Saami Research Group

Trance-disciplinary research group on linguistic, cultural, historical and didactical topics concerning Saami and Indigenous issues. The group consists of scholars at the Faculty of Teacher Education and Arts, from campuses both in Lule Saami and South Saami traditional territories.

The group consists of well-established and junior scholars. We have four long-term objectives:

  • To improve the strategies and infrastructure for research, and to augment the number of research projects and publication at the faculty
  • To better the recruitment of scholars in the field of Saami research at Nord University
  • To develop necessary, new and tighter cooperation among the Saami research environments across faculties and campuses at Nord University
  • To develop further cooperation with other relevant institutions, both Saami and non-Saami, outside Nord University
  • To be a resource for the Saami communities, and to develop and strengthen the relations with these  

Active Research Projects

  • Elisabeth Bjørnestad (project leader). 
    EQS-group BLU Bodø: Anne-Grethe Baustad, Martin Samuelsson, Ellinor Myrvang, Tove Ingebrigtsen, Kristin A. Ø. Fløtten.

    Objective:
    A survey study for educators, parents, students and administrations. The survey consist of six focus areas. A) Pedagogical interaction with the children. B) Quality of familial references (Family involvement). C) Pedagogical orientation. D) Pedagogical structure. E) Other important aspects (open ended question). F) General information.

    The project is part of European Quality Seal study (EQS) lead by Prof. Wolfgang Tietze and PädQUIS® gGmbH. 9 participating countries. 

  • Kåre Haugan (project leader) and Anna Marie Holand.
    Started January 2020.  
    The aim of the study is to identify and describe traditional use of plants and mushrooms by the South Saami people. 

    The South Saami region is located between Elgå (east of the lake Femunden) up north to the river Ranelva (Mo i Rana). Information will primarily be collected by interviewing South Saami people that have experience with and knowledge of traditional use of plants and mushrooms.

    Little have been published within this ethnobotanical field and one outcome will be increased knowledge of the South Saami culture and way of living. In addition, a second goal will be to develop a textbook supporting teaching and learning in schools regarding South Saami culture and identity. It is likely that the number of people with this kind of ethnobotanical knowledge is decreasing, and it is thus of great importance to implement such studies in the near future. Systematically collection of South Saami botanical tradition now would give a contribution to increase and conserve information that otherwise might be increasingly more difficult to obtain.

    Final goals of the project is to publish in ethnobotanical scientific journals and to write a textbook about South Saami ethnobotany – texted in both the Norwegian and South Saami language.

  • Project leader: Leiv Sem

    The project aims at deepening our understanding of South Saami history and culture. This project is an investigation of how South Saami memory culture is formed, articulated, and applied by various agents in two specific historical cases, where the question of Indigenous or national identity has been especially crucial. The first one is the period of active assimilation/segregation of the Saami into Scandinavian nation-states. The other is the period of the Second World War 1939–45 which highlighted any citizens’ national identity.

    The main objective is to analyse how a South Saami identity and memory has been constructed over time through negotiations between the Indigenous and the non-Saami majority society. We ask: How have these two crucial junctures of South Saami history been understood, remembered, interpreted, and used to articulate a sense of South Saami identity, within the South Saami community itself and from the outside?

    The processes, experiences and responses of the South Saami community is seen in comparison to other Saami communities, and to the similar processes and challenges lived through by other Indigenous communities in Canada and USA.

    We will be collecting and analysing three main types of data: qualitative interviews; archival records and documents; and historiographical texts, historical narratives and analysis. Theoretically, the project seeks to bridge modern memory studies to the field of Indigenous society and culture.

  • ​Project leader: Minerva Piha

    In this research project the use of the Saami terms in the archaeological research concerning the past of the indigenous Saami is studied. The study includes Saami archaeological research in Finland, Norway and Sweden as carried out during the period from 1970 to 2019. By term is meant the names that are used to refer to the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami, for example, different types of sacred sites, dwelling sites and artifacts.

    In recent decades, the control over Saami cultural heritage has in many cases been handed over to the Saami. Yet, archaeological research concerning the Saami is mainly carried out by non-Saami archaeologists and published in Scandinavian languages, Finnish or English, and even terms used to naming archaeological cultural heritage are foreign. This may estrange the Saami from their own past. The Saami languages have names for archaeological cultural heritage, and these names explain the functions and nature of the archaeological findings in a more authentic and familiar manner than the foreign terms.

    Thus, it is important to study how Saami terms have been used in the research and how their usage has changed over the decades. Also the reasons for using or not using Saami terms will be examined. Another research question is how the use of the Saami terms has influenced, changed, renewed and created archaeological discourses. The approach of the study is based on the thoughts and theories of Indigenous Studies and Indigenous Archaeologies.

    This research is connected with the cultural heritage rights of the Saami people as well as with minority language policies and politics. The aim is to find solutions to the problematic issues related to the use of the Saami terms in the archaeological research and, as an outcome, to present a Nordic-wide practice for the use of the Saami terms in the archaeological research. This will make it easier for researchers to reflect and, if needed, change the ways of using the Saami terms in their archaeological research. Thus, the research is an important step towards further advancing the rights of the indigenious Saami people to their own language and history.

    The data material includes, first, the Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish publications that concern the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami and were carried out in 1970–2019, and, second, the responses to a questionnaire survey targeted to archaeologists who are working with the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami. The methods of conceptual content and discourse analyses will be applied to these two datasets. A conceptual content analysis for the published research is conducted to investigate the use and non-use of the Saami terms. The analysis will enable the examination of which Saami terms have been used in archaeological research and how the use of the Saami terms has changed over the decades. The aim of the questionnaire is to collect researchers’ views on the matter, which often are not articulated in the published research. By applying discourse analysis, the change in the discourses around the archaeological cultural heritage of the Saami will be studied.

  • Project leader: Håkon Hermanstrand

    The postdoc project’s working title is Same, bygdesame, sjøsame eller norsk? Saami identity among inhabitants by the Trondheimsfjord 1800 – 1920.

    The research idea is to study the history of a part of the South-Saami population that could be called bygdesamer or sjøsamer by the Trondheimsfjord, and to compare the results with research on the Swedish system of sockenlapps.

    The main idea is to follow generations on four different Saami settlement areas by the Trondheimsfjord and then consider a transnational comparison with the Swedish situation.

    The postdoc project is a part of the overarching project South Saami Memory Culture.

  • Petro Pesonen (University of Helsinki and Finnish Heritage Agency, Finland; project leader), Minerva Piha (Nord University, Norway), Marja Ahola (University of Oulu, Finland)

    In this research project, we examine how Proto-Saami and its descendants, the Saami languages, are related to the archaeological ceramics groups of Luukonsaari and Sirnihta and the people who produced these ceramics and were the first iron manufacturers of the area of Finland and Karelia. The time frame is between 600 BCE and 600 CE.

    We will investigate the continuity of the archaeological groups and what kind of manifestations iron manufacture has in archaeological material. We will also research the etymological background of the iron-related vocabulary of the Saami languages and search for toponymy of Proto-Saami origin in the area in which the archaeological material is discovered.

    The ultimate aim of the project is to correlate the archaeological and linguistic results by answering the question of whether there is a connection between the Saami languages, early iron manufacture and ceramic groups of Luukonsaari and Sirnihta. The research is multidisciplinary with archaological and linguistic methods.

Completed projects

  • Trond Risto Nilssen (project leader). 

    The aim of the project was to heighten the knowledge and the awareness of South Saami culture and history. Through a trans-disciplinary approach we studied how South Saami identity was negotiated through interaction with the majority culture, and how these cultures had affected one another.

    Partners:
    Saemien Sijte - South Saami Museum and Cultural Centre, Snåsa, Norway

    NTNU University Museum - Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim Norway

    Tromsø University Museum -  The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø

    University of Saskatchewan - Canada

    Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador - Canada

    Tråante 2017​ -  The Centennial of the Sami people's First National Congress Held in Trondheim 1917

    Sijti Jarnge - Saami Cultural Centre, Hattfjelldal, Norway

    Røros Museum - Røros, Norway 

    Dissemination:

    Asbjørn Kolberg: «Samer er vort rette nationale navn» – hundre års sørsamiske representasjoner i nordtrønderske aviser Heimen Volum: 55, Hefte: 1, sider: 31-49

    Asbjørn Kolberg: "De godmodige naturmennesker" – Framstillingen av samisk folkeliv og språk i "Laminlamme" av Maurits Hansen. Norsklæreren 2017 Hefte: 4, Sider: 14 – 26

    Leiv Sem: Om framstillinga av sørsamar i Trøndelags historie. Heimen, 2017, Volum: 54, Hefte: 2, sider: 130 – 144

    Håkon Hermanstrand, Asbjørn Kolberg, Trond Risto Nilssen og Leiv Sem: The Indigenous Identity of the South Saami. Historical and Political Perspectives on a Minority within a Minority. Springer 2019

    Other information is available at Forskning.no.

  • Project leader Ylva Jannok Nutti, Sámi Állaskuvla.
    Project (2015–2017) funded by Norwegian Research Council.

    Dissemination:

    Kristin A.Ø. Fløtten : "Brobygging mellom kulturer – om å ha kompetanse til å kunne utvikle flerstemt pedagogisk virksomhet". Building bridges between cultures - having competence to develop multidisciplinary educational activities. In Ylva Jannok Nutti (ed.) Flourishing Indigenous Knowledge in Education Writings by Educators and Researchers (in print).

  • Objective:
    To meet the challenge and need for both a broader and deeper knowledge appropriate to indigenous worldviews and values as an ordinary and presupposed part of the curricula in university as well as in the kindergarden.

    Papers/dissemination:
    Kristin A. Ø. Fløtten: "ECEC-Teacher Education - Integrating Sami perspectives as a visible, basic and part of the core curricula. Main findings so far in student/EC-teacher' opinion". Igniting Knowledge Sharing: World Indigenous Research And Education Conference, August 22th - 24th 2018 in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino,

    Kristin A. Ø. Fløtten «Hva ser lærerne? – ser de barnehagelærerutdanningens integrering av samiske perspektiver som synlige og grunnleggende deler av læreplanene.» DiVE Hamar December 2018

    Kristin A. Ø. Fløtten "Perspectives on indigenous curricula contents; what may be the further steps to secure and develop a Saami perspective, indigenous knowledge in the ECEC Teacher education" EECERA, Thessaloniki 2019

  • Project leader: Bruce Morén-Duolljá 

    Project period: 2011-presentFinancing (2011-2015): The Research Council of Norway - project number 203276

    Objectives:Basic research that provides a comprehensive description of the grammar of Lule SaamiThe description will cover the needs of several groups, including researchers, educators, students and others in the Lule Saami language community.

    Partners: UiT Norway's Arctic University (2011-2013)
    Árran - julevsáme guovdásj (2011-present)

    Selected publications: 

    • Morén-Duolljá, B. (2018) Kartlegging og utredning av morfologi i lulesamiske avledede substantiv. Compendium. Nord universitet.
    • Morén-Duolljá, B. (2018) Lulesamiske hjelpeverb: Kopulaverb og polaritetsverb. Compendium. Nord universitet.
    • Kintel, A. og Morén-Duolljá, B. (2018) Jiednaoahppa (fonetihkka). Compendium. Nord universitet.
    • Morén-Duolljá, B. (2016) Kartlegging og utredning av lulesamiske adjektiv som slutter på "lasj" og "lis". Consultation report (working draft) to Sámi Giellagáldu.
    • Morén-Duolljá, B. (2015) Rapport til Statped nord om hvordan man utvikler en lulesamisk "fonemtest". Consultation report (working draft) to Statped nord.
    • Morén-Duolljá, B. (2016) Kartlegging og utredning av (noen) lulesamisk substantiver lånt fra svensk/norsk - med spesiell fokus på vokaler. Consultation report (working draft) to Sámi Giellagáldu.
    • Morén-Duolljá, B. (2014) Lulesamisk grammatikk: den er ikke som du tror. Bårjås, pp. 62-72. Árran - julevsáme guovdásj. Drag, Norway.
    • Fangel-Gustavson, N., Ridouane R. og Morén-Duolljá, B. (2014) Quantity contrast in Lule Saami: A three-way system. Proceedings of the 10th International Seminar on Speech Production (ISSP), pp. 106-109. Cologne, Germany. 

    Additional information is available in Cristin-project-ID 315517 and 455478.

  • Leiv Sem (project leader) and Asbjørn Kolberg.
    Project owner: Røyrvik municipality.
    Supported financially by Regionale Forskningsfond Midt-Norge. 
    The main aim of the project is to develop a research based integration of Saami traditional knowledge in administration and business in Røyrvik, and to develop the South Saami teacher education program at Nord University.

    Sub-goals:
    1) mapping what role and status the local school gives to Saami culture, language, traditional Saami pedagogy and concept of knowledge.
    2) Investigate how curricula and official regulations understand Saami concepts of knowledge and educational methods and culture, and to put these in a context of global scholarship of Indigenous studies.
    3) Analyse the knowledge need in local business and municipal administration staff.

PhD Projects

  • PhD fellow: Håkon Hermanstrand.

    An overarching objective of the project is to investigate if an understanding of the Saami land lease ("bygsel") system can produce a better understanding of ethnic processes connected to historical sources, and thus give a contribution to theory and method in Saami historical research.

  • «Literary heroines in arctic life worlds: Gender and hybridity in Nelvana of the Northern Lights (1941-1947), White Heat (2011) og Kautokeino, en blodig kniv (2012)» (phd-project). 

    PhD fellow: Cathrine Bjerknes.

    The project is attached to the now closed research project «Arctic modernities» at the UiT The Arctic University of Norway. 

Contact person
Employee photo: David Kroik
Leader of the research group

David Kroik

david.kroik@nord.no