 2013). Both titles and subtitles knowledge and meaning, based on object can be read as keywords for the field and collections, archives and exhibitions. Thus, as issues at hand. My way of contributing to this shown above, the Sami (like other indigenous discourse, as an ethnic (non-Sami) outsider groups or minorities) have been characterised but a museum insider, has been to scrutinise by certain conceptions connecting them to the legacy of Manker – in fact an authoritative social positions and cultural expectations, black box that nobody has tried to open before. Eva Silvén

112 At the Nordic Museum, a first step was taken around the 1981 exhibition, when the box was in the making of the Sápmi exhibition, which unsealed and the deep conflict arose. opened in 2007. At that time, we curators When the new Sami museums that decided not to present a classic culture- opened in the late twentieth century created historical account as in earlier exhibitions. exhibitions about Sami cultural history they Instead, we wanted to build the display around used the existent “typical” and “authentic” five themes influenced by postcolonial and museum objects and collections, sometimes critical museological research.13 To manage returned from mainstream museums. Early this, it was necessary to examine and focus on critical scholars believed that they, like other the collections in a new way in order to find the indigenous museums, tended to repeat hidden Rabbits instead of the obvious Ducks (or essentialising and stereotypical images from the other way around), and to reassemble them the mainstream museums, once again staging according to our storyline. For this purpose, a timeless presentations with the usual focus Sami focus group was established, selected by on reindeer herding (cf. Olsen 2000). Later seven organisations and institutions. Together research has disputed this criticism, asserting we explored the collections in search of traces that what were perceived as stereotypes took that could enlighten the objects’ historical and on another meaning in the new context contemporary cultural significance from a (Mathisen, S.R. 2004; Mathisen, S.O. 2010; Sami point of view.14 Lien & Nielssen 2012). The timelessness should During the last twenty years, the concept not be equated to the colonial ethnographic contact zone has been frequently applied on present, rather to Sami and other indigenous this type of collaborative interface between views of time, with history more intertwined museums and indigenous peoples. On the one with contemporaneity. Instead of critical hand, it has been embraced as a postcolonial interpretations like auto-exoticism and self- emancipatory key, on the other hand, it has orientalism, concepts like strategic essentialism been criticised as a neocolonial embellishment and reappropriation of indigenous images were of a fundamentally asymmetric relationship introduced in the scholarly analyses (Spivak (Pratt 1991, 1992/2009; Clifford 1997a; Boast 1985/1996; Sissons 2005:9). Since minority 2011). For Manker as well, the museum and indigenous policies require a distinct obviously was a kind of contact zone, where individuality with specific and acknowledged Sami ethnicity was defined and negotiated characteristics, even time-worn representations in cooperation as well as in friction and – could be used for emancipatory purposes. The sometimes but seldom – even in conflict with symbols are maintained but charged with new those involved. However, the main difference knowledge and alternative meaning – turning between earlier partnerships and those formed the Ducks into Rabbits – which makes the later is the current ambition (although perhaps potential contradiction between essentialism not always the result) to share authority and and emancipation less distinct and more move the interpretative prerogative from ambiguous. But still, the intended “strategic” the museums to the source communities. essentialism can end up as pure essentialism In Manker’s time, the asymmetry between if the mainstream interpretation manages the two parties was part of the black box and to dominate over the indigenous one, and if not questioned, in contrast to the situation cultural continuity and re-appropriation are Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

understood as simple repetition.15 Therefore, desire to conduct research themselves, instead 113 many Sami artists and artisans today claim of mainly being informants or guides. It was the right to develop traditional forms of also a time when postcolonial perspectives handicraft, dress, food and joiking, in order to were introduced in ethnography, ethnology preserve Sami cultural heritage, knowledge and and social anthropology, which changed meaning. For them, the “authentic” lies in the earlier ways of describing and interacting with creator’s understanding of the tradition, the indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the highly environment and the materials, as well as in ranked positivist object research became the ability to express one’s own vision of Sami obsolete, and consequently interest in Manker’s culture, not in copying older forms (Durand and other collections that it was connected to 2010:105, passim). Thus, together with critical decreased. However, soon the constructivist museology, indigenous methodology and views of new/critical museology, together with contemporary collecting, artistic interventions perspectives from indigenous methodology, offer methods for questioning the narrow once again made these collections worth and conventional selection that in general studying. characterises historical Sami collections in As shown above, particular parts of Manker’s mainstream museums. work – objects, photographs, travelogues and the exhibition – probably had different effects in their time, and can have different significance From authority to antiquity for us today. This means that it might not be In this article I have analysed and discussed possible to answer the questions I asked at the some aspects of Ernst Manker’s and the beginning of my project as unambiguously as Nordic Museum’s representations of Sami I phrased them then: Can Manker’s efforts be history and culture in their contemporary said to have contributed to a forward-looking political and scholarly context. I have also Sami emancipation or a backward-looking touched upon their long-term effects and essentialisation? Now on this point I would possibilities. Museums have been significant like to answer: Probably both, in a mutually platforms for constructions of Sami identity dynamic and productive friction. and cultural heritage, first for outsiders like the “lappologists” and their successors, then for the Notes late twentieth century’s Sami ethnopolitical movement. Today, indigenous heritage is in 1. For the history of the Nordic Museum, see e.g. motion more than ever, and earlier notions Medelius, Nyström & Stavenow-Hidemark 1998. regarding place, possession, knowledge and 2. The contemporary union between Sweden and meaning are being challenged. Norway (ended in 1905) was mirrored at Skansen At some point, Sverker Sörlin, historian by the building Vastveitloftet from Telemark, of ideas, reflected over how quickly Manker while thousands of objects of Norwegian origin turned from “authority” to “antiquity” after – including Norwegian Sami – were added to the his death in 1972. As we have seen, this was Nordic Museum’s collections. at the beginning of the period when Sami 3. Financed by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond (The scholars started to demand control over Swedish Foundation for Humanities and Social research in Sami areas and also to express the Sciences) 2009–2011. Continuous results have Eva Silvén

114 been published in Silvén 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, & Brown 2003; Bennett 2004; Porsanger 2004; 2016, concluded in Silvén 2020. Sleeper-Smith 2009; Xantaki et al. 2017; Lehtola 4. According to the “Lapp skall vara lapp” policy, 2018. the Sami were seen as an inferior race, which 13. The initial themes were: Origin, on history, was taken as justification for attempts to keep kinship, perceptions of identity and ethnicity; them outside the modern society. They were Justice and injustice, on land rights, legal processes allowed to carry on with the traditional nomad and political movements; Brought “home” – reindeer herding, but otherwise protected returned “home”, focusing on the museum’s from contemporary life, which they were not material collections; Whose view, whose voice, considered able to cope with. Lantto 2000:40–42, whose story, with documents and images from the passim; Lundmark 2002:63–75. archives; The third space, on cultural encounters 5. Among other contemporary researchers in Sami and hybrid identities from a postcolonial history and culture, more or less considered perspective. Silvén 2007. “lappologists”, were K.B. Wiklund and Björn 14. The work was monitored and analysed by Collinder in Sweden, J.K. Qvigstad, Konrad doctoral student and social anthropologist Carine Nielsen, Asbjørn Nesheim, Knut Bergsland, Durand, see Durand 2010. Ørnulv Vorren and Gutorm Gjessing in Norway, 15. See the recap of the debate on strategic Väinö Tanner, Karl Nickul and T.I. Itkonen in essentialism in Durand 2010:18–21. Finland. 6. Cf. how Sami gained experiences from abroad References while travelling around with the “living exhibitions”. Baglo 2011. All data and references regarding Manker and the 7. Fully 40 per cent of the total collection of over Nordic Museum that are not accounted for in this text 6,000 single items was accessed before the year are to be found in my other publications on this topic. 1900, around 35 per cent 1900–1950, and 15 per All translations are mine. cent after 1950. Hammarlund-Larsson 2008:87. 8. The same rationale applied to the collecting Archival sources of Sami immaterial culture and folklore, cf. Nordic Museum, Stockholm: Mathisen, S.R. 2000. – Ämbetsarkivet / Official Archives: Exhibitions, 9. See Junka-Aikio 2019, for this “Samification Sami exhibition 1981 of research”, its further development and – “Lapska arkivet” / “Lappish archives” consequences. – Ernst Manker’s archives 10. Recently actualised in the research project Sami audio-visual collection – films and television Literature programs in archives and on the web, carried Baglo, Cathrine 2011. På ville veger? Levende out by the Royal Library et al., financed by the utstillinger av samer i Europa og Amerika. Tromsø: Swedish Research Council 2019–2021. Tromsø University. 11. See Silvén 2016 for a more extensive version of Bennett, Tony 2004. Pasts Beyond Memory. Evolution, the two cases plus a section about Sami shaman Museums, Colonialism. London: Routledge. drums, all with detailed references. Boast, Robin 2011. “Neocolonial collaboration. 12. Among the many titles used for my project are Museum as contact zone revisited.” Museum Karp & Lavine 1991; Smith, L.T. 1999/2006; Peers Anthropology 1, 56–70. Sociomaterial intertwinements in Sami research

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TheSamekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum Knowledge production and shifting circumstances

Trude Fonneland

Abstract: In 1973, the exhibition entitled Samekulturen (The Sámi Culture) opened its doors to the public for the first time, and for over forty years this exhibition has served as an important arena for the dissemination of Sámi culture to tourists, students and other visitors. Exhibitions have social and political consequences. Samekulturen as a social actor that contributes to the production of knowledge is the point of departure for this paper. In the view of the museological and ethno-political contexts in which Samekulturen was produced, the exhibition will be analysed as a historical document revealing how museological practices related to the representation of the Sámi have evolved over time.

Keywords: Knowledge production, Tromsø University Museum, Samekulturen, Ørnulv Vorren, social actor, material culture, shifting circumstances, heritage making.

Museums are not isolated entities, but must be contexts in which it was produced. Referring approached as flexible organisations in which a to folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett whole range of relations and activities impact (1998), my premise is that Samekulturen does the valuation, collection and display of cultures not only display, but acts in and influences, and histories (Mason 2006:25). The production with greater or lesser success, the societal and the life of the Samekulturen (The Sámi processes it is a part of. The exhibition, in Culture) exhibition provides a window into other words, has social consequences – such some of the networks that museums are as creating, maintaining and changing power entangled in, and how changing scientific relations, identities, categories and memories. paradigms and political ideologies influence Produced by Professor Ørnulv Vorren, museological practices. Samekulturen opened its doors to the public The exhibition will be analysed with a for the first time on 15 June 1973, and has view to the museological and ethno-political been a permanent exhibition at Tromsø The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

University Museum for over forty years. annual reports (Årsmeldinger) and documents 119 Samekulturen documents what Vorren saw produced by the scientific staff developing as the last remains of traditional life forms Samekulturen will be examined. among the Sámi in Norway and to some extent the exhibition reveals a common ambition The Tromsø University Museum among anthropologists, ethnographers and ethnologists in relation to cultural change and As Glenn Penny argues, “the state of any the spread of “civilization” (see Silvén 2016). museum actually represents the sum of its Today, more than forty years after its opening history” (2002:7). The idea to establish a museum the exhibition is still an important arena for in Tromsø was proposed publicly for the first the dissemination of Sámi culture to Tromsø time on July 19, 1846 by Instructor P. Schmidt University Museum’s visitors. in a column in Tromsø Stifstidende (Tromsø The knowledge produced in museums is diocese paper). In 1870, a General Exhibition affected by constantly shifting circumstances, of Tromsø diocese (Almindelige Udstilling for such as the impact from patrons, visitors, Tromsø Stift) was organised according to the scientists and political and ideological model of similar exhibitions that had been discourses, and as the circumstances change arranged in Norwegian cities further south over time, the science and the museums also (see Baglo 2019). With a particular focus on change (see Penny 2002). These circumstances Sámi livelihoods, the exhibition collected and need to be considered as important documents displayed 261 Sámi objects. Afterwards, several that frame the conditions of production, exhibitors gave their items to the committee circulation and interpretation of knowledge, so a permanent public collection could be and my aim in this paper is to track the changes established in Tromsø. The committee also that take place. What was unique about this invited other potential contributors to provide exhibition, and in what ways was it innovative material for the collection. When Tromsø and modern? Who writes culture and under Museum was finally constituted on October what historical and institutional constraints? 16, 1872, it was referred to as “a great step These are all questions we can shed light on by forward on the path of civilization” (“et stor examining more closely the specific conditions, Skridt fremad paa Civilisationens Bane”) (see questions and interests that intersected in Thomsen and Storm 2002). This statement the context of the design and development reflects an understanding of museums and of the exhibition. Set against its historical exhibitions as important meeting places for backdrop, the politics of Samekulturen takes the exchange of ideas and not least for public on new nuances, and addresses the value enlightenment (see Eriksen 2009). of Samekulturen as a historical document Tromsø Museum is the oldest science revealing how museological practice related to institution in northern Norway and a the representation of Sámi cultures has evolved precursor to the establishment of the University over time. of Tromsø in 1968. Assigned responsibility for In terms of methodology, this implies the northern part of the country and adjacent a close reading and analysis of Professor Arctic regions, the institution was formed Ørnulv Vorren’s archives at the Tromsø during a time of racial tension and severe University Museum. Moreover, the museum’s exploitation of northern resources. The political Trude Fonneland

120 situation for minorities at the time was the and the work to save “the material culture of policy of cultural assimilation of the Sámi and the Lapps” soon became a main task of the the Kvens. department. Shortly after being hired Vorren The Sámi and Ethnographic Collection started to apply for funding and to draw the gained an important position at the museum outlines for a permanent exhibition of Sámi already in its early days, and the dissemination cultures. of Sámi culture became an important feature of the institution. Thus, being represented Ørnulv Vorren and the production in exhibitions at Tromsø Museum is part of of Samekulturen what constitutes the history of the Sámi. In 1884, Professor Just K. Qvigstad (1853–1957) In recent decades, the scholarly gaze has been was appointed director of the “Lappian increasingly turned from the Indigenous object department” – a position he held until 1934.1 to researchers who study the Indigenous and He was a non-Sámi academic educated in to the societal processes that have regulated the fields of theology and philology, and with the production of such knowledge in the past expertise in Sámi culture, history and language. and the present (e.g. Tuck & Yang 2012). In April 1947, on the award of the Qvigstad As head of department and person in medal,2 Qvigstad gave a radical speech on the charge of the production of Samekulturen, importance of strengthening Sámi research Ørnulv Vorren must be seen as an historical and argued that Tromsø Museum had to be the agent whose research on the Sámi has been focal point for this type of study: materialised into the first permanent exhibition of Sámi cultures in the Norwegian part of […] with two thirds of the Lappish population within Sápmi. By focusing on Vorren’s background, its borders, Norway has an international obligation interests and publications, and the specific to study their language, ethnography and culture. political and ideological climates in which they We need not be ashamed of what has already been were set, knowledge on the contexts of Sámi done, but much still remains and if we are not to research and its dissemination at the Tromsø be outdistanced by our neighbours, the Swedes, we University Museum is revealed. Despite need more than a chair in Lappish and a chair in Vorren’s influential role, his research and work ethnography at the University of Oslo. One obvious on Sámi culture and history have to a limited step is for Tromsø Museum to appoint a person extent been illuminated in a research context. whose sole purview is Lappish research. And not Vorren studied ethnography at the least, research into what has up to now been ignored, University of Oslo and graduated in the early namely the material culture of the Lapps. But we must 1940s. For cultural subjects such as ethnology hurry. Times are changing, and life is taking on other and ethnography, the first decades of the forms, also that of the Lapps. One more generation twentieth century were a period of transition and it will be too late (translation in Hansen 1992:47). between different approaches that have been called “evolutionism” (the study of cultural In 1949, Qvigstad’s appeal bore fruit and a Sámi development as a gradual process from simple to ethnographic department was established more complex forms of culture), “diffusionism” where the non-Sámi ethnographer Ørnulv (the study of how different cultural elements Vorren was appointed head of department, spread geographically) and “acculturation” The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

(the study of changes in a society as a result of the Sámi areas “people had to get rid of, or 121 the direct contact of one society with another). cover up those social characteristics which A look into Vorren’s archives and publications Norwegians take as signs of Lappishness” reveals that he has clearly been influenced by (Eidheim 1971:56). the latter approach. He writes: Inspired by Qvigstad’s goal to study Sámi languages, ethnography and culture, Vorren Cultural development is largely stimulated by drew up the overriding plan for research at the influence and borrowing. We thus see striking and department with funds from the Norwegian clear results of the contact between Sámi cultures and Research Council.3 Tromsø Museum annually other cultures. This contact has been increasing, and received funding from the Norwegian it is particularly strong in our country. Nowadays, Research Council (NRC) to work on a priority the contact with the Norwegian peasant and fishing list of themes. The council also financed culture is no longer so prevalent. Today, the modern two larger museum fact-finding missions western European civilization, the “machine culture”, so the head of department could look for is also manifesting itself in Sámi areas (Ørnulv impulses and inspiration abroad, and Vorren Vorren, Sámi Archives, box 90, folder 1345, my used this opportunity to visit museums in translation). the United States and Canada. These visits, according to Vorren, had a major influence Vorren started his museum career at a time on the development of Samekulturen, and he when both the Norwegian and Sámi societies was particularly inspired by new exhibition were rapidly changing. This time period was techniques as well as by the various museums’ influenced by the growing Sámi political school services (Tromsø Museum Årsberetning movement, the building of the Norwegian 1967:74–75). Vorren points out: welfare state and expanding modern scholarly research. Vorren did not oppose the The following museums were visited: Fields modernisation of the life of the Sámi, but he Museum, Chicago, Milwaukee Public Museum, Pitt still wanted to fulfil what Qvigstad had pointed Rivers Museum, Harvard University, Boston, the out as a major responsibility of the department, American Museum of Natural History, New York, namely, to document the material culture the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of of the Sámi “before it was too late” (Vorren History and Technology and the National Museum & Manker 1957). As he argues: “One can be of Washington D.C. In addition, I attended the tempted to look at it as a sort of escape from Nome Museum, the anniversary exhibitions in Sámi culture into the machine culture. But one Fairbanks and Anchorage, and the World Exposition thing is certain, a strong cultural awareness in Montreal. These visits were extremely beneficial. is a necessary ballast in such a situation” [...] The material and experiences from the trip will (1972:110–111, my translation). The idea that hopefully soon be reflected in Tromsø Museum’s Sámi culture was a vanishing entity was also exhibitions to the extent that they can be adapted perpetuated in the political activities (Evjen & (Tromsø Museum Årsberetning 1967:74–75, my David 2015). The Norwegian state conducted translation). a policy of forced assimilation, where the aim was to eradicate the Sámi culture. A prominent Vorren had a rich network of contacts. One view was that to achieve economic growth in of the researchers who particularly inspired Trude Fonneland

122 Lapparna (The Lapps) that was on display at the Nordic Museum of Stockholm from 1947 until 1979 was an important model for Vorren in his work on Samekulturen. In particular, Lapparna’s focus on the reindeer caravan and Manker’s collaboration with Sámi people when working on setting up the exhibition are retained in Samekulturen.

Producers or objects of research? Samekulturen was financially supported by the Norwegian Arts Council so it was fitting that

the director of the council, Ingeborg Lycke, opened the exhibition on 15 June 1973. The Fig. 1. Manker and Vorren during fieldwork in the Buolbmát (Polmak) area. A drawing by Janis Cirulis, Norwegian Research Council had funded both published in Manker’s book Över vidderna. Skisser the department’s research plan that was one of och studier från landet i norr (1952:63). the foundations of the exhibition and Vorren’s museum fact-finding missions. By financing and cooperated with Vorren was the Swedish Samekulturen, government institutions par- ethnographer Ernst Manker (1893–1972). The ticipated in, supported and influenced the pencil sketch shows Vorren and Manker taking collecting of the “remains” of Sámi culture, part in joint field work in the area of Buolbmát making it clear that Sámi culture had a value (Polmak) in the county of Finnmark in 1951 – within the controlled frames of a Norwegian – sharing knowledge and experiences.4 In museum and research institution. 1957, Vorren and Manker published the book Through research, fieldwork, trips and Samekulturen (Lapp Life and Customs, English publications based on priorities set in the edition 1962).5 In an interview with the curator research plan, Vorren collected artefacts and Dikka Storm in 1993, Vorren points out that he research material relevant for the planned saw a need for a popular scientific and concise exhibition, focusing particularly on the old representation of the Sámi due to an absence hunting and trapping communities, reindeer of knowledge about Sámi culture in society at nomadism, sea Sámi communities and Sámi large. He added: “The book Samekulturen sold pre-Christian religion and mythology (see like hotcakes. There was a need for that book. Hovedplan for forskningsarbeidet ved Samisk- So many people came and asked all types of etnografisk avd, Action plan for research work foolish questions really because they were so at the Sami Ethnography Dept. at Tromsø poorly informed. Therefore, I discovered that Museum). The processes of selection, inclusion, it was necessary to write such a book” (script 1, exclusion and ordering are fundamental parts 1993, my translation). This book also became of museum work. As Anne Eriksen argues, the a precursor to and an important foundation question relating to what kind of objects deserve for Vorren’s work on the exhibition that bore to be part of a collection and an exhibition the same name. Moreover, Manker’s exhibition has been extremely relevant throughout the The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

history of these institutions (2009:117). At mere objects, of such knowledge (Lehtola 123 the Tromsø Museum, the research plan was a 2005). Since the 1970s, aboriginality has been clear governing document determining which increasingly valorised as an integral part of objects were to be prioritised, and little by the renovated postcolonial, multicultural little, a systematic collection that satisfied the national fabric, particularly for the purpose themes laid out by the plan was developed.6 of international projection in tourism and In many ways Vorren can be considered a cultural diplomacy. The Alta conflict is in this pioneer in Norway when it comes to involving context an important political marker and a indigenous people in the production of watershed in Sámi political history that caused exhibitions. Until the Second World War, Norway to change its official policy towards knowledge about the Sámi was produced the Sámi. The “Alta affair” was triggered by the largely by a small but highly influential Norwegian Parliament’s decision in November group of Norwegian clergymen. The context 1978 to approve a hydro-electric project that was nation building and a general Social- involved the damming of the Alta-Kautokeino Darwinist worldview. The emerging idea was River, which flows through central parts of of a people bound to vanish in the wake of Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost county, modernisation and progress because of their and the heartland of the Sámi settlement. The racial characteristics and cultural inferiority. Alta Affair that started as an environmental Scientific theories and lectures from the fields issue became an indigenous-people issue, of ethnography and medicine contributed to and the ensuing protests and demonstrations this view. brought the Sámi case to the world stage. The ideological climate after the Second In other words, the time of the opening of World War represented a change in national Samekulturen coincided with a political and minority policies, but not necessarily in cultural awakening unique in Sámi history. scientific practice. While the idea of ethnic As Tromsø Museum stood on the threshold assimilation as a national strategy was of becoming a university museum, Vorren was no longer valid, some of the old scientific eager to engage young Sámi academics. In paradigms still existed within research. A the anniversary book, Museum og Universitet more substantial change took place from the Tromsø Museum 1872–1972 (Museum and 1960s onwards as new scientific paradigms University, Tromsø Museum 1872–1972) and the general educational revolution swept Vorren reflects on the need to create exhibitions through Western universities. These changes together with the Sámi minority, as well as the contributed to the opening of the University contemporary possibilities to achieve this goal of Tromsø (1972), the Nordic Sámi Research due to the growing number of Sámi academics. Institute in Guovdageaidnu (1973) and the He points out: Sámi museum in Kárasjŏhka (1972) – all justified by referring to the “Sámi minority The longer one penetrates and differentiates the situation”. On a discursive level, the changes led studies of culture and society, the more it becomes to consistent demands that research conducted necessary to present material and problems upon the Sámi should be relevant, above all, to “seen from within”. At the time of the rise of the the Sámi themselves, and that the Sámi should General Exhibition of Tromsø diocese in 1870, the be the producers or co-producers, rather than possibilities for this were small, but today there are Trude Fonneland

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Fig. 2. The picture shows Iver Jåks concentrating on his work in one of Samekulturen’s showcases illustrating the trapping of grous. Photo Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the Tromsø University Museum, printed with permission.

great opportunities, as an ever-increasing number shaped for practical use, and this knowledge of Sámi academics are now turning to the social greatly inspired his later works (see Hanssen sciences (1972: 110–111, my translation). 2002:42).7 Together with the artist Idar Ingebrigtsen (1917–2004), Jåks was given From 1967 to 1972 the Sámi artist Iver Jåks the opportunity to put his personal touch on (1932–2007), with his academic background dioramas and showcases.8 from the National Crafts and Art Industry In the early 1970s, the number of academic School and from the Copenhagen Academy posts increased significantly, and several of the of Fine Arts, received a scholarship from people hired for these positions had a Sámi the Norwegian Arts Council to illustrate the background. The scientific staff at the museum exhibition. By studying the collected Sámi consisted of, among others, Alf Isak Keskitalo, objects, Jåks acquired unique knowledge on who later became the first director of Sámiid how various objects like the náhppi (milk Vuorká-Dávvirat (The Sámi Collections in bowl) and the goavddis (drum) had been Kárasjŏhka), Johan Albert Kalstad, Mari The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

Teigmo, Bjørn Aarseth and later President of 125 the Sámidiggi in Norway, Ole Henrik Magga.9 The Sámi academics took part in collecting the materials, setting up the exhibition and organising the museum’s school service. Despite the Sámi academics’ role in setting up Samekulturen, in a speech held at the Seventh Nordic Ethnographic Conference in Tromsø, Alf Isak Keskitalo points out a number of problems in Nordic “ethno-scientific” research on the Sámi. He argues, for example, that as objects of study, the Sámi have had no opportunities to establish symmetric and balanced relationships with the ethno-scientist studying them (1974/1994). As Linda Tuhiwai Smith points out, the idea of excluding indigenous knowledge, language and methodology was inherited from the colonial museum structure and remains the main challenge in building truly equal relationships, collaborations and sustainable Fig. 3. Photo Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, futures between the indigenous and non- the Tromsø University Museum, printed with permission. indigenous communities (1999). It is still clear that the Sámi research assistants played a major role in the development of Samekulturen and texts in Samekulturen. Sámi cultural life and that they were regarded as important is presented strictly thematically, covering the resources, both due to their education and subject as presented in the book’s chapters with their knowledge of Sámi culture. a focus on livelihood – particularly reindeer nomadism, which was widely regarded as the authentic Sámi lifestyle, as well as on handicraft “A permanent exhibition should be and pre-Christian religion. like a textbook” 10 Just like the book’s first chapter, the Vorren’s statement on exhibition design at the exhibition starts by mapping the Sámi territory Sámi museum seminar held in Folkemuseet to give a picture of the extent of the Sámi (Norwegian Folk Museum) at Bygdøy in people’s regions. Mapping is a political act. For 1987 reflects his experiences working on the Samekulturen, Iver Jåks developed a drawing Samekulturen exhibition. Comparing the of the land of the Sámi based on Vorren’s and book that Vorren and Manker published in Manker’s texts.11 In the book and exhibition the 1957 with the exhibition, it is evident that the term used by Isak Saba, Sámi teacher and first book as well as the research plan function as Sámi member of the Norwegian Parliament, foundations for and extensions of the themes Same Ædnan, is highlighted as a symbol for the expressed through the dioramas, showcases land of the Sámi. The map also shows that the Trude Fonneland

126 term embraces a large area stretching from the become “the icons of Sámi culture and identity” White Sea in the northeast, to Lake Femund (Silvén 2014:62). For Vorren, Sámi reindeer south of Røros, in Norway (Manker & Vorren husbandry was a main area of research and 1957:7). In a time characterised by harsh a key subject of publications. Samekulturen’s assimilation policies, this map makes a strong focus on the reindeer was also a way for statement and highlights countercultural Vorren to position himself as an acknowledged alternatives. scholar. Even though the majority of the Sámi The exhibition’s first showcases present are not part of the reindeer husbandry culture, sources of literature that draw attention to Samekulturen creates a strong link between the Sámi presence in the north and display Sámi identity and the reindeer. As Ivan Karp archaeological finds that testify to the fact that argues, exhibitions tell us who we are and, people lived in the northern areas as long as perhaps most significantly, who we are not 8,000 years ago. In doing this, the exhibition, (1991:15). (as well as the book) challenges the theories The largest diorama displays a wax on a Sámi migration route from Asia into mannequin on a sled dressed in a gákti Scandinavia that until recently had prevailed (traditional costume) from Kárášjohka pulled as a master narrative in several exhibitions on by a reindeer in a caravan.13 The representation Sámi culture (see Spangen 2015). Schefferus, of the reindeer equipage was already widely for instance, described the Sámi as newcomers spread through the works of Olaus Magnus, to this part of Europe, originating somewhere but through Schefferus’ emblematic drawings in the east (see Schefferus, 1956[1673]:41). in Lapponia (1673), the motif became of This was a concept that afforded the Swedish paramount importance for the general notions realm the possibility of claiming all the land of Sáminess (see Mathisen 2001). Schefferus’s and natural resources of Swedish and Finnish drawing of the Sámi equipage is featured on the Sápmi. It also enforced the Swedish claim of cover of Vorren’s and Manker’s book from 1957 sovereignty over all inhabitants of Sápmi. and can be said to be highlighted as a symbol Following an important theme in both of the golden age of Sámi history. Artist Idar the book and research plan, the next subject Ingebrigtsen has painted the diorama and his to be displayed is the Sámi’s methods of background illustrations of the snow-covered utilising nature’s resources through hunting plain landscape, the lightning and the lines of and trapping. A variety of animal traps, spears, reindeer reflect the spring migration. But, the skis and a sewed boat,12 as well as illustrations diorama portrays an imaginative geography in of a bear and a wolf hunt, are displayed in the Edward Said’s sense (1985:101f), an exotified, showcases at the exhibition’s entrance. constructed space used as a mirror of the The Skolt Sámi, sea Sámi and the inland conceited centre and for a gaze into the life of Sámi are represented in separate showcases. the last nomads of Europe. This gaze, one can But still, the traditions connected to reindeer argue, underpins a sensational image of and a nomadism are the ones that prevail in the distance to the ethnographic display. exhibition. Illustrations of reindeer milking, In the article “Northern Borderlands and the pack reindeer, reindeer markers, lassos and Aesthetics of Ethnicity”, Silje Opdahl Mathisen packsaddles are found in several showcases. refers to the museological focus on reindeer The reindeer and reindeer husbandry have husbandry as “Lapland’s equipage”. She argues The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

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Fig. 4. Photo Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the Tromsø University Museum, printed with permission. that in museum contexts this type of portrayal showcase. About 900 items are displayed in the of Sámi culture is more or less constant, exhibition. The objects are set in context and and is found in the earliest ethnographic arranged in typologies and series, but apart museums and in contemporary ethnographic from the aesthetic guidelines, they are not set and cultural-historical museums (2011). The up as a story to be interpreted. The various diorama with the “Lapland equipage” can series of items, such as the horn spoons, hats thus be seen as a constructed “myth of origin” and giella (lasso rings), were and are part of that both simplifies the past and excludes various networks connecting different times contradictory voices. and places. Thus in the exhibition they are (Fig. 5) The picture shows Vorren in one “silenced”. As Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of the exhibition’s showcases working on a points out: “In context approaches exert strong mannequin, later to be replaced by a wax cognitive control over the objects, asserting doll, illustrating the use of an instrument for the power of classification and arrangement to scraping membrane and fibre from the skins.14 order large numbers of artifacts from diverse The picture also provides an impression cultural and historical settings and to position of how many objects are presented in each them in relation to one another” (1991:390). Trude Fonneland

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Fig. 5. Photo by Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the Tromsø University Museum, printed with permission.

No texts describe where the items come from to Vorren, were in danger of being lost due or who made and used them. They are instead to modernisation and a growing “machine included in an extensive narrative about a culture”, but in Samekulturen Vorren’s aim is rich Sámi material culture comprising all to allow visitors to be involved in the past due Sámi cultures. The objects and accompanying to the opportunity to be in direct contact with illustrations inform about housing and Sámi it (1972, 1957). building constructions, households and Nonetheless, when Sámi objects like the housework, activities related to the changing náphhi (milk bowl), the giella (lasso ring) and seasons, and not least about costume traditions. the goavddis (drum) are included in a museum Overall, the many expressions of Sámi material context, the items and their meaning potential culture provide knowledge on traditions that also change. Kirshenblatt-Gimblett precisely in the exhibition’s opening year, according points out that an ethnographic object, “moves The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

from curio to specimen to art” (1991:392). of International Visual Arts (Iniva), pointed 129 By incorporating the Sámi objects in various out that: “The notion of Western culture tableaus in Samekulturen Vorren thus retired as inherently progressive, sophisticated the Sámi objects from service as utensils and and above all superior […]remains firmly paved the way for new approaches (see also imbedded in the cultural institutions of Oskal 2014). When it comes to these types western Europe, not least in its museums” of translation processes that take place when (1990:30–31). Debates on how to break away developing the Samekulturen exhibition, it from unfavourable ethnographic practices is important to bear in mind what James and facilitate new curatorial traditions started Clifford highlights in terms of the concept of to make an impact on Norwegian museum translation: “Translation is not transmission departments in the early 1990s. At the Tromsø […] Cultural translation is always uneven, University Museum, this led to discussions on always betrayed. But this very interference the Samekulturen exhibition that in light of the and lack of smoothness is a source of new critique increasingly was seen as a problematic meanings, of historical traction” (2013:48–49). representation of Sámi culture (see Kalsås In opening the exhibition, Sámi culture was 2011, 2015). Given the fact that Samekulturen showcased and legitimised as a “real” culture presents Sámi culture as a reindeer culture in the Norwegian public sphere. To many with few references to other industries, we Sámi, this was a victory in itself, even though can argue that the thematic structure and the the showcases and dioramas can be said to be lack of reference to any specific points in time detached from time and space and highlight a lead to an essentialist representation of the minority of Sámi, namely those occupied with Sámi people. Distinct cultural symbols in this reindeer husbandry. As Ole Henrik Magga, context, such as the reindeer, the lavvu and the first President of the Sámediggi (the the gákti, appear as an unchangeable core of Sámi Parliament), points out in an interview Sámi identity (see Mathisen 2001; Webb 2006; published in the exhibition Sámi Stories: Art Eidheim, Bjørklund & Brantenberg 2012). and Identity of an Arctic People, taking part in In answer to this criticism, in the 1990s, developing Samekulturen was the first time he parts of the showcases in Samekulturen were had felt proud of his own culture. At the time of replaced by new ones focusing on Sámi Samekulturen’s opening in the early 1970s, the political life. The intention was to produce exhibition reached out with a message that for a picture of the Sámi as actors who do not a long time had been under-communicated, operate outside time and space, but who are namely that the Sámi culture has rich traditions actively participating in modern society. After worthy of care and protection for posterity. a while, it was nevertheless decided to create a new exhibition, and in 2000 Sápmi – en nasjon blir til (Sápmi – Becoming a nation) Changing museological practices was opened (see Ragazzi & Nerici 2019). This Already in the 1970s, a post-colonial critique exhibition focuses on how the Sámi in Norway against the ethnographic museums’ portrayal experienced a political and cultural awakening of indigenous people and non-Europeans during the post-war years.15 In the article gained momentum (see Simpson 2001). “Negotiating with the Public – Ethnographic Gilane Tawadros, Director of the Institute Museums and Ethnopolitics” (2012) some of Trude Fonneland

130 the initiators and curators of the exhibition, to be an institution that must counter these Harald Eidheim, Ivar Bjørklund and Terje effects and form a broad foundation that Sámi Brantenberg, point out that: cultures can build on.16 Material culture plays an important role in the struggle for rights and By making a presentation of a modern indigenous identity formation. With the revitalization of movement, we wanted to present an alternative Sámi cultures in the 1970s and 1980s, material to how most ethnographic museums have tended cultural objects such as the gákti once more to represent the life of indigenous peoples, where regained status within Sámi communities. One cultural history and material objects tend to dominate of the consequences of this was the desire to displays and exhibitions (2012:96). revitalize and reproduce traditional costumes based on the gákti that had been preserved Since 2000, the two exhibitions Samekulturen in museum collections and exhibitions (see and Sápmi – en nation blir til have co-existed, Finbog 2013:71). In a post in the newspaper side by side, and have, in addition to their Klassekampen on 3 November 2017, Sámi and representations of Sámi culture and history, PhD student Liisa Ravna Finborg argues: also shed light on museum historical practices. As Per Otnes argues: The knowledge that we have left is important – important to protect. Putting on the gákti is an act that [...] a text of today may become part of tomorrow’s contradicts the view of the Sámi culture as inferior. It context – if it fares well in the field or fields that go is an act that challenges the shame of being Sámi that into it; which implies it may serve to eradicate or at the assimilation policies created. To put on the gákti least phase out or modify older texts. Conversely, a shows, as Sofia Jannok so strongly underlines, “We text of today will enter the stage (or fields) against are still here” (Finbog in Klassekampen 3 November the background of previous received contexts, texts 2017, my translation). etc. already more or less consecrated by field agencies (2006:129–130). Today, at the Tromsø University Museum, Samekulturen has become an important actor In other words, the two exhibitions Samekul- in these processes and every year a number of turen and Sápmi – en nasjon blir til are part of a people visit the exhibition with an intention to rather intricate, intertextual interplay. revitalize the material objects that are found in the dioramas and showcases. Vorren’s wish for the exhibition to form a foundation that Shifting circumstances, contact Sámi cultures can build on is thus one step work and identity formations – closer to reality. In terms of Samekulturen, it concluding remarks was foremost when the Sámi ethno-political An important issue is to consider if Same- arguments and struggle for equal rights gained kulturen has a value beyond its role as a spotlight ground, and when Tromsø Museum opened for for museum historical practices. Due to the a focus on these issues through the exhibition national assimilation policies, many Sámi have Sápmi – en nasjon blir til, that Samekulturen experienced a loss of language, cultural heritage acquired Sámi relevance as a reciprocal arena of and identity. In one of his many lectures Vorren ongoing exchanges, renewal and articulations points out that the museum’s role is precisely of “traditional futures” (Clifford 2013). The co- The Samekulturen exhibition. A social actor at the Tromsø University Museum

existence of the two exhibitions opens for new small exhibition on Sámi culture in the museum’s 131 insights on Sámi identities and the production vestibule and hall. According to Vorren, this was of knowledge and heritage. In this context, the first attempt at “a methodically constructed Samekulturen has a value beyond its role as a exhibition”, and this exhibition was a precursor spotlight for museum historical practices, and to the permanent exhibition on Sámi culture that has become a potential space where meetings opened in 1972 (Vorren 1972:111). between Sámi materiality and the visitor can 7. The Sámi collection at Tromsø Museum houses take place. These meetings also open for new several sketches of Sámi objects by Iver Jåks from insights and for the creation of more ambitious the period when he worked as the illustrator at and ambivalent ideas about identities, and thus Samekulturen. generate interesting regimes of knowledge 8. The picture (Fig. 2) shows Iver Jåks in production and heritage making. concentrated work in one of Samekulturen’s showcases illustrating the trapping of grouse. Photo Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the Tromsø Notes University Museum, printed with permission. 1. The other directors of the department before 9. Magga was hired as museum lecturer in 1973. Vorren were Kristian Nissen (1934-36), Guttorm He developed a teaching programme and a Gjessing (1936-40) and Th. Sjøvold (1946-49). teaching booklet based on the exhibition for 2. On Qvistad’s 90-year anniversary in 1943, the students from years four to nine in primary and Tromsø University Museum decided to make a lower secondary school entitled Samekulturen: gold medal which was to be awarded every fifth Undervisningsopplegg for 4-.9. klasse (The Sami year to national or international researchers who Culture: Teaching programme for years four to had distinguished themselves within the field of nine) (Magga 1973). Sámi research. In 1947, the medal was awarded to 10. This was expressed by Ørnulv Vorren at the Sámi Prof. Konrad Nielsen. Museum Seminar in 1987 (Pareli 1994:353). 3. Primarily, the plan consisted of six main themes: 11. Photo Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the Tromsø 1. The old hunting and trapping communities, 2. University Museum, printed with permission. Reindeer nomadism, 3. Sea Sámi communities, 12. The technique of sewing boats was used for the 4. Social conditions among the Sámi today, 5. construction of river and lake boats until the The so-called “Marke-bygder”, and 6. Sámi pre- twentieth century. In 2017, the sewed river boat, Christian religion and mythology. which had been part of the exhibition from the 4. Fig. 1 shows Manker and Vorren during fieldwork opening, was given to the Skolt Sami museum in in the Buolbmát (Polmak) area. A drawing by Neiden that opened in June 2017. Janis Cirulis, published in Manker’s book Över 13. Photo Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the Tromsø vidderna. Skisser och studier från landet i norr University Museum, printed with permission. (1952:63). 14. Photo by Olga Kvalheim, Photo Archive, the 5. This book was published in several languages, Tromsø University Museum, printed with including English, German and Hungarian, and permission. re-printed in a slightly revised edition in 1972. 15. See: Ragazzi & Nerici 2019, in the current issue of 6. In conjunction with Riksmessen (National Nordisk Museologi. Exhibition) in 1952, the Sámi ethnographic 16. Sámi Archive/ Ørnulv Vorren, box 90, folder department was given the opportunity to set up a 1345, lecture: Samenes kulturutvikling og deres Trude Fonneland

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Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

Abstract: This article focuses on the set up, reception, and social scientific discursive fields that have informed two exhibitions about Sámi culture curated over time by Tromsø University Museum. They were curated in two different periods in the recent history of the Sami (end of 1990s and 2013–15). In our anthropologically- informed analysis we take a second look at the way in which researchers and curators have constructed, performed, and narrated certain aspects of Sámi material and immaterial heritage, in times of change and political awareness. The recent exhibitions have contributed to articulate essential issues concerning ethnic identity and cultural belonging in conversation with or critique towards the previous representation of Sámi ethnography at the museum, especially the renown Sámekulturen curated by Ørnulf Vorren. How did these exhibitions handle the representations in which Sámi people would mirror their history, identity and aesthetics? How did they speak on behalf of the Sámi but also in conversation with the Sámi? How were these presentations interpreted over time in a changing museological practice?

Keywords: Sápmi, Samekulturen, Sápmi – Becoming a Nation, Critical Museology, Sámi Stories, Tromsø University Museum, Ø. Vorren, H. Eidheim, Cultural Belonging, Indigenous.

The Tromsø University Museum has curated activism in Indigenous art. This article focuses two permanent exhibitions and one major on the set up, reception, and social scientific traveling exhibition about Sámi culture in discursive fields that have informed the two three different epochs. It is hence interesting latest exhibitions about the Sámi curated over to study them in relation to each other, and to time by Tromsø University Museum. They individuate some of their discursive paradigms: were curated in two different periods in the the critique of “ethnographic description” recent history of the Sámi (end of 1990s and through the lenses of processual anthropology 2013–15). and the musealization of the aesthetics of The exhibition Samekulturen (The Sámi Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

Culture) was opened in 1973 at the Tromsø 135 Museum, and its main emphasis was on Sámi material cultural heritage, attempting to include every form of social life in order to salvage what was perceived as being on the edge of disappearance (see Fonneland’s article in this volume). The main curator, professor Ørnulf Vorren (1916–2007), whose disciplinary involvement in Sámi culture was more than three decades old at that time, tried to handle the social and cultural problems of the Sámi without really talking about it directly. It was a time where the Sámi had been assimilated to the mainstream Norwegian culture, and where the stigma of belonging to a minority was not a theme for an exhibition. The material repertoires told in the “ethnographic present” appeared as preserved from the disruptive Fig. 1. Exhibition Samekulturen, 1972. A primary character of modernization. (Fig. 1). school class from Máze visits the exhibition. Photo: Olga Kvalheim, Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum. When the Sápmi – en Nasjon blir til (Sápmi – Becoming a Nation) exhibition opened at Tromsø University Museum in 2000, it distinguished Sápmi - en nasjon blir til emphasized the itself from its predecessor in terms of set-up, discourses initiated two decades earlier by the plot, and communication strategies, but also New Museology movement. Dissemination performative aspirations. The theme of the of knowledge was implemented through exhibition was the narrative of contemporary visual literacy, websites, and other types of events that, from World War II to the present, lay-publications, courses, and educational made possible the emergence of the Sámi activities. All these aspects gave the opportunity nation. The original idea for the exhibition was to involve the visitors in the museum activities conceived by anthropologist Harald Eidheim “bridging the gap between professionals (1925–2012), who had been professor at the and non-professionals” (Kreps 2003:10) and University of Tromsø and Oslo, and was part making them “crucial participants in the of the processual turn in anthropology, in process of meaning-making” (Rhiannon conversation with Frederic Barth and Robert 2006:27). Paine. Eidheim was at the time visiting The team of curators of Sápmi – en nasjon professor at the Sámi Ethnographic Unit of the blir til, after some hesitation, decided to keep museum. The curators1 chose a set-up where Samekulturen on display even if it was somehow the visitors could interact with some of the an old representation. They did it in order devices, “gaining insight into how museum to give a sense of the genealogy of academic presentations can be seen as a dialogue – or museum’s presentations, and to create a negotiation – with audience” (Eidheim et al. contrast and complement with Sápmi – en 2012:107). nasjon blir til. In this way, these two permanent Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

136 exhibitions became “conceptualized archives” standing for the discursive fields that produced them. Hence, maintaining both exhibitions side by side at the Tromsø University Museum creates a comparison between two different ways of representing Sámi culture. By the same token, it leads to a meta-level of interpretation about how exhibitions present, represent, and construct their subjects. Their association in a specular symmetry (left and right aisles of the museum’s second floor) becomes a sort of stereophonic device in which the old and the new may possibly dialogue. Sámi Stories, the third major Sámi exhibition that Tromsø Museum opened in New York, at the Scandinavian House in 2014, was a traveling exhibition based on the permanent Fig. 2. Professor Ørnulf Vorren mounting a glass exhibition Sápmi – en nasjon blir til. It was a case in Samekulturen, 1971. Photo: Olga Kvalheim, Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum. collaboration with the Northern Norwegian Art Museum, and it combined some of the features of the other two exhibitions, to deepen specific topics. Last but not least, we including anthropological inflected banners concentrated on the experience of the visit, with informative texts, several ethnographic both actively participating in guided tours and masterpieces from Tromsø Museum collections, compiling and analysing questionnaires with and a new section profiling iconic contemporary the aim of understanding the motivations, artworks that are peculiar of Sámi innovative the expectations, and the points of view of the aesthetics (Gullickson & Lorentzen 2014). visitors of these exhibitions. The conversations with the curators, the participatory observation during the set-up, In conversation with the past interviews with audiences and the study of the catalogues of this major exhibition have been a The exhibition Samekulturen was translating crucial approach in reading Sámi Stories. and reproducing, in museological form, the The last section of this article is dedicated all-encompassing Sámi ethnography that had to our attempt to understand how these three been investigated in the homonymous book exhibitions negotiate meanings with the public Samekulturen (1957) that Vorren co-edited in the practice of fruition. The methodology with the Swedish ethnographer and mentor adopted for our investigation firstly required Ernst Manker.2 (Fig. 2). an in-depth study of the archive sources and of The exhibition managed to establish a the objects and registers used in the exhibitions. collaboration with the public sphere and At the same time, our choice was to interact constituted, for several generations of Sámi, a with the curators and museum staff through medium to learn and become proud of their interviews and personal conversations in order own cultural history. Over time, it became also Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

a repository to draw on, for touristic guides and 137 marketing, where images like reindeer herding became iconic or stereotyped (Eidheim et al. 2012:103). Through the lenses of processual anthro- pology, salvaging material repertoires in the ethnographic museums meant to defend the traditional aspects of Sámi culture against the subversive character of modernization. The nostalgic tone which celebrated the purity of a past destined to disappear, associated with a detached and all-encompassing ethnographic gaze, dissimulated a power position, which Fig. 3. One of the dioramas in Samekulturen was almost unavoidable when collecting showing the relation between the Sámi people and the reindeer. Photo: Giacomo Nerici. and “musealizing” objects belonging to an Indigenous people (Clifford 1988). Vorren selected among the elements of the tradition exhibition, from now on, will museologically what the public was supposed to associate translate a “text-book” (Mathisen 2004). In with the concept of “Sámi culture”.3 The set-up reality, when Vorren designed the presentation, was conceived as a representation of alterity he wanted to emphasize the existence of Sámi through a temporal dislocation (Fabian 1983). in the subarctic areas for many thousands of The confinement of objects in a time “other” years. He wanted to use historical evidence reveals the epistemological frame in which to show that Sámi inhabited these regions in Vorren acted as scholar. The narrative results their full right. This fact is still controversial for are somehow static and narrated through the many Scandinavians and Finns, because the usage of the “ethnographic present”, situating Sámi people were not considered as “subjects the content in a time without history. The of history” in the time when Vorren initiated tools, implements, dioramas and old black the exhibition project. and white photos of subjects captured in their Although Samekulturen has been kept everyday life, seem to enhance some nostalgic beyond its due time, nowadays many consider aspects of Sámi culture and emphasize the idea its outlook to be charming rather than obsolete. that progress is condemning this population to If it holds its aesthetic qualities until today, it is a loss of authenticity. (Fig. 3). especially because of the contribution of Iver The tone of the exhibition is explanatory, the Jåks, an artist who saw the design as an artefact content is presented to an audience basically in its wholeness. Forms, colors, serigraphs, not informed enough, and which seems not drawings, and the levity that the whole scenery to have been involved in the production of possesses, makes the narrow space with the meaning (Hooper-Greenhill, 2003). In the first objects, stuffed animals and dioramas still glass case of the exhibition, a series of historical admired today. The pastel colors in beige- references, maps, and documents synthetize yellow-grey, on the cabinets and on the walls, the beginning of the first chapter of Manker make the strong tones of the Sámi outfits stand & Vorren’s book (1957), revealing how the out and shine. With its emphasis on materiality Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

138 and heritage, Samekulturen appears today very the democratization of interaction within precious in the comments of many visitors, museums evolve rapidly from what was even more so because the items on display called New Museology (Vergo 1989).4 are among the finest in Sámi exhibitions This approach stresses the importance of worldwide. To conclude, on the one hand, the community participation in the construction exhibition represents a precious repository of of museum representation and interpretations artifacts and information on traditional culture of meanings (Kreps 1998:13). Museological that are still indispensable today and, on the politics of knowledge in the last two decades other hand, it offers an indispensable term of have modified the role and authority of comparison to understand the epistemological experts, collaborating with the producers of frames that generated them. (Fig. 4). “authorized” knowledge. On the one hand, this process led to widening intercultural relationships from those established solely Sápmi en nasjon blir til around collecting and displaying, to include The first decade of the new millennium has related issues of restitution, cultural manage- seen curatorial practices and museological ment, and the museum’s wider political trends, museum technologies, media and integrations (Shelton 2006:77). On the other

Fig. 4. River Sámi displays in Samekulturen, set-up by Iver Jåks. Photo: June Åsheim, Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum. Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

hand, museums became “contested arenas” nation without borders and statehood and 139 where various communities debate what it is referred to as the territorial, social, and culture is, how it should be represented, and cultural community of the Sámi who live in the who holds the power to represent it (Karp northern parts of Fenno-Scandia. The items & Levine 1991; Karp et al. 1992). When on display includes an abundance of archival the museological paradigms expressed by material, pictures, a series of interactive Samekulturen encountered an epistemological videos, a special issue of the museum journal reconfiguration, the team of anthropologists Ottar, a catalogue, items of popular culture, working in the museum (Vorren had by then banners and political illustrations, and a few retired) started to plan a new project for a objects. The translation of the captions is in major Sámi exhibition, which opened in 2000, three languages (Norwegian, North Sámi, namely Sápmi – en nasjon blir til. and English) and of 60 items displayed, only This new exhibition took as its main theme two present a written description, while of the ethnopolitical processes of emancipation the nearly 80 photos and illustrations, none of of the Sámi people of Norway, spanning from them have an explicatory caption (Eidheim et the post-World War II period to the end of the al. 2012:107). To interpret their meanings, one millennium, focusing on the socio-political must contextualize them inside each respective discourses that led to the establishment of the room and as a part of the whole historical and Sámi Parliament in 1989. The curators who had social context of the exhibition, for which been involved in some of the major historical the information is provided by the booklet events profiled in the new exhibition, wanted (Bjørklund 2000).7 A further interpretation to try out a museological narrative as a form is then given by the guides that can offer a of cultural critique (Ragazzi 2008:103).5 The synthesis that is adapted to the context of project was discursively influenced by processual reception (Nerici 2019). In fact, rather than anthropology theories6 and “was intended preferring a curatorial style centered around as a means of correcting public narratives ethnographic items, the choice was to show of the Sámi” (Bjørklund 2000:1). The main the curators’ interpretation of what led to the curators Harald Eidheim, Terje Brantenberg, realization of “Sápmi” through a multitude and Ivar Bjørklund had participated in the of references, connections, and contrasts consolidation of Sámi studies at the department (Eidheim et al. 2012:97). of social anthropology at the University of The conceptual design chosen for the Tromsø, having closely followed questions of set-up did not aim to be a mere aesthetic customary law, ecology of reindeer-herding, solution, nor an exercise of extravagant and Indigenous rights. Hence, a political formalism. Installations, audiovisual devices, dimension in the presentation of ethnography and interactive media were chosen to facilitate was taking hold at Tromsø University Museum the experience and fruition of heterogenous for the first time. visitors, with whom the museum wished to Sápmi – en nasjon blir til was the first communicate in the future. The imagined exhibition that featured the word “Sápmi” visitor was an educated adult intended to in its title, which is a central concept in the creatively elaborate his own interpretative development of the modern Sámi ethnopolitical strategies interacting with the exhibition movement. “Sápmi” is here intended as a (Hooper Greenhill 2003). In other words, the Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

140 latter turns the visitor into an active protagonist indeed, especially because its curators because the representations were considered and their assistants endured to guide and as “context of reception’s dependent” (Ragazzi publish on it a long time after its opening. 2008:101). The public and scholars began using the Sápmi – en nasjon blir til, to the best of our resources available to them in the following knowledge, is also one of the first exhibitions ways; external researchers were encouraged where a contemporary Indigenous movement to study it as an unprecedented endeavor in is profiled as protagonist. Curators, aware of “museological” ethnopolitics; students from the multiple discourses at stake, are taking the university visited and actively used its on the burden of such “successful” narratives, resources for their theses; master courses and they are not exempt from criticism for were held at the museum with the exhibition being biased, having refused a more neutral as laboratory (Ragazzi 2008). Moreover, positioning (Clifford 1988). In fact, the international visitors appreciated its novelty criticism raised by some after the opening as hundreds of comments show in the guest emphasized the political role of the curators, books. Importantly, Sámi and Indigenous disguised behind the feature of a narrative delegations visited it obligatorily when coming that “objectively wrote itself” but that actually to Tromsø University. In this way, from a hid their own authorial interpretation and temporary exhibition lasting five years, it protagonism in the events profiled (Mathisen became permanent, not only because of a self- 2001:44). imposed necessity (it worked well, after all, and However, in contrast to the USA, Australia the museum could not produce so many major or Canada, where the relationships between exhibitions so often), but because it renewed Indigenous communities and the state are more and expanded its relevance, also inspiring often conflictual, if not violent, those ones that curators in other Sámi museums, or other occur between the Sámi and the Norwegian museums treating Sámi topics, in Scandinavia State are less tense and facilitated by the role and Finland. of the Sámi Parliament and Sámi Council of The main set-up of the introductory room Culture. In fact, the presence of “a consultative is comprised of eleven large-size portraits team of Sámi as Indigenous representatives” displayed on the walls, depicting men and to monitor the exhibition was considered women with no particular distinctive elements unnecessary by Eidheim and his colleagues, that make them recognizable as Sámi (with even more because the Sámi Parliament had the exception of one woman sitting on a approved the project description before the snowmobile with a reindeer fur overall, that set-up started (Eidheim et al. 2012:112–113). makes her recognizable as a herder). For each Despite the originality of the topic, it was portrait, a wooden box is attached underneath, not easy to stimulate feedback from the Sámi showing through a porthole one item that establishment in the first years following the is supposed to belong to the corresponding opening. Press coverage diminished after portrait: it can be a tool, a children’s book, an the curiosity of the opening year and some ornament, a mysterious daily object, whose scholars wrote critically about it. It took some relation to each subject can only be imagined time before it could turn into an effective tool or speculated. for dissemination of knowledge. It happened, Curators do not use an explanatory mode, Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

but they wish to evoke, through references, 141 allusions and free associations of ideas, the significance of each given coupling between a portrayed person and his-her chosen personal item. (Fig. 5). Postures and mimics restitute ordinary profiles of people who are no longer obliged to pose in such a way that satisfies a need for exoticism, or to pose as a witness to their own alterity. Challenging the audience to recognize the ethnic identity of these subjects, the exhibition attempts to overturn essentializing Fig. 5. The exhibition Sápmi – en nasjon blir til: icons that museums and academies have The introduction room and the portraits. Photo: Giacomo Nerici. contributed to creating in the past, and that today are still circulating in the world of consumerism. and be recognized for their languages, style of Two computers make it possible to listen life, values and sustainability. What is utterly to the biographical accounts of several Sámi important is that they are referred to as “a people which relate to general questions people”, and not merely “a population”.8 each individual is invited to problematize. This caption with the paragraph of the Through this multimedia expedient, the voices Norwegian constitution is set on a graciously of the social actors break into the exhibition, curved wall at the end of the exhibition; on the interacting directly with the public. Despite wall there is a monumental photograph (which the communication being structured in a is cropped from its original) which shows rigid frame in which the protagonists can a Sámi woman holding a Sámi flag in the only briefly answer certain questions posed posture of a French Revolutionary Marianne. by the curators, the paradigm shift in the It was taken in Oslo in the 1990s, during the relation between audiences and cultural celebration of one of the most monocultural subjects is pretty radical when compared to events of the year: the 17th of May parade.9 Samekulturen, where the social actors were (Fig. 6a). reduced to mere nameless figures, deprived Harry Johansen, a photographer and film- of their own voice, and mostly featured to maker from the Tana region, explained that reinforce the ethnographers’ discourses. “the first time that somebody saw the Sámi flag One of the most iconic moments in the at the 17th of May Parade in Oslo” (Johansen exhibition is the final room where on display 2015) was in 1992 when he had travelled to is the Constitution paragraph 110a (1988), produce a multimedia advertisement for the leading to the establishment of a Sámi Sámi Parliament. Parliament in 1989. This celebratory closing Days before the national day celebration, of Sápmi – en nasjon blir til usually fascinates he made up a plan to shoot the advertisement even the most reluctant visitors because it involving Máret Guhtor and Roger Ludvigsen, celebrates the adhesion of legal protection for using a 300 mm lens and walkie talkies, since the Sámi people – a people who shall thrive there were no cell phones back then. Standing Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

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Fig. 6a. Photo (original frame): Harry Johansen.

by the royal castle in Oslo, he had told Máret did not know it had been staged. Hence, one to leave the sidewalk and enter the parade, can wrongly believe that the Sámi flag was majestically deploying a Sámi flag. Which authorized in the 17th of May parade without she did, but the whole procession behind her any problems then. On the contrary, several stopped, and an onlooker supposedly said: controversies have been debated in the years “Look, the Sámi are demonstrating again!” prior to and after the early 2000s, these debates Harry was simultaneously taking photos, but were whether the Sámi flag should be accepted a uniformed policeman came and told him or refused in several municipalities. “When sternly to leave the spot immediately. He had items are particularly iconic, or considered to therefore to call the others to come out, for the have symbolic authority, the ability to control job was done: “That picture is now hanging or influence how those objects are understood at Tromsø Museum, as part of the exhibition is important in the politics of community and Sápmi - en nasjon blir til” (Johansen 2015). group representation” (Smith 2006:263). (Fig. 6b). However, this image is not contextualized The last room of Sápmi – en nasjon blir with any caption that explains the story til, where the photo discussed above towers, behind it because the curators themselves is the conclusion of a path reconstructed Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

through a stratification of experiences and 143 historical moments that here seem to find their redemption. Archeologist Bjørnar Olsen remarks (2000:21) that this narration maintains a classic plot in its original style and content. In other words, the exhibition recomposes incoherent fragments of the past into a discursive narrative that make them part of an accessible story with even some romantic nuances: a heroic realization starting from a negative beginning until the final redemption. On the wall there is a miniature model of the wooden Sámi Parliament in Karasjok, and beside it is a suitcase filled with administrative documents, leaflets, and paperwork of various kinds, which point to such a narrative of redemption: “The suitcase Fig. 6b. Johansen’s photo as it is displayed in the of Ivar Simonsen, Bjerkvik. NRS representative exhibition Sápmi – en nasjon blir til. Adnan Icagic, at the Sámi Parliament, 1989–1993” says a Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum. label. The reference, highly symbolic, tells how the presence of Sámi people, from insignificant, disunited, and marginal, have Sámi Stories reached success affirming themselves in a In the contemporary moment, exhibitions political and constitutional frame, all thanks to have explored and widened their politics of a representative body. If until that moment it display, departing from previous decades was the singular initiative or small committees where “objects” were not deemed to be so that supported the struggle for an identity central to new ways of performing materiality appropriation, now the duty was undertaken through interventions of artists, or art curators. by an official institution whose governance “We” as a unifying and inclusive designation, is Indigenous. This seems to demonstrate became gradually more prominent than how the Sámi have grounded their presence “The Others and Us” or other dichotomizing in an institutional frame that enshrines expressions such as “the West and the Rest” their visibility, both within and outside of (Hall 1992). This stance informed the ethics the national borders. The images chosen in of representation and the role of the museum that room of Sápmi – en nasjon blir til, can in impacting society “not solely through the be read as a sensible frame in relation to the objects but, more importantly, with ideas portraits exposed in the introductory room. – notions of what the world is or should be” In fact, it seems that the visitors, after having (Lidchi 1997: 160). (Fig. 7). experienced a cumulative historical account, Sámi Stories (2014) was born out of the can finally recognize the political, social and wish of the curators of Sápmi – en nasjon blir cultural background in which those portraits til to create an international traveling version moved in the then contemporary society. of it. The then director of Tromsø University Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

144 offers a unique definition of Indigenous and Minority rights.10 The curators belonged to two main disciplinary fields: ethnography/ethnology, anthropology, and history of art and craft. In the beginning, they thought to keep the two different topics separateed, one ethnographic and the other devoted to art. However, they progressively realized that they could echo each other because of Sámi materiality and heritage itself (Hauan: p.c. 2018). They felt that the material culture aspects of Sápmi - en nasjon blir til were not highlighted enough, and so they decided to choose among the most prominent ethnographic items of the Fig. 7. New York, 2014. Sámi Stories: Photo: Rossella Tromsø University Museum Sámi collections Ragazzi. (Storm & Isaksen 2014:91): three old dolls, a fine milk bowl, a knife, a baby cradle and the Museum, folklorist Marit A. Hauan, took the rare ceremonial drum normally exhibited in initiative to support their wish and she came Samekulturen. Despite several newly-made on board and also involved the Northern Sámi hats were ordered from expert duojar Norwegian Museum of Art and its curator (Sámi artisans), the artefacts of Vorren’s Charis Gullickson. Another collaboration exhibition has a central role in Sámi Stories was established with the Centre for Northern because the curators wanted to underline a Peoples/Senter for Nordlige Folk in Mannda- precise continuity with past by giving a different len. frame and new meanings to traditional objects Out of this synergy, Sámi Stories includes, of Samekulturen. beside ethnographic objects, a major section The curators considered the genealogy of of contemporary Sámi art as well. A rich the various major Sámi exhibitions in their catalogue in two volumes also accompanies museum, looking retrospectively to their the exhibition whose imagined audience predecessors, to the references that the two is educated, cosmopolitan, international, exhibitions in the museum had generated. Indigenous-friendly, and English speaking. To know that, as Hauan says, “Iver Jåks had The project was launched and financed during drawn the milk bowl dozens of times, until it the Norwegian Constitutional Jubilee, “an became perfect” gave them the inspiration to occasion for a massage of our national muscles pay respect to the multiple forms of art that for setting the Sámi nation on the table” (Hauan, are not highlighted in mainstream art history personal communication 2018). Norway has (Guttorm 1999). The elements that are so one of the oldest constitutions in the world and present in Sámi material life: leather, wood, concerning Indigenous issues one of the best: textile, and especially the round forms (drum, the paragraph § 118 (previously titled 110a) milk-bowl, cradle and jewels) were thought vernacularly known as the “Sámi paragraph” through carefully and given variations in form Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

materiality and intangibility they embody, 145 and simultaneously, they are agents for new relations, events, and stories. To display is not necessarily only presenting, but also to realize, to reveal something that the materiality and cultural specificity of the subjects in display are able to manifest and eventually impose from inside their cultural universe. Curators who are able to listen and see these signs are then opening for an explorative practice in their work. This realization can lead to decolonizing collections. In this line, Sámi Stories became a unique endeavor in the chain of the three exhibitions. The choice of “fusing” the two main aspects Fig. 8. Iver Jåks, preparatory drawings for the of Samekulturen and Sápmi – en nasjon blir exhibition Samekulturen. Photo: Olga Kvalheim, Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum. til by enlarging the ethnographic display with works of Sámi art, and with documents and texts about the emancipatory history and materials. The stages of life were also of Sámi people, gave rise to an expansion of brought in: childhood, adulthood, elderly time horizons from different audiences. Moreover, (Oskal 2014). (Fig. 8). it seems that it rendered more visible some Sámi Stories was intended to travel and of the cosmopolitan aspects of Sámi material to be shown in New York, Anchorage culture (Gullickson & Wei-Hsin Din 2015). and Tromsø, each time with correlating When asked what she thinks was missing from seminars, performances, workshops, concerts Sámi stories, Hauan said that the geopolitical and screenings of Sámi films. The itinerant dimension is not treated as it should and she character of this exhibition calls to mind the regrets it. Although the two long videos with so-called “objets ambassadeurs”.11 These types Ole H. Magga and Mari Boine presented in of artefacts are intended to travel around the the exhibition treated the important topics of world with the idea of enabling knowledge politics and music, these themes are not really about Kanak culture by means of a wandering appearing in other sections of the exhibitions, heritage, unbound from a specific museum nor is literature and poetry, which are also very infrastructure that must return to ”regenerate” important expressions of the contemporary and then leave, continuing to feed new and Sámi culture. Thus, as Hauan stated, if she had old bonds (Paini & Aria 2014: 10). Similarly to to redo the exhibition, these aspects would the travelling objects of the Kanak people, the be much more prominent, together with items on display in Sámi Stories belong to the bringing the work of younger Sámi artists new revaluation of materiality, the “thing-turn”, and poets into display. This curation took for a way of conceiving the artifacts themselves as granted that cosmopolitanism is the new arena “contact zones” (Clifford 1997). They enact for Indigenous questions, and certainly the the knowledge(s) that created them, whose Sámi were from early on in the Indigenous Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

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Fig. 9. Ole Henrik Magga, former President of the Sámi Parliament, held a speech at the opening of Sápmi – en Nasjon blir til. Photo: Adnan Icagic, Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum.

movement. They still are among the most (Marstine 2011) and appropriate museology internationally active promoters of political (Kreps 2008). Although most museum experts action in a “pan-Indigenous” perspective, still are not from an Indigenous background, even if this is not the only reality of most of and despite one knows a lot about the artefacts Indigenous people. (Fig. 9). on display, it is hardly enough to completely render the epistemologies and lived experience that created or constantly transformed them The role of the visitors and re-installed their raison d’être. One of the Museums are evolving and developing in quests of the three exhibitions initiated by most parts of the world, especially Indigenous Tromsø University Museum, in retrospect, oriented museums. This is in itself a buoyant was of reflecting in different ways on such time to think of new ways of exhibiting, to raisons d’être, and on their multiple systems practice zones of contact, to make smaller of knowledge. In the questionnaires that we and larger corrections to conventional ways of asked visitors to compile for both permanent display. Many interesting perspectives about exhibitions at the Tromsø University Museum, this point have emerged in the last decades, of and from the conversations and dialogues we relevance are the perspective of museum ethics recorded in Sámi Stories, we have tried to grasp Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

some of the important feedback that were the risk of commodification thereof, but also 147 generated in the fruition of these presentations. the ethno-political innovative thinking of the What did the public experience in these Sámi as a cutting-edge Indigenous people in three exhibitions? What type of interpretations many domains. It also shows some relevant do the visitors develop in the fruition of the close-ups, in the art-work and in video- representation of Sámi culture? How are the interviews, through the accounts of two well- tactics deployed in negotiating meanings about known people among all Norwegian-Sámi, the set-ups? What are the modalities in which two internationally known “ambassadors” these exhibitions succeed in problematizing or of art-music (Mari Boine) and Indigenous even disrupting assumptions from the visitors? politics (Ole H. Magga). Their interviews have Samekulturen was meant for the Sámi the flavor of confessional storytelling and to be visible, respected, proud, even if the assume that difficult stories are part of one’s presentation was somehow stereotyped and identity, material life, agency and that they many people would not necessarily recognize feed the present. themselves in it. Despite the nobility of The knowledge resting on images heavily Vorren’s endeavor, the Sámi culture seems to conditioned by consumerist icons can be the be suspended in a time and space other than background for many of the non-Sámi visitors in Scandinavia where there is no mention of that constitute the majority of the audience oppression, colonialization, and injustice, in these exhibitions. Reindeer herding, craft, which the Sámi people have experienced traditional clothes, and nomadic implements over centuries. The exhibition addresses both are only some of the most popular standards Nordic and Sámi audiences, even if individual that circulate in the domain of cultural stories are not profiled and there are no “close consumption. up” displays where visitors could encounter As anthropologist Kjell Olsen emphasizes individual Sámi perspectives. Sápmi – en (2003:7), the stereotypes that insist on the nasjon blir til was instead an attempt to address traditional culture end up affecting the the ongoing difficult communication between ordinary life and manifest an asymmetric the two communities: Sámi and Norwegian. relation between a tourist and a generic Sámi Among them, the consistent problems of “other” as well as between the representation identity, questioning Sámi belonging. The of a supposed Sámi essence, against the exhibition also illustrates that this ethnic assumptions defining Western society. group is heterogenous. Many of these difficult Referring to these stereotypes, the experience stories and experiences can be listened to in of the audience in these exhibitions has the interviews provided by the exhibition demonstrated that the museums could be the in three languages: Sámi, Norwegian and authoritative arena to confirm such prejudices, English.12 Those interviews bring us closer to or vice versa, to challenge them. Indeed, the singular perspectives, equally presented museums cannot avoid adhering to models in terms of language, political views, gender, of “packaged culture” diffused by the tourism work, age and regional Sámi background. Sámi market through stereotyped icons (Simonicca Stories was conceived of for a foreign audience. 2004:21). Despite this, the comments of the It was a highly aestheticizing presentation, visitors show that they may also find elements stressing the avant-garde aspects of Sámi art, to contest this representation, searching to Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

148 understand who the Sámi people are and of the “de-coding” with the polyphony of voices how they live. The current comments on of visitors (who mostly ignore local history), the guest books and to the guides that also make the articulations of the exhibition even collected many of them can be considered as more complex and diverse. What happens an example of this. Indeed, even if they are is that, despite the intention of the curators mainly judgements influenced by the filter of to present the ethno-political process of the cultural industry, they demonstrate ways emancipation of the Sámi people, many to consider Samekulturen as an arena to learn visitors appropriated the theme through a new things about the past, as Ørnulf Vorren personal involvement based on the experience had wished. of cultural belonging, political positioning, and In Sápmi – en nasjon blir til, the audiovisual biographical events. These diverse outcomes devices, the conceptual design, and the were somehow unforeseeable by the curators. symbolic cross-references that objects and The museum, as an “organizer of knowledge” themes propose, allow the visitors to come cannot prescind from the public, for it is closer to the stories and events. Many visitors inevitably attracted in a hermeneutical circle express compassion toward the accounts as an integral component of the process of they hear in the video-interviews. The fruition (Ragazzi 2008). This was in fact one multiplicity of voices from spectators that have of the main museological concepts that Harald appreciated or dissented from the presentation Eidheim highlighted when conceiving Sápmi are important indicators of how this set-up – en nasjon blir til. The educational character makes different categories of visitors feel more of exhibitions can be summed up as follows: familiar with the subjects. If for Norwegians “Entering, one cannot see the whole world, but or Sámi people living in the region, the exhibit once out of the museum, one starts to discern mostly reflects a narrative about events that something that was previously fragmented, are known, even though they are told with a learning to search further” (Clemente & Rossi deployment of political attributes, then for 1999). the foreign visitor the Sámi culture is rather a Moreover, it is important to realize how term of comparison to rethink the experiences exhibitions can contribute to images of the of other known populations, or simply future, because museums often mainly present familiar and imagined ones. This approach images of the past. Among the hundreds of generated both critical comments (like those comments collected over nearly twenty years of Argentinian visitors irritated by the presence in the Tromsø University Museum guest of a Che Guevara’s icon in the exhibition), but books, one , associated with Sápmi - en nasjon also comments that reflect a sense of solidarity blir til, may say something about the long- on the part of visitors when comparing the lasting effects it had on the public sphere: ethnopolitical history of the Sámi movements “May Norwegians and other Scandinavians with movements in Indigenous communities continue to recognize Sámi rights!” Without in Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc. reaching too far for a possible interpretation, Following Stuart Hall (2006) and matching this short incitement reminds the museum the moment of “encoding” of an ideal public that, alas, it is mostly the responsibility of each (the one that knows well its local history) with State to safeguard Indigenous rights that took the intentions of the curators, and the moment a century to be recognized. Without such a Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

mandate, no ethnographic exhibition would because “People” is more conceptual and 149 represent the evidence of a long gone past, a cohesive, while “population” more quantitative, past which is still very much living outside the and administratively inflected. walls of the museum. 9. It is not a photo-montage, but it turns out, a staged event and a political performance as we are Notes going to explain later. 10. In the exhibition Sápmi – en nasjon blir til the 1. Together with Harald Eidheim were Terje caption has not been updated. In fact, today that Brantenberg, Dikka Storm, Johan Albert paragraph is named § 118. The text explaining the Kaldstad, and Ivar Bjørklund. correction reads (original New Norwegian): ”Dei 2. For a more detailed analysis of Vorren’s ideas statlege styres maktene skal leggje til rette for at and on his exhibition Samekulturen, the role of den Samiske folkegruppa kan tryggje og utvikle Tromsø Museum in the years before it became Samisk språk, kultur og samfunnsliv”. (Endra part of the university see Trude Fonneland’s med grunnlovsvedtak 6 mai 2014 kunngjort article, in this volume (2019). The book med res. 9 mai 2014 nr. 613, vedtak 27 mai Samekulturen was newly re-edited in 1976 and 2014 kunngjort med res. 20 juni 2014 nr. 778, translated into several languages. innhalde til tidlegere § 108 står noi § 118, med 3. Although Vorren was himself highly respected aninnhaldether tidlegeresto i § 110 a.) by many Sámi, having grown up in Sápmi and 11. “Objets ambassadeurs” of the Centre Culturel speaking North Sámi, he thought of ethnographic Jean-Marie Tjibaou (CCT) of Noumea (New description as impartial and objective, not Caledonia). considering “subjective experiences”. 12. They are also available in the website of the 4. Peter Vergo indicated with this concept the exhibition and in this current time when the “state of widespread dissatisfaction with the Truth Commission about forced assimilation has ‘old’ museology, both within and outside the been created and is at work, these interviews prove museum profession...what is wrong with the ‘old’ to be invaluable documents about this topic. museology is that it is too much about museum 13. They are not simply stories that impose methods, and too little about the purposes of themselves as urban legends, but accounts that are museums...” (1989: 3) experienced on the skin, in the heart, in the mind, 5. Some of them were also militants during the Alta on the pathways of the wind, in the harshness of case, and they had written reports, media articles the streets, by a séidi leaning on a remote fjord, and books that addressed the questions for which or in an assembly with hundreds of Indigenous the Alta’s was the case in point. people at the FN permanent Forum. 6. Ivar Bjørklund and Terje Brantenberg were 14. Signed by Joanna K. and Richmond H., Ontario, in particular influenced by such a paradigm, Canada, 2013. stemming from the theories of F.Barth, H. Eidheim and R.Paine References 7. The catalogue authored by Ivar Bjørklund in Norwegian, is translated in Sámi, German, Exhibitions: Japanese, English, French and Italian. 1973. Samekulturen. Ongoing. Curator: Ørnulf 8. In Norwegian the words are “folk” and Vorren. “befolkning”, this distinction being important 2000. Sápmi – en Nasjon blir til. Ongoing. Curators: Rossella Ragazzi & Giacomo Nerici

150 Terje Brantenberg; Ivar Bjørklund, Harald Samekulturen. A social actor at the Tromsø Eidheim, Johan Albert Kalstad, Dikka Storm. University Museum: Knowledge production, www.sapmi.uit.no Website resource opened in and shifting circumstances”. Nordic Museologi 3, 2007. Editor: Terje Brantenberg. 118–133. 2014. Sámi Stories: Art and Identity of an Arctic People. Gullickson, Charis & Sandra Lorentzen (eds.) 2014. Curators: Marit A. Hauan and Charis Gullickson. Sámi Stories: Art and Identity of an Arctic People. Traveling Exhibition 2014–2016, produced by Stamsund: Orkana. Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum og Tromsø Museum Gullickson, Charis & Herminia Wei-Hsin Din 2015. – Universitetsmuseet. Shown at Scandinavian “Rethinking Sámi cultures in museums.” Nordisk House, New York; Anchorage University Museologi 2, 84–95. Museum; Tromsø University Museum. Guttorm, Gunvor 1999. “Duodji/Sámi handicraft – A part of the whole. Gába 1, 37–39. Interviews Hall, Stuart 1992. “The West and the Rest: Discourse Rossella Ragazzi, interviews with Harald Eidheim and power.” In Stuart Hall & Bram Gieben (eds.). (2006); Terje Brantenberg (2006, 2018), Ivar Formations of Modernity. Cambridge: Open Bjørklund (2007); Marit A. Hauan (2018). University Press/Polity Press, 184–227. Giacomo Nerici, interviews with Rossella Ragazzi Hall, Stuart 2006, ”Codifica e decodifica.” In (2018), Ivar Bjørklund (2018). Stuart Hall (ed.). Il soggetto e la differenza. Per Ole Henrik Magga, video-interview in Sámi Stories, un’archeologia degli studi culturali e postcoloniali. by Marit A. Hauan and Rossella Ragazzi (2013). Roma: Meltemi, 66–83. Mari Boine video-interview in Sámi Stories, by Marit Hooper-Greenhill, Eilean (2003) “Nuovi valori, nuove A. Hauan and Rossella Ragazzi (2013). voci, nuove narrative: l’evoluzione dei modelli comunicativi nei musei d’arte”. In Simona Bodo Literature (ed.). Il museo relazionale. Riflessioni ed esperienze Bjørklund, Ivar 2000. Sápmi - en nasjon blir til (Sápmi europee. Torino: Fondazione G. Agnelli. – Becoming a Nation). Tromsø: Tromsø Museum. Johansen, Harry 2015. Det Samiske flagget. Govas. Clemente, Pietro & Emanuela Rossi 1999. Il terzo Blog: govas.no principio della museografia. Roma: Carocci. Karp, Ivan & Steven D. Lavine (eds.) 1991. Exhibiting Clifford, James 1988. The Predicament of Culture: Cultures: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Display. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Art. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Press. Clifford, James 1997. Routes: Travel and Translation Karp, Ivan, Christine Mullen Kreamer & Steven D. in the Late Century. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Lavine (eds.) 1992. Museums and Communities: University Press. The Politics of Public Culture. Washington & Eidheim, Harald, Ivar Bjørklund & Terje Brantenberg London: Smithsonian Institution Press. 2012. “Negotiating with the public - Ethnographic Kreps, Christina 1998. “Museum-making and museums and ethnopolitics.” Museum & Society indigenous curation in Central Kalimantan, 10:2, 95–120. Indonesia.” Museum Anthropology 22:1, 5–17. Fabian, Johannes 1983. Time and the Other, How Kreps, Christina 2003. Liberating Culture: Cross- Anthropology Makes its Object. New York: Cultural Perspectives on Museums, Curation and Columbia University Press. Heritage Preservation. London: Routledge. Fonneland, Trude 2019. “The exhibition Kreps, Christina 2008. “Appropriate museology in Discourses, practices and performances in Sámi museology at Tromsø University Museum

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Religion of the past or living heritage?

Dissemination of knowledge on Sámi religion in museums in Northern Finland

Tiina Äikäs

Abstract: In recent years we have witnessed a growing contemporary use of Sámi offering places by various actors, for example tourists, the local population and contemporary pagans. Hence, sites that the heritage authorities and researchers have seen as belonging to the past have gained new relevance. Nevertheless, Sámi religion is often presented in museums in relation to history and prehistory. Sámi culture has been presented in museums and exhibitions since the nineteenth century. In pointing out that this long history of museum displays affects how Sámi culture is presented in contemporary museums, Nika Potinkara (2015:41) suggests that we can renew, comment on or question the old presentations. This article explores the representations of Sámi religion in four museums and exhibitions in Northern Finland, and will answer the following research question: How is Sámi religion presented and what kind of themes are present? Here museums are studied as arenas for the dissemination of results of knowledge production. What kind of image of Sámi religion do they share?

Keywords: Sámi religion, representation, archaeology, exhibition, museum shops.

In recent years we have witnessed a growing static and abandoned set of beliefs instead of a use of Sámi offering places by various actors, worldview that still influences culture, art and for example the local population, tourists and individual spirituality. contemporary pagans1 (Äikäs 2015, Äikäs & Sámi culture has been presented in museums Spangen 2016). Hence, sites that the heritage and exhibitions since the nineteenth century authorities and researchers have seen as (see for example Silvén 2008, 2014; Potinkara belonging to the past have gained new 2015). Nika Potinkara (2015:41) finds that this relevance. Nevertheless, Sámi religion is often long history of museum displays affects how presented in museums in relation to history Sámi culture is presented in contemporary and prehistory. This creates a picture of a museums and suggests that we can renew, Religion of the past or living heritage?

comment on or question the old presentations. and exhibitions in northern parts of Finland: 153 This article will explore the representations of Sámi museum Siida and the Nature Centre of Sámi religion in museums and exhibitions in Metsähallitus in Inari, Samiland exhibition in Finland, and answer the following research Levi, Arktikum in Rovaniemi, and the Museum question: How is Sámi religion represented and of Northern Ostrobothnia in Oulu. These what kind of themes are present? The themes include a Sámi museum, provincial museums that are found in each museum or exhibition, and an exhibition that is part of the UNESCO will be analysed and then the museums will Observatory Cultural Village programme. The be examined as arenas for the dissemination latter has been created by an individual Sámi, of results of knowledge production. What but it offers an interesting comparison to the kind of image of Sámi religion do they share? official museum exhibitions as it is related Representations are culturally and politically to contemporary use of Sámi mythology for constructed, and are always made from a artistic and commercial purposes. specific perspective (Nieminen & Pantti One room in the Museum of Northern 2009:120‒121; Rönkä 2014:14). Sámi religion Ostrobothnia (Pohjois-Pohjanmaan museo, has been a topic of interest for researchers from PPM) houses a Lapland exhibition that was different disciplines, including archaeology, built in 1983–1984. The focus of the exhibition folklore and religious studies (e.g. Rydving is not on Sámi culture per se but on the work 1993; Fossum 2006; Äikäs 2015). These fields of the local schoolteacher and ethnographer have traditionally concentrated on the study of Samuli Paulaharju (1875–1944) whose collec- the past, a fact that might have contributed to tions are the basis for the exhibition. In the perseverance of pastness in the exhibitions addition to Sámi artefacts, the exhibition of Sámi religion. includes Paulaharju’s study and a noaidi grave I approach the image of Sámi religion in that was not part of Paulaharju’s work but was three museums and one exhibition in Northern excavated in 1970. When the museum was Finland by highlighting common themes renewed at the turn of the twenty-first century, that are articulated in museum exhibitions. the Lapland exhibition was left more or less as These cases from Finland offer a good point it was, as a museum inside a museum. Early in of departure, where the findings can be 2018, eleven Quick Response codes were added compared to other Nordic countries. Apart as part of the exhibition. When visitors open from the exhibition spaces, symbols of Sámi the link behind a QR code with a smartphone, religion can also be found in the museum they find stories about a “firefox”, a mythical shops so I will also present which themes are fox that created northern lights with its tail. selected for commercial use. Finally, I will The stories depict Sámi culture and history in a draw conclusions as to what kind of picture the way that is suitable for children. The QR codes, exhibitions offer of Sámi religion. created in collaboration with the museum, early childhood education students and the primary teacher education programme at Selected museums and exhibitions the University of Oulu, include tasks and The material for this article consists of data supplementary material that teachers can that I have collected by documenting items and use. In August 2019, the Lapland exhibition posters presenting Sámi religion in museums was dismounted and the objects more or less Tiina Äikäs

154 banished to the storerooms. The future of the culture, history and mythology of the Sámi. exhibition has not yet been decided but its Built as part of the UNESCO Observatory previous use is seen as outdated and not suited Cultural Village programme, it opened its for presenting Sámi culture (Taanila 2019). doors in 2011 close to the Levi Summit and The Arktikum museum and science centre Hotel Levi Panorama. It consists of exhibitions was opened in Rovaniemi in 1992. The about Sámi mythology, reindeer herding, Inari regional museum of Lapland that was founded Sámi, Skolt Sámi and mountain Sámi as well as in 1975 is situated here. The central themes of an outdoor exhibition with a 300-metre long the museum are the cultural history and nature step trail where visitors can see Sámi buildings of Lapland (Kotivuori 2012). Sámi religion and in wintertime reindeer. The man behind is presented in the current main exhibition the exhibition, reindeer herder and author Pohjoiset keinot (Northern Ways, on display Ante Aikio, has also written novels about since 2003), which was partly under renovation Sámi mythology.2 Hence, it is no surprise at the time the data material was collected, that mythology and religion are also evident hence the information relating to this exhibition in Samiland, although mainly as a separate is based on personal communication with the exhibition space. The exhibition area for Sámi museum director Hannu Kotivuori (2018). mythology was created in cooperation with The exhibition is divided into three regional Goranus Oy and opened in 2013. It presents sections: Rovaniemi, Southern Lapland and topics and figures of Sámi mythology with Upper Lapland, of which Upper Lapland has a strong visual emphasis on the characters objects and posters relating to Sámi religion created by Goranus, a company whose mission and early Christianity. is to increase people’s awareness of Sámi The Sámi Museum, located in Inari, Finland, mythology. established in 1959 by the Sámi Association (or Samii Litto), was opened to the public in 1962 Rock art and drums (see Harlin & Lehtola 2019 in this volume). It started as an open-air museum exhibiting Noaidi drums (goavdásat) are evident in all Sámi buildings and artefacts. In 1998, a new the studied exhibitions in some way or other, museum building with exhibition and research either the authentic drums, objects used for spaces and other services was opened for drumming, replicas of drums or pictures of visitors and thus was the Sámi museum Siida drums or their symbols. The relation between and Nature Centre of Metsähallitus born rock art and motifs on Sámi drums has been (Jomppanen 2000). The museum, run by Sámi discussed by archaeologists; some scholars see professionals, aims to strengthen the well-being that even though there is a chronological and and identity of the Sámi community (Magnani spatial distance between them, the similarity of et al. 2018:164). In Siida, Sámi religion is motifs on rock art and Sámi drums points to presented in two permanent exhibitions: the a cultural continuation of ritual tradition (see cultural section of the main exhibition and in for example Luho 1971, Núñez 1995, Lahelma the introductory exhibition, which provides 2008, Joy 2017). Despite the vast time difference a timeline for the history of northern culture between Stone Age rock art (in Finland, the and displays archaeological finds. rock art has been dated to approx. 5000–1500 The Samiland exhibition in Levi presents the BC using shore displacement chronology, Religion of the past or living heritage?

155

Fig. 1. A larger-than-life-size drum and mythological figures in the Samiland exhibition in Levi. Photo Tiina Äikäs, 2017. Tiina Äikäs

156 Lahelma 2008) and historical Sámi drums, room, temporarily closed at the moment, has pictures of rock art are displayed in exhibitions contained a picture of a drum from Utsjoki, an of Sámi religion, sometimes without any authentic drum hammer, indicator rings used additional information on how they relate for drumming and pieces of bone (Kotivuori to Sámi religion. When a connection to rock personal communication 2018). The posters art is made in an exhibition, it gives visitors relating to the noaidi burial ground in PPM an impression of a long tradition of Sámi show a picture of a noaidi with his drum and religion. For example, in Samiland, a photo of a photo and drawing of the hammer that was Alta rock carvings is included in a poster of found in the burial ground. Sámi mythology without further explanation. In Siida, the use of drums is presented in Alta is a UNESCO World Heritage site along a separate case with figures, text, a chart of the Alta fjord, in Norway, with vast rock art different drum types and a drum. In a press panels that have thousands of carvings of interview, the curator of the museum at the humans, reindeer, fish, birds, boats and so time, Arja Jomppanen, was asked about the on (Helskog 2014). These well-known figures ethical presentation of a drum in a museum offer a significant mental reference point for exhibition. She saw no ethical problems in the the prehistory of Sámi religion. display of sacred objects that had already been The connection between drums and rock art removed from their context in the seventeenth is also evident in PPM, where the text related century. Nevertheless, the special nature of to the QR code 8 (QR-koodi 8: Samaani ja the object is taken into consideration through saamelaiset uskomukset 2017) states that “old the way it is exhibited: it is presented in a rock paintings, sacred places and drum figures neutral way without staging and installation tell us about the Sámi worldview” (translation (Keräilijät pelastivat saamelais-rummun by the author). Here the connection between polttamiselta 2013). Here it seems that the rock art and the Sámi worldview is directly museum authorities have seen the staging of a stated. ritual scene as disrespectful. The idea appears Noaidi drums, one of the most well-known to be that a museum exhibit that is distanced elements of Sámi religion, have long been from the past and somehow sterilised is objects of interest amongst museum collectors; more respectful than one that enlivens the they have been collected since the seventeenth interpretation of the past. and eighteenth centuries when their value as a Drums have also proved suitable for inter- collector’s item grew because they were seen as active museum exhibitions. Samiland has a instruments related to superstition (see Silvén touch screen where visitors can obtain more 2012, Nordin & Ojala 2018). Today symbols information about the figures by pressing found on the drums are used as decorations the corresponding symbol. In PPM, rock art, on souvenirs, jewellery, home textiles and so drums and sacred places are mentioned in the on. In the exhibitions, drums are often situated story of the firefox, QR code 8 (QR-koodi 8: in a prominent place, and when no drums are Samaani ja saamelaiset uskomukset 2017). As actually available, there are pictures of drums an interactive element, children are encouraged and of their motifs and replicas. In Samiland, to use some part of their own body (e.g. arm, for example, there is a larger-than-life-size leg, stomach) as a drum and test what kind of drum (fig. 1). In Arktikum, the so-called Yoik rhythms they can create, and to drum together. Religion of the past or living heritage?

As the popularity of drums in museum Sámi handicraft (duodji) tradition (Magga 157 displays is evident, it is hardly surprising that 2018) and hence the use of drum motifs could symbols from drums are also to be found in be seen in relation to the commercial use of the museum shops. The Siida museum shop other symbols. has postcards of the artwork “Poika” (a boy) by Merja Aletta Ranttila that depicts a little Sámi Sacred places, offerings and boy with a noaidi drum. Stein R. Mathisen treasures (2015:192) describes the boy’s expression as one of peaceful harmony. He makes a Exhibiting sacred places and burial remains in distinction between the idyllic depiction of museums raises ethical questions concerning noaidi practices in the artwork and the violent repatriation and the sharing of sacred and history of witch trials. A postcard by Irene secret knowledge (see for example Ladd Kangasniemi, portraying Aikia Aikianpoika 2001; Gabriel & Dahl 2008; Silvén 2012). (1591–1671) with his drum, depicts this other Instead of real sieidi stones, contemporary side of noaidi history. Aikia was a noaidi who museums often exhibit photos of sieiddit taken was sentenced to death by the authorities at the in situ, replicas or authentic archaeological Kemi public assembly (Fi. käräjät) allegedly objects, such as offerings from excavations at for using spells to kill a peasant who had not sieddit. The collections of Nordiska Museet in paid him the fee he promised when Aikia had Stockholm, for example, have nearly 40 sieiddit helped him with magic to have luck catching but only one is on display (Silvén 2012). Photos salmon. Aikia said that he had made the man of sacred places are displayed in Samiland, fall down from a salmon weir and drown by Siida and Arktikum. There are altogether eight using a drum and singing (Mäntylä 1997). photos of sacred places, mainly sieiddit but also Despite the dark history of destroying a sacred sáiva lake and a sacred island. Only the drums and condemning people for using sieidi of Taatsi, Kittilä is present in more than them, today the drums have acquired more one museum, in Samiland and in Arktikum. In positive connotations. They are used in artistic Arktikum, there is also a picture from Johannes performances (Mathisen 2015) as well as in Schefferus’ book Lapponia (1673) where a man contemporary shamanistic practices where is kneeling in front of an offering site (fig. 2). In drumming courses are organised, for non- addition, there is a replica of a sacred spring in Sámi people as well (Äikäs et al. 2018). The the Inari Sámi section of Samiland and replicas symbols on drums have frequently been of carved wooden poles in the outdoor section. used for commercial purposes (Silvén 2012), Originally, similar wooden poles could have which has fuelled a discussion on the cultural worked as sieiddit or as fishing statues. appropriation of Sámi cultural elements Arktikum also has a photo of a stone circle (Mathisen 2015:205). In the Siida museum from Urroaivi in Utsjoki where altogether shop, the wide collection of artefacts made eighteen stone circles were found in 2004. by local artisans includes rings and pendants Archaeologist Taisto Karjalainen (2007) has that are decorated with symbols from noaidi suggested that one possible explanation for the drums. This is an example of the commercial stone circles is that they served as an offering use of the drums, also in a Sámi context. The place. He refers to the earlier interpretations commercial use of Sámi motifs is part of the of stone circles by Ørnulv Vorren and Hans Tiina Äikäs

158 Kristian Eriksen (1993) as equivalents from Norway. In more recent research, archaeologist Marte Spangen (2016) has suggested that the stone circles in Norway are rather wolf traps than offering places. However, this research was not available when the exhibition was built. In Siida, two silver finds have gained a prominent place in the introductory exhibition. The late Iron Age silver treasure of Nanguniemi, found in 2003 by the local writer Fig. 2. A man is kneeling in front of an offering place from Johannes Schefferus’ book Lapponia (1673). © Seppo Saraspää, and the silver head ornament 2019 Tromsø Museum, UiT / CC BY-NC-ND 3.0. found at the sacred Ukonsaari island in 1873, are displayed in separate glass cases. The silver treasure consists of four neck rings made of In September 2018, on the 15th anniversary braided silver wires. They were placed on a of the finding of the Nanguniemi treasure, birch bark plate inside a small cave. The birch Siida organised a small public seminar and a bark was dated to 1160–1280 AD. The silver host of products based on the find were made treasure is not interpreted as an offering but to be sold in the museum shop (Nanguniemen as a cache of a local or a passer-by (Ojanlatva kätkön löytymisestä 15 vuotta, 2018). The 2003, cf. Spangen 2009). Caches and treasures products include beanies, shirts, necklaces, are often given ritual associations by the public earrings, reflectors and postcards with the so perhaps the offering place interpretation decorative elements from the find (fig. 3). The is raised, and disproved, in the poster text: idea to productize this find came from the local “Nothing at the place where the cache was entrepreneur and the museum, both seeing the found points to its use as an offering place” find and its placement in the local museum as (translation by the author). One of the important for the people in Inari. displayed silver finds, the head ornament from Sacred places are presented in the Siida main Ukonsaari, is, however, most likely related to exhibition in a glass case with text, photos of the offering tradition connected to the island. sacred places, a wooden sieidi and a bear skull The late Iron Age filigree decoration dates the depicting an offering. The original location of silver head ornament to the latter half of the the sieidi, a carved wooden pole, is unknown. thirteenth century. The dating is somewhat It has been in the museum collections since the earlier than the bone finds, which were early 1960s (Guttorm personal communication excavated in 2006 and are evidence of ritual 2019). A carved wooden pole is also exhibited activity on the island from the fourteenth to the in Arktikum where the text related to this early seventeenth centuries (Okkonen 2007). ‘fishing statue’ describes the beliefs related When the head ornament was found in 1873 to fishing. These wooden poles, described as by the young Arthur Evans, it ended up in the keripää, fishing statues, fishing gods or fishing Ashmolean Museum in Oxford but has been sieidi are mainly connected to the Sámi offering on loan at Siida since 2000 (Carpelan 2003:89; tradition, but in some cases also to more Guttorm personal communication 2019). southern agricultural groups (Kotivuori 2003). Religion of the past or living heritage?

Burials In the museums studied here, human 159 remains are only on display in PPM, where a In addition to offerings and sacred places, skeleton of a Sámi noaidi has been placed in a the display of human remains, especially glass case together with the grave goods. The of indigenous origin, also call for ethical grave, found in Lehtoniemi in Kuusamo in considerations. From the early nineteenth 1970, is interpreted as belonging to a noaidi century to the early twentieth century, human burial based on its location, on an isolated remains were collected on a wide scale and in island, and the grave finds, the hammer of a the colonial worldview of that time, indigenous noaidi’s drum and bronze indicator rings human remains were seen on a par with the (Kopisto 1971; Niinimäki et al. 2010). The flora and fauna that were collected (Fforde & grave has been dated to the late sixteenth Hubert 2006:83). Later, since the 1980s, voices century based on a coin associated with it; have been raised for the repatriation and the bones have not been dated. In the English reburial of indigenous human remains – also exhibition texts, the man is described as in Finland (Tymchuk 1984; Fforde & Hubert having been a shaman. Separate text tables 2006:87; Ruohonen 2012). are used to inform about the use of the drum In Arktikum, the Mukkala burial ground is and the hammer and about the Lehtoniemi presented through associated finds: One iron burial as an indicator of the long duration of cross, indicator rings used for drumming, shamanistic traditions. The text is illustrated rings, coins used as pendants and pieces of with the figure of a noaidi hitting a drum. This metal objects that had dangled on a drum. figure is originally from the book“En kortt The Mukkala burial ground had eight graves, Relation om Lapparnes Lefwarne och Sedher, which dated to the first half of the seventeenth wijdskiepellsser, sampt i många Stycken Grofwe century. One of the Mukkala graves has been wildfarellsser” (1671) by the Swedish parson interpreted as belonging to a noaidi (Leppäaho Samuel Rheen. Shamanism is also presented 1936; Carpelan 1974; Kehusmaa 1995). as a traditional Sámi belief system in the QR

Fig. 3. Postcards of the Nanguniemi treasure and commercial products based on it are sold in the Siida museum shop. Photos: Sámi Museum Siida. Tiina Äikäs

160 be the result of a post-mortem taphonomic process on the bone (Niinimäki et al. 2010). The displaying and studying of human remains has been the focus of a quite involved academic discussion (Ubelaker & Guttenplan Grant 1989; Klesert & Powell 1993; Jenkins 2008; Jenkins 2010; Svestad 2013) but it is interesting to note that this case has not led to debates among museum visitors. It should also be noted that in some cases, the reluctance to display human remains may be more of an academic concern than a reflection of the wishes of the locals (see e.g. Overholtzer & Argueta 2018). However, the display of the Lehtoniemi noaidi was discussed in connection with the dismantling of the Lapland exhibition. On this occasion, archaeologist Eeva-Kristiina Harlin commented in Kaleva (Finnish newspaper) that she was relieved that the skeletal remains had been removed (Taanila 2019) because the display was unethical according to modern Fig. 4. Drum by Elli Maaret Helander from the standards. “Gaovdásiid Eadni” (Mother of Drums) exhibition at Siida in the summer of 2010. Photo Tiina Äikäs, 2010. Mythology

Mythology is usually represented in museums code 8 that is related to the burial (QR-koodi as text; one exception is Samiland where 8: Samaani ja saamelaiset uskomukset 2017). mythology is visualised through drawings According to museum lecturer Arja Keskitalo of various mythological figures, such as the (personal communication 2018), while there giant Stallu, Gufittar, who lives in the sacred has been some debate about the display of the sáivo lakes, and the water draug, the ghost of a skeletal remains in the museum exhibition, drowned person. These approximately life-size during her time serving as a guide over the last figures are a key feature in the exhibition space. 15 years, only one visitor has been critical. In They are drawn in a style that is familiar to the the abstract for the Kansanuskon päivä 2018 public from contemporary cartoons and hence (Day of folk religion), Professor Emeritus Juha it brings mythology into the present. In the Pentikäinen asks whether it is time to return Samiland shop, the theme from the mythology the remains and all the grave’s contents to the section of the exhibition is clearly continued. place of the murder. He is referring to the old Visitors can buy books by Ante Aikio or interpretation that the noaidi was shot. Bullet T-shirts and a booklet of Sámi mythology holes are still mentioned in the exhibition decorated with the characters and figures that posters, but they have later been proved to appear in both the books and the exhibition. Religion of the past or living heritage?

In PPM, the stories of the firefox also inform firefox, QR code 8, the children are asked to 161 us about mythology. QR code 4 (QR-koodi 4: compare similarities and differences between revontulien taikaa, 2017) both tells a number of shamanism, Christianity and other religions. stories and provides the scientific explanation At Arktikum, early Christianity is depicted for the aurora borealis. Teachers using the through the archaeological research conducted material are encouraged to use a ‘fire’ and led at Markkina in Enontekiö. Historical sources lights as a prop at this stop so that children suggest that there have been three churches in can imagine sitting by the fire and discuss Markkina dating back to the seventeenth and their experiences of the aurora borealis. In eighteenth centuries (Halinen 2007 and the the ceiling of the exhibition room the textile references therein). Archaeological excavations hangings resembling the aurora borealis are a have been dug at the church site in Markkina key element in creating the atmosphere of the and at the related marketplace in 1988, 1990, room. 1991, 2000 and 2001, and some of the material is displayed in Arktikum. Similarly, the earlier religion is evident in the archaeological Christianization finds from Juikenttä in Sodankylä. Used as a The turn from Sámi religion to Christianity dwelling place between approximately 1000 is associated with the destruction of drums B.C. and 1650 A.D., Juikenttä was excavated and sacred places and with noaidi trials. The by archaeologists in the 1960s. Archaeologist poster text in Samiland paints a dramatic Christian Carpelan (1974:61; 1987:71) has picture: “Age-old Sami mythology was almost interpreted the unbroken and usable artefacts completely forgotten a few centuries ago during that were found from a bone waste layer as the religious invasion of the 1600–1700s”. At signs of ritual activities at this dwelling place. Arktikum, the text related to the Mukkala The fact that there was a drum hammer among burials also refers to the battle between these artefacts confirms this interpretation. Christianity and Shamanism. Recent research Artefacts and bones found from a goahti [Sámi has nevertheless pointed out that the turn from tent], have also been mentioned in poster text. one religion to another was not necessarily In the Siida museum’s introductory dramatic as people could still carry on with old exhibition, three pictures depict the movement traditions even when practising Christianity. from Sámi religion to Christianity: A drum, For example, some sacred sites were still in use a baptismal figure and a statue of Queen in the twentieth century (Kylli 2005; Kylli 2012; Margareta I of Denmark (1353–1412) referring Äikäs 2015). In most exhibitions, the Christian to another Margareta, the first Sámi mentioned era is represented as something separate and by name in documents. The Sámi Margareta sometimes even spatially situated in other turned to many clergymen and even to the parts of the museums. The poster connected to union queen to expedite the Christianization the Lehtoniemi grave in PPM has a reference of the North (Lahtinen 2010). Interestingly, to the overlapping of Christianity and Sámi the caption text for the drum states: “The ‘Holy religion. It is stated there that “shamanism Writ’ of the old religion: the shaman drum”, lived long among the Sámi people, even if the connecting old religion to Christianity with its priests in Lapland did their best to root it out” holy writ, the Bible. In the timeline, beginning (translation by the author). In the stories of the from the seventeenth century religion is Tiina Äikäs

162 mainly depicted by pictures of churches even entire main exhibition is built on the idea of though archaeological and historical evidence nature and culture interacting. This can be shows that old and new religions co-existed seen in the exhibition architecture where the (Kylli 2005, Kylli 2012, Äikäs 2015). In the nature exhibition forms an outer layer that main exhibition, the cases also move from encircles the cultural exhibition (Pennanen drums to churches. The case explaining the 2000: Fig. 11). Because the see-through glass Russian Orthodox Church and Skolt Sámi cases divide these two areas, the nature and culture mentions that the church maintained culture exhibits interact with each other. a tolerant stance on Sámi mythology which Hence, even the exhibition cases containing helped the Orthodox faith to become part of objects and posters of Sámi religion are related Skolt Sámi culture. to nature. The connection between nature and Sámi religion is also evident in PPM, where the QR code 8 points to the connection The past in the past or the past in between the Sámi traditional belief system and the present nature. It states that: “The beliefs of the Sámi Linda Allen, Senior Curator at Museum Victoria have traditionally been very closely tied to the and anthropologist Louise Hamby argue elements of nature.” In Arktikum, the relation that a museum is both a “contested site where between belief systems and nature is evident in knowledge is negotiated and a field site where the texts describing different beliefs related to both contemporary and historical indigenous fishing and hunting, especially when it comes agency emerges” (2011:209, emphasis in the to bears. original). The architecture of the exhibition and Another way to represent Sámi religion is to the stories told highlight certain interpretations relegate it to history. In the cases discussed in of the past. this paper, Sámi religion is mainly represented The images of Sámi religion created in muse- through archaeological and ethnographic ums are mostly based on current academic material, which distances religion to the past. research of the time the exhibitions were built. The exhibition space itself can lead a visitor The exhibitions in question here are from three into a certain atmosphere. In Samiland, the different decades and their age is noticeable exhibition space for Sámi religion is painted in the appearance of the exhibition, but still black and with dim lighting. The exhibitions their content and emerging themes are similar. have little discussion on the contemporary More recent exhibitions or parts of exhibitions, meanings and use of sacred sites or mythology. such as the QR codes in PPM, aim to engage One exception is that the mythological figures the museum visitors more. They bring Sámi depicted in Samiland are drawn in a modern religion from the past into the present through fashion and thus bring mythology into interaction and stories from the contemporary contemporary time. Outside the exhibition, world. visitors can also acquaint themselves with One interpretation that is especially these figures using a mobile application called prevailing in the architecture of the main “Sami Myths”. Another example of exhibiting exhibition at Siida is the interconnectedness contemporary meanings of Sámi religion in of nature and Sámi religion (see for example the museums was the temporary exhibition Äikäs et al. 2009; Helander-Renvall 2010). The of Sámi artist Elli Maaret Helander’s modern Religion of the past or living heritage?

drums at Siida in the summer of 2010 (Fig. 163 4). In another temporary exhibition at Siida, Eleven Images of Sámi Life Today (May– November 2018), the diversity of Sámi life is presented through photographs, videos and interviews. Here a photograph by artist Ola Røe has captured a Sámi woman, Reidun Johannessen, drumming. The title of the poster is “A modern Sámi shaman”. These kinds of exhibitions demonstrate that elements of Sámi religion do not only belong to the past but gain new meanings in a contemporary world. Symbols of Sámi religion can be both representations of traditional spirituality and integrated into narratives of identity (Scheffy 2004:227). Apart from examples of contemporary spirituality, an interaction with museum exhibits can also help to bring Sámi religion alive. In the studied cases, interactive elements are mainly included in Samiland exhibitions with the larger-than-life-size drum and the QR codes in PPM. From other museums we have examples also showing that a traditional exhibition of religion can be an interactive experience. Sacred objects can also act as a Fig. 5. Coins on a cup-marked stone in the Estonian National Museum mark visitors’ interactions with a religious medium from a glass case. Scholar of museum object. Photo Tiina Äikäs, 2017. religious science Steph Berns (2016) noted how people felt they could almost touch the sacred relics and prayed before them in an exhibition certainly become secularised. A story from of relics at the British Museum. Even though in Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (Natural this case the relics were of Catholic origin and History Museum) presents a contemporary the prayers Christian, similar phenomena have tradition of interacting with a museum object been noted in a non-Christian context. There in a ritual way: During the renovation work are several instances where museum visitors at the museum a curious find was discovered have left coins on the cup-marked stones in under the base of the female figurine Venus of museum exhibitions (fig. 5). This habit might Willendorf (dating between 28,000 and 25,000 of course be more related to the tradition of BCE); a bunch of yarrow (Achillea millefolium). leaving coins at touristic attractions, such as This plant is used in alternative medicine fountains, than a ritual activity. While this to alleviate women’s ailments, for example tradition might have a ritual background in menstrual pains and menopausal complaints. offerings related to water spirits or gods, it has The fact that this plant does not grow in the Tiina Äikäs

164 vicinity of the museum, its use for women’s Conclusion ailments and the place where the yarrow was found suggest that this was an offering made The examples from three museums and to Venus of Willendorf (Löw & Grömer 2014). one exhibition in Northern Finland have This is not the only case of deposits left at demonstrated that there are shared themes the statue. Dr. Walpurga Antl-Weiser from in the exhibitions. Drums, sieiddit and Naturhistorisches Museum Wien states that shamans stand out as important motifs in the “the Venus of Willendorf receives small gifts presentations of Sámi religion. The connection from deeply devoted admirers from time to rock art is used to refer to the prehistory to time and is almost religiously venerated” of Sámi religion. This distances Sámi religion (2018:53). Whether this is done as a humoristic even further back in time than archaeological gesture or to mimic earlier behaviour remains evidence directly suggests, whereas the con- unanswered, but the deposits could also be temporary meanings of Sámi religion are interpreted as marks of rituals. absent from most exhibitions. Moreover, the Helena Robinson, lecturer in Museum oft-presented contradiction between Sámi Studies at the University of Sydney, has high- religion and Christianity creates an impression lighted visitor participation and democratic that the latter has replaced the former. This access to cultural heritage as key aspects for the leads to a perseverance of pastness in the ongoing relevance of museums, especially for image of Sámi religion. indigenous peoples (Robinson 2017). In the Hence when Sámi religion is exhibited in studied cases, visitor participation is mainly museums through the use of archaeological accomplished through interactive displays and and ethnographic artefacts, it easily becomes additional teaching material. Buying objects relegated to the past. There are nevertheless with religious symbols from the museum shop also examples where an interplay between can also be seen as an interaction with spiritual the past and the present takes a visible form cultural heritage. On the other hand, it can in museums. One example of this is when be seen as the unwanted commercialisation museum visitors can interact with objects, in of sacredness. However, archaeologist Lynn these cases replicas or props. Another example Meskell has suggested that productization, or is when contemporary meanings of objects commercialisation, does not always disconnect and contemporary spirituality are presented, its object from the context of the sacred usually in temporary exhibitions. Objects can (2004:177–219). It may decrease spirituality, also obtain new meanings in museum shops. but may also democratize it and make its Even though the productization of sacredness objects more accessible. Even though people requires ethical considerations, it can also be a do not necessarily achieve the same spiritual novel way of achieving spiritual engagement. experience with, for example, a pendant Museums can display a living spiritual tradition depicting figures from a noaidi drum than with and heritage instead of a past religion. the actual drum, these products are certainly easier to get hold of and they are available to Acknowledgements a wider audience. The object may also acquire new meanings that may or may not be related I would like to thank Arja Keskitalo from the to the old spiritual meanings. Museum of Northern Ostrobothnia, Hannu Religion of the past or living heritage?

Kotivuori from Arktikum, and Anni Guttorm urn:nbn:fi:sks-kbg-009401 (Accessed 8 January 165 from Siida for their valuable comments on the 2019) exhibitions. I am also grateful to the members Mäntylä, Ilkka 1997. “Aikia Aikianpoika.” of the SODISAMI project for their comments Kansallisbiografia-verkkojulkaisu. Studia on an earlier version of this article and Biographica 4. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura: especially Cathrine Baglo and Rossella Ragazzi Helsinki. http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:sks-kbg-000338> for their editorial work and comments. (Accessed 7 January 2019) Nanguniemen kätkön löytymisestä 15 vuotta 2018. http://www.siida.fi/sisalto/tiedotteet/ Notes nanguniemen-ktkn-lytymisest-15-vuotta 1. I recognise that the use of the term pagan (Accessed 7 January 2019) can be problematic as it has carried negative QR-koodi 4: Revontulien taikaa 2017. https://youtu. connotations referring to a deviant not practising be/X5ZnI-MZSsU (Accessed 9 January 2019) a main religion. The term has, nevertheless, QR-koodi 8: Samaani ja saamelaiset uskomukset been established in research literature and is also 2017. https://youtu.be/9i9ka3NtD1M (Accessed 5 used as an emic category by some contemporary December 2018) pagans (see e.g. Sjöblom 2000). In this study, the concept pagan is therefore understood merely Literature as an academic notion without any qualitative Äikäs, Tiina 2015. From Boulders to Fells. Sacred implications. Places in the Sámi Ritual Landscape. Helsinki: 2. Jänkäjärven syöverit (2013) (English translation: Archaeological Society of Finland. Fathoms of the Fenlake, 2015), Lovi (Trance) Äikäs Tiina, Trude Fonneland, Suzie Thomas, (2015), Stallun pata (Cauldron of Stallu) (2018). Wesa Perttola & Siv Ellen Kraft 2018. “‘Traces of our ancient religion’. Meaning-making and shamanism at Sámi offering places and at the References Isogaisa festival, northern Norway.” In Jutta Interviews Leskovar & Raimund Karl (eds.). Archaeological Guttorm, Anni 2019. E-mail correspondence with the Sites as Space for Modern Spiritual Practice. author on 8 January 2019. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, Keskitalo, Arja 2018. E-mail correspondence with the 1–20. author between 9 January and 30 October 2018. Äikäs, Tiina, Anna-Kaisa Puputti, Milton Núñez, Kotivuori, Hannu 2018. E-mail correspondence with Jouni Aspi & Jari Okkonen 2009. “Sacred and the author on 12 December 2018. profane livelihood. Animal bones from sieidi sites in Northern Finland.” Norwegian Archaeological Internet sources Review 42:2, 109–122. Keräilijät pelastivat saamelais-rummun polttamiselta Äikäs, Tiina & Marte Spangen 2016. “New users and 2013. https://www.kaleva.fi/uutiset/kotimaa/ changing traditions. (Re)defining Sami offering kerailijat-pelastivat-saamelais-rummun- sites.” European Journal of Archaeology 19:1, 95–121. polttamiselta/644021/ (Accessed 10 January 2019) Allen, Lindy & Louise Hamby 2011. “Pathways to Lahtinen, Anu 2010. “Margareta.” Kansallisbiografia- knowledge. Research, agency and power relations verkkojulkaisu. Studia Biographica 4. Suomalaisen in the context of collaborations between museums Kirjallisuuden Seura: Helsinki. http://urn.fi/ and source communities.” In Sarah Byrne, Anne Tiina Äikäs

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168 Potinkara, Nika 2015. Etnisyyden rakentuminen Silvén, Eva 2014. “Constructing a Sami cultural kahden saamelaismuseon perusnäyttelyissä. heritage. Essentialism and Emancipation.” Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities 272. Jyväskylä: Ethnologia Scandinavica 44, 59–74. University of Jyväskylä. Sjöblom, Tom 2000. “Contemporary Paganism in Robinson, Helena. 2017. “Is cultural democracy Finland.” In Jeffrey Kaplan (ed.). Beyond the possible in a museum? Critical reflections on Mainstream: The Emergence of Religious Pluralism Indigenous engagement in the development of in Finland, Estonia, and Russia. Helsinki: SKS, the exhibition Encounters. Revealing Stories of 223–240. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Objects Spangen, Marte 2009. “Silver hoards in Sámi areas.” In from the British Museum.” International Journal Petri Halinen, Mika Lavento & Mervi Suhonen of Heritage Studies 23:9, 860–874. (eds.). Recent Perspectives on Sámi Archaeology in Rönkä, Minna 2014. Ihmis- ja kulttuurikuva Fennoscandia and North-West Russia. Proceedings suomalaisissa esihistorian näyttelyissä. Unpublished of the First International Conference on Sámi master’s thesis. Archaeology, University of Helsinki. Archaeology, Rovaniemi, 19–22 October 2006. Ruohonen, Juha 2012. “Kalmistoja, kaivauksia, Iskos 17, 94–106. kallonmittausta. Fyysisen antropologian Spangen, Marte 2016. Circling Concepts. A Critical tutkimuskohteita Pohjois-Suomessa.” Faravid Archaeological Analysis of the Notion of Stone XXXVI, 57–85. Circles as Sami Offering Sites. Stockholm: Rydving, Håkan 1993. The End of Drum-Time. University of Stockholm. Religious Change among the Lule Saami, Svestad, Asgeir 2013. “What Happened in Neiden? 1670s–1740s. Uppsala: University of Uppsala. On the Question of Reburial Ethics.” Norwegian Schefferus, Johannes 1673. Lapponia, id est, Regionis Archaeological Review 46:2, 194–222. Lapponum et gentis nova et verissima descriptio. Tymchuk, Michael 1984. “Skeletal remains. In Francofurti: Ex officina Christiani Wolffii, Typis defense of sensitivity and compromise.” Museum Joannis Andreae. Anthropology 8:3, 2–8. Scheffy, Zoë-Hateech Durrah 2004. “Sámi religion in Ubelaker, Douglas H. & Lauryn Guttenplan Grant museums and artistry.” In Anna-Leena Siikala, 1989. “Human skeletal remains. Preservation Barbro Klein & Stein R. Mathisen (eds.). Creating or reburial?” American Journal of Physical Diversities. Folklore, Religion and the Politics of Anthropology 32:S10, 249–287. Heritage. Helsinki: SKS, 225–259. Vorren, Ørnulv & Hans Kr. Eriksen 1993. Samiske Silvén, Eva 2008. “Staging the Sami. Narrative and offerplasser i Varanger. Tromsø Museums skrifter display at the Nordiska Museet in Stockholm.” XXIV. Stonglandseidet: Nordkalott-forlaget. In Andreas Nyblom & Peter Aronsson (eds.). Comparing. National Museums, Territories, Nation-Building and Change. Linköping: Tiina Äikäs, Ph.D. Linköping University Electronic Press, 311–319. [email protected] Silvén, Eva 2012. “Contested Sami heritage. Drums and sieidis on the move.” In Dominisque Poulot, Archaeology, University of Oulu José María Lanzarote Guiral & Felicity Bodenstein P.O. Box 1000 (eds.). National Museums and the Negotiation of 90014 University of Oulu, Finland Difficult Pasts. Linköping: Linköping University https://www.oulu.fi/university/researcher/ Electronic Press, 173–186. tiina-aikas Nordic museology 2019 • 3, s. 169–185

Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

Monica Grini

Abstract: The article addresses how Sámi culture is presented by museums in Oslo. One of the findings is that the old binary of “art” and “ethnographica” is still common in this museumscape. This reflects the historical divide between the art museum showing “European” and “Norwegian” art, and the ethnographic museum showing the arts of “the rest”. It is argued that Sámi artists, works, themes, and practices have had difficulties entering the reservoir of Norwegian “national imagery” and that such predicaments reflect persistent investments in the narrative of Norway as a monocultural nation.

Keywords: Art-culture, dáidda, duodji, museumscape, representation, articula- tion, Sámi, Norwegian.

This article takes its initial cue from the culture” (Bååstede 2012:9, my translation). 2012 Bååstede-report. The report is the This statement sparked curiosity: How is principal document guiding what is framed “Sámi culture” presented in the museological as a repatriation process, where around two landscape of today’s Oslo? thousand objects are to be relocated to Sápmi, Although a seemingly straightforward that is, in what is defined as Sámi museums in question, it needs some interpretation to the Norwegian part of the vast, transnational be operative. For example, what can “good Sámi area. At the same time as the report’s and representative presentation” mean, and primary focus is on the repatriation process, it what does “Sámi culture” refer to? Seen from underscores that “it lies in this project a clear a pragmatic perspective, the meaning of acknowledgment that Sámi history is to be concepts are to be found in the context of their communicated by museums in Norway, not use. TheBååstede -report does not specifically only by Sámi museums” (Bååstede 2012:34, my state what is intended by “Sámi culture”, but translation). The report especially foregrounds the report highlights various objects – from that museums in Oslo should have a “good a náhppi, a reindeer milk bowl, to a richly and representative presentation of Sámi decorated purse, or a batlet for preparing Monica Grini

170 senna grass, used for lining footwear during of “culture” perceived as “arts”, and “culture” wintertime – as well as Sámi language and perceived as something like “elements that knowledge. In other contexts, notions like art, help distinguishing one society from another” duodji, dáidda, craft, music, theatre, literature is prevailing, even if the uses are overlapping and traditional husbandry are activated when and intertwined, and cannot automatically be describing “Sámi culture” (Gaski & Berg- reduced to a matter of either/or. Nordlie 2019). Suffice to say, a survey of To help navigate such entanglements, my various uses would probably show that the approach is informed by a notion that sees concept is held together by sets of (overlapping “culture” as something that can be activated in and changeable) family resemblances, and not different forms, by different means in different reducible to one essential common feature. context by different actors (e.g. Grossberg 1986; Clifford 2013). Thus, it has been important to keep the analytical focus open enough to Culture and articulation grasp the full range of possible articulations. The concept of culture has long been contested. I have been tracking what has been directly It is “one of the most difficult, richly connotative articulated as Sámi matters, for example, concepts to define” (Cobley 2008). Its parentage through wall texts and other communicative is disputed (although the root is commonly devices in different museums, but I have also seen to lie in the Latin verb colere, which can been on the lookout for more indirect or be translated “to cultivate”), a demarcation implicit Sámi relations that are not necessarily is sometimes made between a humanist and activated as such in the museums in question, an anthropological usage of the term.1 The but by other actors in other contexts, as for first usage is often considered evaluative, example indicated by the Bååstede-report hierarchical and singular, denoting something or by Sámi institutions. Also, it is important similar to the outdated “civilization”, to underscore that meaning and agency is, of recognizable for example in the Norwegian course, not only manifested through language; word finkultur (denoting “highbrow culture” for example, the Sámi flag is as strong an or “arts”). The second usage is perceived indicator and effector of Sámi presence, or as fundamentally relativistic, indicating gesture towards the autonomy of a “we’”, or “a something that is to be found in every human culture”, as any museum wall text. society and that makes the particular society Furthermore, by talking about museum- recognizable in a certain way (e.g. Stocking scapes, this article pays attention to the ways in 1966; Bennet 2015). But as Stocking points out, which museums may operate collectively, and as most antitheses, it “breaks down partially to the effects of that operation when it comes when proved” (1966:68); for example, both uses to Sámi representation in Oslo. Like Sharon centre around the human and tend to imply Macdonald has pointed out, museums do a dualistic position to “nature” (e.g. Latour labour, not only through the content of each 1993; Blaser 2009). Also, there are frequent museum – through what they individually travels between the permeable disciplinary collect and exhibit, the modes of display and boundaries of art and anthropology, whether other choices made – but also through their very one refers to the university or the museum set- presence in a greater museological landscape. up. Still, or in spite of such translations, the use They work in concert, through “divisions Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

of classificatory labour and hierarchies of aforementioned National Gallery (founded 171 value between kinds of museums, and their in 1837), the Museum of Decorative Arts locations within cities and within nations” and Design (founded in 1876), the Museum (2016:4). In this perspective, it is an ambition of Architecture (founded in 1975) and the to pay effort, not only to Sámi articulations, Museum of Contemporary Art (founded but the to the whole variety of articulations in 1988), although remaining in separate and emplacements in the various museums to institutions until the present relocation. see what each attend to, what is collected and Located on the Bygdøy peninsula, in a exhibited where, how it is exhibited, and under bucolic area away from the city centre, is what labels. the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (Norsk Folkemuseum), established in 1894. It is a large open-air museum accommodating Situating the museumscape buildings from rural and urban Norway from About 200 years ago, when the small province the middle ages to the 20th century, as well city of Christiania, now Oslo, was to become as a large collection of artefacts. Here too is a the capital city of the newly established royal connection, as the museum encompasses Norwegian national state, a major axis was the Bygdø Royal Manor, presently a summer drawn from the incipient castle on the hilltop residence used by H.M. King Harald. towards the flat stretch of land where the It is not the intention here to give a full- parliament was to be built. On both sides of this fledged account of all museums situated “axis of power” other institutions of exceptional in Oslo, but simply to pinpoint some of the national significance were to be constructed; the main nodes in the museological landscape of national theatre on one side and the university the city and to accentuate them as powerful on the other. Carefully related to this main spaces, also with regard to their actual bloc, creating a precise right-angle “from the locations. The museums mentioned can all be dome of the theatre throughout the assembly said to be spaces that feature prominently, not hall of the university”, the National Gallery only in Oslo, but on a national museum scene took form (Butenschøn 2015). at large. Positioned in the capital and resting On the opposite side of the National Gallery, heavily on public funding, they are intended facing the castle, is the Historical Museum. It not only to be of importance for inhabitants houses the University’s Museum of Cultural there, but for all the citizens, also for those History, a merger encompassing the collections who never visit them. The museums can be of Norwegian and classical antiquities described as parts of the mainstream national (Universitetets Oldsaksamling, 1811), the coin repertoire; they form segments of institutions cabinet (1817), and the ethnographic collections that a nation-state is expected to have, not (former Ethnographic Museum, 1853). The only for interior reasons, but also with regard National Gallery is at the moment being to demarcation between national states. emptied while preparing for a new National Moreover, they are of special interest for the Museum of Art, Architecture and Design at the question posed here, as designated museums refurbished waterfront part of Oslo, scheduled for arts and culture, whether humanist or to open in 2021. This umbrella-institution anthropological uses of the concepts are was established in 2003 by the merging of the brought to mind. Monica Grini

172 Encountering the national the large knife hanging from Erikson’s belt and imaginary the presence of the polished Viking helmet and axe reflect the heroic nationalistic undertow of The building that houses the National Gallery the subject, without doubt carefully selected can be described as a monument in miniature, for an event like the world’s fair. The inclusion fitting for the burgeoning small-scale capital and placement of the image – the first thing at the time it was built. It is moulded over a encountered when entering the exhibition – is, renaissance concept, already proven on a of course, equally as much a strategic move by grander scale in other art museums in the the curators of today. early 19th century, like the Alte Pinakothek Easel paintings from the 19th and 20th in München, evoking historical connotations century continue to dominate the exhibition, intended to match the building’s function (e.g. reflecting the importance of this medium Hvattum 2017). for national art galleries and art history in As customary in museums with significant general, and mirroring a central epochal focus collections, the audience is able to see parts in Norwegian art history. National icons like of its possessions in a so-called permanent Adolph Tidemand and Hans Fredrik Gude’s exhibition. The latest version, The Dance of national romantic Bridal Procession on the Life: The Collection from Antiquity to 1950, Hardangerfjord (1848), seem to be routinely was on display from 2011 until the museum included in every basis exhibition. The work finally closed its doors in mid-January 2019 – has been criticised from an authenticating only interrupted by the 2013 sesquicentennial perspective; for not showing “real Norwegians”, celebration of Edvard Munch’s birth. I first nor an accurate landscape – it was painted in visited the display in 2012 with the aim to the artists’ studio in Düsseldorf, using German systematically map Sámi presence in the models, and is based on a combination of National Gallery, followed by later revisits sketches from observations of nature in where only minor changes were to be found. various regions of Norway combined into one. Moving up the marble stairs to the main Thus, it does not show one “true” place. Still, or halls, I was met with Christian Krohg’s grand precisely because of that, because they sort of painting Leiv Eirikson discovering America condense and reinforce a designated national (1893), flanked on either side by Albertine to imagery, it can be argued that such pictures see the police surgeon (1887) and Struggle for have played a crucial role in “making the survival (1889). While the latter paintings are nation real”, to say it with Anthony D. Smith thematising contemporary social issues, the (2013), in inducing people to “see the nation” first-mentioned – painted for the Chicago’s and make them assign to the national project. 1893 world’s fair – is pairing Krohg’s celebrated Artists like Tidemand and Gude, among realism with a theme more connected to many others artists in the 19th century, seem national romanticism. The style is naturalistic, to have had a genuine interest in mapping and the men’s appearance not particularly idealized. articulating what they perceived as interesting Leiv Erikson and his crew are depicted with characteristics connected to the realm now rugged, ruddy faces and thinning hair, and known as the Norwegian national-state. The strong diagonals and abrasive pencil strokes Danish-Norwegian artist, Johannes Flintoe, add to the realistic feeling, whereas details like is often presented as the one who “showed Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

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Fig.1. Adolph Tidemand, Low Church Devotion, 1848. Oil on canvas. The National Museum of Art, Arc hitecture and Design, Oslo. Photo: Jaques Lathion. the Norwegians the way to the Norwegian is well represented in the National Museums’s highlands” (Nasjonalmuseet 2019 a). As a collection. For example, with portraits of named Dane, born and raised in Copenhagen, but Sámi individuals, like the pastel drawings of with a father from the Norwegian part of the Kari Johnsdatter (1874) or Lars Olsen (1870), empire, the mountainous part of the country just to name a few of the works representing interested him. Beginning his extensive travels Sámi subjects. Even Flintoe, includes people over the inland south eastern and western with Sámi attire in his “documentation” of mountain massifs in 1819, his journeys and national costumes in a picture, not on display, the studies from them became roadmaps for but in the gallery’s collection (e.g. Grini & Oskal later surveyors, like Johan Christian Dahl, or 2018). None of the representations, whether the aforementioned Tidemand and Gude. they are meant to articulate “Norwegian” or Although the majority of the artist followed “Sámi” culture, capture the “whole picture”, the well-trodden path between the southeast they simplify and accentuates what was and western parts of Norway, the northern considered most characteristic. Furthermore, part of the country and Sámi traditions were some tend to follow an ideological hierarchical of interest for artists at the time. For instance, configuration, depicting the Norwegian Hans Johan Fredrik Berg, born in Nordland, farmer as simple living, but “noble”, and the Monica Grini

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Fig. 2. Adolph Tidemand, The Fanatics, 1865–1866. Preparatory oil sketch. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo. Photo: Jaques Lathion.

Sámi as poor, and rustically living, “ignoble” the preacher maybe intended to represent the (e.g. Høydalsnes 2003). northerner, Lars Levi Læstadius, who was self- In my view, the Low Church Devotion, identifying as Sámi and fluent in two Sámi 1848, and the Fanatics, 1865–1866, both languages; he is not elevated, but shares the by Tidemand, in some ways adheres to this floor with his followers.2 structural pattern. The former, on display in The museum does not possess the finished the gallery, shows a group of farmers, solemnly version of the Fanatics, it is owned by the contemplating the word of God. They are Swedish National Museum, but it holds immersed in a soft, golden light, while the lay interesting preparatory works, a detailed pen preacher, Hans Nielsen Hauge, is standing on and wash drawing, and an oil sketch. Thus, a chair, creating a pyramidical composition, the absence of the finished painting is not a an established device for depicting divine sufficient reason for not giving the audience a subjects. Whereas the latter shows a mixed chance to explore the subject further, especially group of people, among them people in Sámi not since an entire room is dedicated to oil clothes, arranged in a horizontal composition, sketches from exactly the same period, but many of them expressing strong emotions, none of them depict Sámi subjects. Moreover, accentuated by a flat, white lighting. Notably, it would, of course, be possible to borrow the Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

Stockholm Fanatics, which is rarely on display referred to in a wide sense as both the ability 175 there, to deepen the exploration. to do something and to the result of such The exhibition is envisioned by the museum expertise – the material object or the work. In as “a journey through art history from antiquity a narrower sense, duodji is about a particular to 1950, with an emphasis on Norwegian Sámi practice, material and conceptual art after 1800” (Nasjonalmuseet 2019 b). I approach, which today is institutionalized embarked on the journey expecting to find, in as a distinct field, with its own educational the least, works by John Savio, born in Finnmark system and regulatory mechanisms. At the and with a Sámi and Kven background, and of same time, duodji is part of everyday life in which the museum holds a large collection.3 many households, both as concrete, functional Savio’s woodcuts are especially well-regarded, objects, being worn and used, and as tacit and although the exhibition was dominated knowledge and way of life, transferred between by painting, the fact that the curators had generations and through other informal included selections of the National Gallery’s networks (e.g. Guttorm 2013; Fors 2019). A vast selection of paper works (like drawings, quick search for the word duodji in a museum pastels and graphic works), justified my database, such as DigitaltMuseum, which anticipation. Though, scanning the walls and includes images from a variety of museums opening the drawers in large filing cabinets in Norway and Sweden, reveals an abundance placed throughout the exhibition, none of of complex and beautiful items, traversing Savio’s woodcuts, like Chiermagak (Reindeer confines associated with art, craft, fashion and Calves), from between 1920–1933, Gánda ja design, just to mention a few intersections nieida (Boy and Girl) or Okta (Alone), both negotiated in an institution like the Museum undated, were to be found. Suffice to say, no of Decorative Arts and Design. imagery connected to Sámi culture was there Until the museum closed in 2016, it showed to punctuate the national imaginary of the the permanent exhibitions Style 1100–1905, National Gallery’s basis exhibition, even if the Design and Craft 1905–2005, The Costume museum has a number of works with Sámi Galleries and The Collections for Glass and references, or by artists that identify as Sámi, in Ceramics. In general, the displays can be their collection (Grini 2016:134–139, 246–251; conceptualised as aesthetic presentations. Grini 2019). Lighting and arrangements accentuate the shape and style of the objects, rather than focusing on geographical, historical, or cultural Ignoring duodji contexts. Still, designations like “Norway”, While I entered the National Gallery expecting “Nordic”, “Scandinavia” and “Europe”, crop to find Sámi imagery, I reached the Museum up repeatedly in wall texts and explanatory of Decorative Arts and Design, no more than signs, even though such informational devices a couple of blocks away, hoping to experience are often reserved to a minimum. Sometimes the vigorous and overlapping fields of Sámi more specific terms for localisation are used, duodji, design, and fashion. for example, a carved tankard is labelled as Duodji is a rich concept, difficult to translate coming from the farm Klognes in Vågå, in the with hegemonic art terms, without meaning region of Gudbrandsdalen. being added or removed. It is sometimes This is one of the mountain valleys attracting Monica Grini

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Fig. 3. Installation view from the exhibition Style 1100–1905, 2016. The National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo. Photo: Monica Grini.

19th and early 20th century artists, scientists, popularity continued in rural parts of Norway. and collectors searching for inland pockets Are items from the Sámi area included in of “Norwegian culture.” Lying on the ancient this “style history of Norway”? That is, in a east-west route mentioned in Heimskringla, state “founded upon the territories of two the old Norse kings’ sagas, the area was seen as peoples – the Norwegians and the Sámi”, as one of the places conveying “Norwegianness.” king Harald acknowledged in a speech to the The focus in this exhibition, though, is not on Sámi Parliament more than 20 years ago (e.g. a contextualisation of “Norwegian culture”, but Bååstede 2012:13). As among others, Maja rather on relating the “style history of Norway” Dunfjeld has showed, Sámi material stands to that of Europe, as one of the wall texts in interesting and complex relationships with explains. The tankard is described as an example different historical, stylistic and ornamental of “Nordic baroque.” And indeed, it might be traditions; for example visible through the use relevant to categorize the object like this; it of gothic type Mary and Anne-monograms in can be seen as a translation of an established Sámi horn carvings or through the use of what prototype, the baroque silver tankard and its is identified as predominantly Sámi colouring curved pattern, into wooden material. Such techniques for highlighting ornament patterns objects fell out of fashion amongst the upper in archaeological findings outside Sápmi classes of 18th century Europe, but their (Dunfjeld 2006:64–65, 180–181) Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

Sápmi was never an isolated enclave, but Perhaps surprisingly, the establishment 177 a geographically diverse area with intricate which has dealt most extensively with works communication and exchange systems, and related to duodji amongst the national art such complexity is reflected in the material flow institutions of Oslo, is arguably the Museum of the region. For example, Phebe Fjellström of Contemporary Art. It has done so in an examines how the category “Sámi silver” came indirect way, through the works of Iver Jåks. about as a result of the multifaceted trade Jåks was a multifaceted artist. He worked society during the 16th and 17th centuries in a variety of materials, with a variety of (Fjellström 1962). She discusses how profits techniques. In addition to his education from from trade with precious animal skin, stockfish, the art academy and the college of art and and various reindeer products materialized in design, he was trained as a duojár, an expert the form of silver spoons, heavy silver cups, in working with duodji. In his later work, this and jewelleries. The objects were made to expertise comes to the fore as a material and order for Sámi customers in places like Bergen epistemological attitude, and not necessarily and Gällivare; the silversmiths adjusting the through concrete objects easily recognised products upon request, in many cases making as duodji in a categorical sense. Rather, it is the silverware more solid and practical to about the material chosen, especially organic handle, in accordance with a nomadic lifestyle. material, like bone, antler and wood, and how The term “Sámi silver” figures prominently, it is assembled and handled (e.g. Snarby 2019). also in contemporary Sámi design, epitomized His work negotiates stringent demarcations for example by the jeweller Juhls, in Kautokeino. between, for example, art and craft, between Sámi fashion week has been going on for years, duodji and dáidda, the Sámi word for fine art, and the Sámi University College of Applied or between art and not-art. As with the flow of Sciences offers bachelor and master programs the Sámi silver trade, reciprocal circuits are in in duodji; nevertheless, it was first when I play, also in Jåks’ art and its reception. reached the costume galleries on the top floor In accordance with a contemporary art that I was met with a reference to Sámi matters concept, the Museum of Contemporary Art in the national museum for decorative arts and contains a wide range of media or forms of design, in a room dedicated to the Norwegian expressions not necessarily recognisable as fashion designer Per Spook. Some of the outfits “fine art” in a conventional sense, that is, from the collection From Paris to the Polar paradigmatically, as painting or sculpture. Still, Circle (1989–1990), were “inspired by Sámi it is necessary to emphasise that the museum clothing traditions”, the wall text explained. has not really explored the duodji dimension, Thus, Sámi tradition was only met by second- neither connected to Jåks’ art nor “Sámi hand reference, as inspiration, not by actual culture” in any other way. examinations. The absence of duodji reflects the collection as a whole, there are no records Representing culture of duodji, or other Sámi terms in the collection, although there are indications that there have To put it simply, if you want to experience art, at some point been a few Sámi items in the artefacts, and practices that are often perceived collection, however, it is not an easy task to as quintessentially Sámi in the downtown identify them.4 Oslo museumscape, you have to turn to the Monica Grini

178 ethnographic collection in the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History. The ethnographic collection constitutes one of the earliest museums of this kind, founded in 1853, with the Ethnographic Museum of Denmark, from 1849, as a direct precursor and inspirational source (Nielsen 1907:3). The ethnographic exhibitions are found on the upper floors, where the permanent exhibitions America: Past. Present. Identity and Arctic: People of the Arctic and Subarctic take up the majority of the space. One of the first things encountered when entering from the neighbouring “Americas” is a construction of an “igloo” presented as the Inuit type of dwelling. Further into the room, a conical shape is clearly meant to signify a lávvu, the Sámi summer tent. Various Sámi groups, the Northern Sámi, the Lule Sámi, the Skolt Sámi, and so forth, are represented through some well-established devices of the ethnographic display. Installations in glass-cases signify individuals, using tools and wearing garments, Fig. 4. Installation view from the exhibition Arctic: apparently corresponding to the region and People of the Arctic and Subarctic, 2019. The group they are made to epitomize. Museum of Cultural History. Oslo. Photo: Monica Grini. The scenes are paired with wall-texts and photographs, that among other things, help validate the message of a “true” representation of Occasionally, regional group delineations a corresponding life-world (e.g. Nielssen 2014). are left aside to help build and maintain others The contrast between the formal exploration on a grander scale. “Shamanism is a common of well-lit “tools”, like spoons and tankards, trait among the Arctic people”, a central wall on display in the Museum of Decorative Arts text states. Here, the concept of “shamanism” and Design is striking, though both are equally is articulated in an intriguing assembly of compelling as representational devices. Duodji images, words and artefacts, to help support the is explicitly, though simplistically, addressed underlying argument about the circumpolar in the ethnographic exhibition. A wall text area as one continuous space with a common, simply states that “duodji is traditional craft, timeless “Arctic culture”. that has advanced into applied art today”, In dim lightning, a copy of a Sámi drum while a selection of objects is mounted on the is hovering above a model representing the wall above, clearly not meant to be explored as circumpolar area. The model is encircled by aesthetic objects in the manner of the Museum dark blue painted walls, covered by texts, of Decorative Arts and Design. symbols, and imageries, or by glass cabinets Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

enclosing various items, dressed mannequins, 179 and photographs taken from different regions in the vast area commonly referred to as the Arctic. A drawing is mounted underneath the text explaining shamanism as a universal feature among arctic people, it shows an old, bearded man, beating a drum. “The Sámi called the shaman a noaidi”, another text explains. The old “shaman” is surrounded by symbols taken from various drumheads in time and space, described as standing for various “gods” or other abstract entities in Sámi “religious belief”, to refer to the categories preferred by the curators. On a side panel a poem is inserted, it is an excerpt from Ailo Gaup’s novel, In Search of the Drum (Trommereisen). The text is written in first-person and in present tense and seems to render a so-called drum travel Fig. 5. Installation view from the exhibition Arctic: People of the Arctic and Subarctic, 2019. The or the experience of ecstasy, and the revelation Museum of Cultural History. Oslo. Photo: Monica and knowledge achieved by such a travel. The Grini. text and the image work reciprocally upon each other, the text seem to narrate what the as ecstatic devices for male users, as indicated depicted person is experiencing, and the other by gendered textual and pictorial strategies, way around. notwithstanding the heterogeneity of the Nowhere in the exhibition is the conven- material, proven by a complex source material tional “ethnographic present” (Fabian 1983) (e.g. Rydving 2010; Grini 2016; Fonneland as clearly at play as in this installation. The 2018a). texts are predominantly written in present Seen in an overall perspective, “the Arctic” tense and dates are scarcely attributed. For of the ethnographic display at the Museum of example, Gaup’s text is from 1988, while the Cultural History is an area without conflict- image is taken from Johannes Schefferus book zones. As a visitor one moves rather smoothly Lapponia, from 1673, although in the display into a continuous, and rather timeless, arctic they seem to occupy the same time and space, space which is not ruptured by, for example, explaining the same phenomenon.5 Seen global industrial mining companies or the together, the different components function territorial politics of the varied national states to prioritize and reinforce a single narrative; that intersect this enormous area. Although a that of shamanism as the same unchanging larger space is dedicated to Sámi societies than practice, containing the same elements, to other groups represented in the exhibition, occupying the same arena, in every arctic nothing profoundly testifies to the fact and society throughout time.6 As a consequence, frictions related to Sápmi, Sámi, Norway and the drums are rendered, first and foremost, Norwegian as overlapping entities and identities Monica Grini

180 within the same national state. Although, from took the initiative to move parts of the Sámi 2015 an important temporary exhibition, Ten collection there. The intention was, he stressed, Sami Time Frames. Logi sámi áigegova, has been that Sámi citizens should be placed on equal added. The exhibition “highlights the diversity footings with other citizens, and not continue of Sápmi and presents personal portraits of to be treated as foreigners in their own country people, landscapes, traditions and languages (Pareli 2004:36–37). Today, there is a Sámi undergoing change” (Kulturhistorisk museum department at the museum. Sámi dwellings, 2015), and is made by central actors in Sápmi, from Hedemark, in the southernmost part of the social anthropologist, Jorunn Eikjok, and Norwegian Sápmi, are included in the open- photographer, Ola Røe, in collaboration with air museum, and there is a permanent indoor the Sámi Museum (RiddoDuottarMuseat- exhibition, Sámi Culture. Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat) in Karasjok. Still, This exhibition is divided in two distinct the overall narrative in the permanent parts. It represents the “Sámi way of life in the exhibition remains that “Sámi culture” equals past and in modern times”, the museum states “Arctic culture”, and as something other than (Norsk folkemuseum 2019). The emphasis is on “Norwegian culture” or “European culture”; the past, and it especially centres around that this is in an arctic where Norway’s position as which is explained as traditional livelihoods; one of the chief actors in this geopolitical area hunting, farming, and herding. Here objects remains invisible. related to duodji are presented in dioramas, Part and parcel to the idea that some and contextualized as parts of the old-style people’s “culture” belongs to the ethnography life-world. Duodji, in this sense, encompasses department, is the idea that there are other first and foremost traditional techniques for people whose “culture” does not belong there. processing products connected to husbandry During the institutional beginnings of the and reindeer herding. Whereas in the part Norwegian national museumscape, much of that is meant to represent “modern times”, the discussion was dedicated to the concern Sámi art, duodji, dáidda are presented as that “Norwegian national costumes” would belonging to distinct and specialised fields of end up exhibited among the outfits and the contemporary society. The focus is mostly artefacts of the “Indians or the South Pacific to present this as important elements in Sámi Wilds” (Undset 1885:11–12, my translation).7 society today, as parts of the revitalization After a while a “folk museum”, the Norwegian process that took hold since the 1980s, and Museum of Cultural History, materialized on not on exploring and interpreting the pieces as the Bygdøy peninsula. From the beginning, artworks in themselves. it was envisioned as a place to represent “the nation’s own culture” (e.g. Aall 1920). Revisiting the art-culture system Sámi items, apparently not considered the “nation’s own”, were not included among More than thirty years have passed since the re-erected buildings and costumes and James Clifford famously diagrammed the art- belongings transported from the Norwegian culture system to help apprehend how objects countryside. Sámi items were not included are classified, granted relative value, and here before the 1950s, when the director of incorporated into different sites and circuits. It the Ethnographic Museum, Gutorm Gjessing, is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

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Fig. 6. Installation view from the exhibition Arctic: People of the Arctic and Subarctic, 2019. The Museum of Cultural History. Oslo. Photo: Monica Grini. finer details of Clifford’s model, but generally in their roots, like tankards and spoons, can speaking, it sketches out the ethnographic be exhibited in a way that highlights them museum and the art museum as complementary as “art”, and individual art works, like Savio’s classificatory modes and valuators, starting woodworks, can be contextualized according with the two major categories “works of art” to their apparent relation to a certain collective. and “cultural artefact” to generate a larger One of Clifford’s points was that objects from field of terms, meanings, and circuits (Clifford societies perceived as “non-Western” tended to 1988:222–228). The structure seems to echo the be regulated into the ethnographic museum, antithesis outlined in the beginning of this text, whether made by artists, or represented as between the humanist and anthropological use “art” or “culture.” of “culture”, where the former points to “art” The point by evoking the art-culture in a narrow sense, the latter points to “culture” system here is that despite critical claims and in a broad sense. The main difference being radical changes in the museum sector since that while the first articulates novelty and Clifford wrote his article, the model still seems singularity, the uniqueness of the object and remarkably to the point when it comes to Sámi its maker, the second highlights custom and representation in the Oslo museumscape. To collectivity, the object and maker’s relation to a summarize, Sámi matters are predominantly larger society. There is frequent traffic between articulated as “culture” in the anthropological the two categories, functional items, collective sense in this museumscape. Whether treated Monica Grini

182 as duodji, dáidda, “art”, or “artefacts”, Sámi taken to be the same today as it was more objects continue to be represented, first and than 100 years ago – even though the slow foremost, by museums of cultural history, transformation suggests ongoing investments and more specifically – as the exhibition in in the narrative of Norway as a monocultural the University of Oslo’s Museum of Cultural nation. Still, it does not automatically follow History testifies – as ethnographic material. from the fact that the ethnographic department Even though the National Museum of Art, has remained the most visible museum space Architecture and Design holds works by for Sámi matters in the immediate city centre, significant Sámi artists, and works signifying that this points to the exact same thing as Sámi themes, to date, it has not exhibited these when the museum was established. As stated in a way, or to an extent, that contributes to above, museums have long been under critical rupturing the prevailing “national imaginary” scrutiny, precisely because of such intrinsic in any significant way. Moreover, a special case biases and connectedness to governance has to be made for the area of duodji, which that I have been trying to flesh out in this has yet to be explored by the art historical article. Even though such critical museology museum, but remains a naturalized part of the is not immediately visible in the current ethnographic department. Arctic-exhibition, there has been attempts to Sámi objects were among the basis for the reconsider the exhibitory form, for example, collection when the Ethnographic Museum through the temporary exhibition NewArctic, first opened its doors (e.g. Mathisen in this where Arctic research experts experimented volume) and it seems clear that this manoeuvre with “new ways of exhibiting the Arctic” can be seen in light of the accelerating (Kulturhistorisk museum 2018). Also, Ten Norwegianization politics at the time (Grini Sami Time Frames has clearly been added to 2016:52–104). Sámi issues were regulated into provide an update to the Arctic exhibition.10 a distinct sphere, to the representational space Even more significantly, as testified by for the foreign “others”, a manoeuvre which, Ten Sami Time Frames, the Sámi political among other things, helped clear the way for situation is radically different today than the production of the conceived “national a century ago. Sápmi hosts three Sámi unity”, without a competing narrative of the parliaments, although predominately ruled “other” within.8 Museums help producing, by the Norwegian, Swedish, and Finnish maintaining, and naturalising certain kinds of governments, the Sámi people in the different citizenships. The politics of the organisational national-states are represented by their own and physical divide, practically moulded in the parliamentarian institutions. Importantly, museological layout of the capital city from the as the Bååstede-report demonstrates, a Sámi beginning is quite obvious: in simple terms, the museum system has been formed, embodied division is between the art museum showing by six museum units under the authority of “European” and “Norwegian” arts, or culture, the Sámi Parliament in Norway. In short, today and the Ethnographic Museum, showing the there is a distinct Sámi representational system, arts, or culture, of “the rest.”9 Significantly, they overlapping and reconfiguring the dominating are both situated inside the geographical “axis governmental representational system. of power” in the city plan. Despite these transformations, and to To be fair, the situation should not be return to the initial cue from the Bååstede- Sámi (re)presentation in a differentiating museumscape: Revisiting the art-culture system

report, it is difficult to argue that a “good and at a time when Sámi drums were being deemed as 183 representative presentation of Sámi culture” devices for witchcraft by the Danish-Norwegian is to be found in central Oslo today, at the authorities. very least, because such profound changes are 6. Precisely because of its efficacy in ruling out only visible to a minor degree in the current other stories, historians of religion have long museumscape. opposed to the use of shamanism as a generic term. Olle Sundström highlights that the concept “originally belongs to the ‘colonizers’ conceptual Notes tool-box”, the term is supposed to have its origin 1. Of course, a third demarcation can be made, from an Evenki word, but as generic term it was concerning the biological use, as in “culture of created by outsiders to the indigenous societies bacteria” or “agriculture” and so on. they sought to study (Sundström 2015:76–77). 2. The Haugean movement took its name from the Importantly, such reservations are made against evangelist Hans Nilesen Hauge, practicing as a the use of the concept as a general term, it does lay preacher at a time when such activity was not devaluate the use of shamanism to describe a forbidden by law. The Conventicle Act of 1741 historically and culturally situated phenomenon, prohibited any religious meetings not authorized like for instance contemporary shamanism (e.g. by the state church. Hauge was seen as an Sundström 2015; Fonneland 2017). advocate for separatism while Norway was still 7. Consult Grini 2016:84–104, for more in this a part of Denmark (e.g Dørum and Sødal 2017). debate. Laestadianism is a pietistic Lutheran revival 8. I borrow the phrase “the ‘other’ within” from movement, named after Lars Levi Laestadius. Varutti 2011. The movement is associated with the Kautokeino 9. It is important to note that this is a broad uprising of 1852, where a local merchant and the generalization, made for the clarity of the district sheriff ended up being killed, whereas two argument, as I have discussed above, there were of the leaders of the movement were punished from early on artworks with Sámi references by execution by the Norwegian government (e.g. in the National Gallery’s collection, although Zorgdrager 1997). they have not been constructed as the canonical 3. I counted more than 70 artworks by Savio on my works of the collection. On the other hand, the last survey of the collection (Grini 2019). observation that duodji has remained a blind zone 4. Peder Valle, collection assistant at The National for the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, strongly testifies to such a claim. personal communication, 29 September 2018 and 10. Such interventions are also visible through 5 April 2019. Valle identified one of the items as added elements to the original Arctic exhibition, an embroidered purse (collection identification for example on my latest visit, in august 2019, number OK-06146) entering the Museum for a printout was mounted on the glass-case Decorative Art and Design in 1900. containing the copy of the drum, giving a cursory 5. Gaup was trained by Michael Harner at his reference of the history of the original drum and Californian Foundation for Shamanic Studies the copy. in the 1980s and is sometimes dubbed “the first Sámi shaman” (e.g Fonneland 2018b). Schefferus was a professor at the Uppsala University, writing Monica Grini

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