Knowing a coastal Sámi landscape in Finnmark: transmission and regeneration of knowledge and identity across three generations

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the role of knowledge and practices related to the natural environment in constructing and regenerating identities as Coastal Sámi across generations. The discussion draws on empirical material from a local community on the coast of Finnmark in northern Norway. To what extent are coastal Sámi identities today related to knowing specific landscapes? We explore how knowing a landscape through practical engagement and livelihood-related tasks in the local environment is part of identity regeneration in succeeding generations – from grandparents to grandchildren. Our discussion is situated in a growing field of academic and ethnopolitical contributions exploring Sámi knowledge and relationships to local landscapes and environments, drawing upon some key concepts in the broader literature on local knowledge and relational conceptions of knowledge and knowing in inter-generational transmission. We show how this transmission is performed as active re-generation through shared lived experiences of practice, as well as through narratives transmitted across generations. The empirical material analyzed here consists of narratives collected through interviews with members of three generations in eight families belonging to a predominantly coastal Sámi community in coastal Finnmark during 2018-2019.

KEYWORDS:

• Coastal Sámi
• local knowledge
• knowledge transmission
• intergenerational relations
• identity

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, as well as the journal editors for valuable suggestions and inputs in the process of finalizing this article. Finally, we would like to thank the members of three generations of research participants who were willing to share their stories, knowledge and experiences, thus providing the foundation for this publication.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Anonymized

2 “Árbevierru means that we have inherited customs, habits and usage. The traditional expression árbevierru covers the concept of tradition” (Guttorm 2011, 66).

Additional information

Funding

This article is a contribution to the project “Valuing the Past, Sustaining the Future: Education, Knowledge and Identity Across Three Generations in Coastal Communities,” led by Professor Anne Trine Kjørholt, NTNU. Funded by Norges Forskningsråd, Project Number: 254721