Norges museumsforbund

Din interesseorganisasjon for museumspolitisk arbeid og faglig utvikling

Workshops with public events at Árran and Várdobáiki

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Saernieprieve 18 – Dávvirat Duiskkas – rahkan/ goeven 2024    

November 18-22, Davvirat Duiskkas‘ second and third workshops with public events took place at Árran Lule Sámi Center[i] in Northern Nordland and Várdobáiki Sámi Center[ii] in Southern Troms. Árran had chosen the Sámi sacred drums as the topic for their workshop while Várdobáiki had chosen lessons learned from the Norwegian repatriation project Bååstede (2012-2019)[iii] and similar processes elsewhere.[iv] Participants were representatives from the Sámi museums in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, representatives from German museums, speakers that were specially invited, representatives from Dávvirat Duiskkas, employees of the two museums and their local communities.

The whole group in front of Árran Lule Sámi Center. From right to left: Liv Astrid Kvammen, Tana and Varanger Museumssiida, Janne Hansen, The Norwegian Sámi Parliament/ DD, Gro Ween, Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Jenny Fjellheim, Saemien Sijte, Karoline Trollvik, Norwegian Folk Museum, Maren Golz, Meiningen, Elisabeth Pirak Kuoljok, Ájtte Swedish Mountain- and Sámi Museum, Oddmund Andersen, Árran, Elisabeth Tietmeyer, Museum Europäischer Kulturen Berlin, Sissel Ann Mikkelsen, coordinator for the Norwegian Sámi museums, Sunneva Sætevik, Ministry of Culture and Equality/ DD, Trude Fonneland, The Arctic University Museum of Norway, Nanette Snoep, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum Cologne, Cathrine Baglo, DD, Taina Máret Pieski, Sámi Museum Siida in Inari, Finland, Harrieth Aira, Árran and Jelena Porsanger, RiddoDuottarMuseat. Foto: Ella Paulsen.

The week-long event started Monday in Bodø which was the European Capital of Culture in 2024. As a part of the program and in collaboration with Àrran Lule Sámi Center, the old-fashioned Bodø City Museum established in 1903 appeared in new guise as the contemporary Sámi museum „Bådåddjo/Buvvda Musea“ after an extensive renovation process.[v] While „Bådåddjo“ is Bodø in the Lule Sámi language, „Buvvda“ is how you say Bodø in Pite Sámi, the two Sámi languages indigenous to the area.

After an extensive renovation process, the old City Museum in Bodø was reopened as Bådåddjo/Buvvda (Sámi) Musea in 2024. Photo: C. Baglo.

The day we visited the City Museum, the travelling exhibition „RUOKTOT – The Return of the Sámi Drums“ had just arrived.[vi] On display were also the first exhibition in the above-mentioned Bååstede project:  A small collection of objects from the Pite Sami area that had been repatriated to Árran from the Norwegian Folk Museum in Oslo the previous fall. Needless to say, both exhibitions were an excellent backdrop for the workshops that awaited us.

Sissel Ann Mikkelsen at Árran Lule Sámi Center (to the right) explains the Bååstede project and the background of the Pite Sámi objects temporarily on display in Bådåddjo/Buvvda Musea. Sissel, who took part in the Bååstede project and is now the coordinator for the Sámi museums in Norway, was also a part of the team that turned Bodø City Museum to a cutting-edge Sámi museum. From the left Sunneva Sætevik (The Norewegian Ministry of Culture and Equality) Taina Máret Pieski (Sámi Museum Siida), Trude Fonneland (The Arctic University Museum of Norway), Gro Ween (Museum of Cultural History in Oslo) and Liv Astrid Svaleng Kvammen (Tana and Varanger Museumssiida). Photo: C. Baglo.

Tuesday the group travelled by minibus the 180 km from Bodø to Ájluokta/Drag where Árran Lule Sámi Center is situated. Along the road we stopped at the Hamsun Center in Hamarøy, a cultural center and museum devoted to the works and life of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun. At Drag sightseeing of Árran Lule Sámi Center, dinner, and a public event on Sámi cultural heritage in German museums took place.

Travelling by minibus from Bodø to Hamarøy and Drag.  Taking in and documenting the landscape. Photo: C. Baglo.
Peter Berg Mikkelsen and Sissel Ann Mikkelsen welcome the group at Árran Lule Sámi Center. The center opened to the public in 1994. To the right Janne Hansen from the Norwegian Sámi Parliament/Dávvirat Duiskkas and Trude Fonneland from the Arctic University Museum of Norway in Tromsø. Photo: C. Baglo.
From the public event “Sámi Cultural Heritage in German museums” at Árran Lule Sámi Center. Elisabeth Tietmeyer, director at Museum Europäischer Kulturen in Berlin talks about their ongoing research project, “The Sámi Collection at Museum Europäischer Kulturen – A Multiperspective Approach of Provenance Research” and the preparation for the project space/exhibition “Áimmuin – Reconnecting Sámi Heritage”.  Photo: C. Baglo

Wednesday the workshop “Spotlight on (the Sámi sacred) Drums” took place at Árran. Oddmund Andersen and Trude Fonneland spoke about drums that local Sámi hid in the outdoors where they accidently have been found centuries later, while Maren Goltz and Fanny Stoye spoke about drums that Sámi communities were not able to save from the authorities and eventually, in the cases in question, ended up in Meiningen and Waldenburg.[vii] Jelena Porsanger who also lead the work with the exhibition “RUOKTOT – The Return of the Sámi Drums“ spoke about the drums as sacred heritage objects, while Sissel Ann Mikkelsen, Taina Máret Pieski, and Elisabeth Pirak Kuoljok spoke about the significance of drums from the perspective of the Sámi museums Árran, Siida, Ájtte and their communities.  Even though the drums have a special meaning in all the Sámi communities, the Sámi lands are vast, and the colonial history has taken different forms in different places and in within the different nation states. People’s relationships to the drums vary accordingly.  Moreover, generational differences make themselves felt.

Oddmund Andersen, research leader at Árran speaks about the sacred Sámi angular frame drum that was found in Murgosvuodna/Bjørsvik in Steigen in the 1950’s and handed in to Nordland County Museum in 1976. The drum was found in a scree area known as “Kirksteinen” (Church stone) seen in the slide above. Photo: C. Baglo.
Maren Goltz shares the German history of Freavnantjahken gievrie/the Frøyning Mountain’s drum. The drum was returned to Saemien Sijte South Sámi Museum from Meiningen Museen in June 2023. Three hundred years before, in 1723, the drum was confiscated from its owners and sent to Copenhagen where it soon came to the Danish royal family and was gifted in 1757 to the noble family Saxony-Hildburghausen in what is now Thuringia, Germany. In 1837 the drum became part of the collections at Meininger Museum. Before Goltz came to Árran she gave the same talk at Saemien Sijte. Photo: C. Baglo.
Elisabeth Pirak Kuoljok, director at Ájtte Swedish Mountain- and Sámi Museum speaks about the Sámi drums based on their perspectives and experiences, not least the practical challenges related to borrowing a Sámi drum from a large museum in France. Photo: C. Baglo.
Taina Máret Pieski, director and CEO of Sámi Museum Siida in Inari Finland, shares insights on their experiences with Sámi drums. Photo: C. Baglo.
Onboard the ferry from Drag (in the background) to Kjøpsvik. Photo: C. Baglo.

From Árran we travelled 120 km by ferry and minibus to our hotel at Evenes. Thursday morning, we were received by staff at Várdobáiki Museum. After an introduction to the history and the work of the museum and the cultural center it forms part of, Janicken Olsen gave us a guided tour of the newly opened permanent exhibition: “Hilla – min muitalusak “(Glow – Our stories).[viii] The Hilssá drum that Trude Fonneland spoke about at Árran the day before, is the center piece of the exhibition. The sacred drum, which was found hidden in a rock crevice above the hamlet Hilleshamn about 50 km NE of Várdobáiki in 1999, is displayed for the first time and has once again become a part of the Sámi community in the region.

Janicken Olsen (in black), project leader at Várdobáiki, Thomas Ole Andersen, museum leader, and Kjersti Myrnes Balto, director (far right), welcome the group. The museum is part of a Sámi cultural center that was established in 2009. Photo: C. Baglo.

The center piece of the new exhibition at Várdobáiki is a drum that was found hidden in a rock crevice above the hamlet Hilleshamn in 1999. “[The new exhibition] takes the audience on a journey through central parts of the Sámi past”, it is explained on the museum’s web pages. “With the landscape as a framework, various Sámi industries are conveyed through the ages, and we gain an insight into the strong relationship that has always existed between the Sámi and nature. The region is a Sámi ancestral land, but also a Sámi spiritual landscape where we find sacred mountains, bear pits, and hidden drums.” The illustration behind the drum is made by the artist Alvin Jensvold. Photo: C. Baglo.
The topic for the workshop at Várdobáiki was lessons learned from restitution and repatriation processes. Kjersti Myrnes Balto, director at Várdobáiki, introduced the topic by speaking of Várdobáiki’s experiences from taking part in the Bååstede project during its working years 2012-2019. In 2022, 32 objects were returned to Várdobáiki from the Norwegian Folk Museum and the objects are now central in the new exhibition. Gro Ween, who took part in Bååstede from the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, was invited to reflect upon the process. Taina Máret Pieski, director at Sámi Museum Siida, spoke about the things they have accomplished based on the return of more than 2,000 Sámi artefacts from the National Museum of Finland in 2021. Nanette Snoep, artistic director at Rautenstrauch Joest Museum in Cologne, spoke about repatriation practices and collaborative exhibition projects at her museum while Elisabeth Tietmeyer, director at Museum Europäischer Kulturen in Berlin, shared MEK’s experiences from working with Sámi cultural heritage as a restitution practice.[ix] After the seminar, the group visited Várdobáiki’s Gállogieddi outdoor museum with Kjersti as at home guide, literally speaking.

Kjersti Myrnes Balto recounts important events in the Bååstede project. The reversion agreement took place in 2012. Ten years later, in October 2022, objects that once had been collected in the region, were returned to Várdobáiki. The museum is responsible for cultural heritage related to Marka Sámi (farming) culture, reindeer herding Sámi culture and Sea Sámi (fishing) culture in Northern Nordland and Southern Troms. Photo: C. Baglo.
«Our memories are not in our hands”. Professor Gro Ween at Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, previously the Ethnographic Museum, reflects upon the process of the Bååstede project. The Sámi collections at the Ethnographic Museum was transferred to the Norwegian Folk Museum in the years 1951–1957. About twenty Sámi objects remained in what is now the Museum of Cultural History. Photo: C. Baglo.
Lunch at En Smak av, Kaf’e og Spiseri. From the left and looking at the camera: Gro Ween, Janicken Olsen, Jelena Porsanger and Thomas Ole Andersern. Photo: C. Baglo.
After lunch the workshop at Várdobáiki continued. Nanette Snoep, artistic director at Rautenstrauch Joest Museum in Cologne gave the presentation “From a place of conservation to a place of conversation. Self-determination, restitution, return and rematriation. Photo: C. Baglo.

Starry night. Excursion with torches to Gállogieddi outdoor museum and the farm where Kjersti’s grandparents once lived.[x] Photo: Gro Ween.
Thursday evening the public event “Sámi cultural heritage in German museums” took place, this time directed towards Várdobáiki’s community. Cathrine Baglo shared findings in the project Dávvirat Duiskkas, Thomas Ole Andersen spoke about Várdobáiki’s participation in the project and the significance of provenance in a boundless landscape, while Elisabeth Tietmeyer shared information on MEK’s Sámi provenance research project. In addition, two of the duojarát (artisans) involved in the MEK project, Ellen Berit Dalbakk and Helena Partapuoli, spoke about their experiences. Both Dalbakk and Partapuoli are from the region, the Torne Sámi region, but have grown up on opposite sides of the border between Norway and Sweden.

On home ground. Ellen Berit Dalbakk/Rámavuol Elle Bigge speaks about her participation as a duojár (artisan) in the Berlin-based project: “The Sámi Collection at Museum Europäischer Kulturen – A Multiperspective Approach of Provenance Research”. Photo: C. Baglo.
Group picture at Várdobáiki. First row from the left: Sissel Ann Mikkelsen, Elisabeth Tietmeyer, Helena Partapuoli, Elisabeth Pirak Kuoljok, Gro Ween, Nanette Snoep and Fanny Stoye. Second row from the left: Trude Fonneland, Liv Astrid Svaleng Kvammen, Jelena Porsanger, Cathrine Baglo, Maren Goltz, Taina Máret Pieski, Jenny Fjellheim, Sunneva Sætevik, Karoline Trollvik, Thomas Ole Andersen. Photo: Tone Elvebakk.

Many thanks to the generous museum staff at Bådåddjo/Buvvda, Árran, and Várdobáiki and many thanks to everyone involved. It was a fantastic trip full of new insights, knowledge, great conversation and inspiration!

Jïjnjh heelsegh

Cathrine Baglo

 

 

 

Endnotes:

[i] https://arran.no/aboutus

[ii] https://www.vardobaiki.no/

[iii] https://norskfolkemuseum.no/baastede

[iv] https://museumsforbundet.no/nyheter/program-for-workshops-with-public-events-at-arran-and-vardobaiki/

[v] https://www.nordlandsmuseet.no/bymuseet-i-bodo; https://www.bodo2024.no/prosjekter/badaddjo-musea

[vi] The exhibition was made by Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat – The Sámi Museum in Karasjok for their 50th anniversary in 2022. See the link for a digital version and a description: https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=35mGmTZpffi;

https://rdm.no/en/de_samiske_samlinger-2/ruoktot-50ars-jubileumsutstilling-til-de-samiske-samlinger/.

[vii] Stoye’s talk took place at Várdobáiki.

[viii] https://www.vardobaiki.no/hva-skjer/fast-utstilling-hilla-min-muitalusak/

[ix] For more information about repatriation practices at Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum. MEK, MARKK and other German museums see, Baglo 2025, “Skråblikk på samiske samlinger». Årbok for Universitetsmuseet i Bergen.

[x] https://www.vardobaiki.no/avdelinger/museum/gallogieddi/