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Christian Andre Strand
This is not an exhibition about the history of the Sámi people, but it includes historical events that had a significant impact on Sámi way of life and living conditions, such as the borders of nation states across Sápmi/Sámi territory, or the destruction during the Second World War, as well as reconstruction and modernisation in the post-war era.
The emphasis of the exhibition is on subsistence such as hunting, fishing, farming animal husbandry and reindeer pastoralism. The exhibition also deals with some important features of earlier times, such as pre-Christian religion. A large collection of Sámi regalia reflects the diversity of Sámi culture, with garments from North, East, Lule and South Sámi areas.
A separate section of the exhibition deals with the more recent conditions in Sápmi/Sámi territory, with glimpses of the Alta controversy around 1980, the establishment of the Sami Parliament in 1989, and new cultural expressions in literature, music, film and theatre.
Bååstede
Bååstede (”return” in the South Sámi language) is a project initiated in 2007, started in 2009 and formally ended in 2022. The background for the project is the right to manage one’s own cultural heritage according to national and international indigenous law, conventions, and museum ethics guidelines.
The project is a collaborative project between the Norsk Folkemuseum, the Museum of Cultural History/Univ. Oslo, the Sámi Parliament, the Sámi Museum Association and the six consolidated Sámi museums in Norway.
Through the project, full legal ownership of more than 1,600 objects was transferred to the Sámi museums in 2019. As part of this, many objects in the exhibition are being removed to be returned to the Sámi museums.
