{"id":289,"date":"2025-01-27T06:58:51","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/?p=289"},"modified":"2025-01-27T06:58:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:58:51","slug":"norwegian-museum-of-cultural-history-sami-cultural-exhibit-01-05-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/2025\/01\/27\/norwegian-museum-of-cultural-history-sami-cultural-exhibit-01-05-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian Museum of Cultural History – S\u00e1mi Cultural Exhibit (01\/05\/25)"},"content":{"rendered":"

On our second full day in Oslo, our class visited the open-air Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and took a closer look at the S\u00e1mi cultural exhibit. The exhibit is a circular room with artifacts displayed on every wall, surrounding a scene featuring a <\/span>goahti<\/span><\/i>, a classic S\u00e1mi tent used by the Reindeer S\u00e1mi, as well as several S\u00e1mi dressed for the cold and a reindeer. The various relics range from traditional costumes to art to literature to jewelry to so much more. Near each display there is a placard explaining what it features and what their purpose was. There are some highlights of the exhibit apart from the center scene that are quite eye-catching.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The large, diverse costume collection, containing garments from all across Norway, is a direct opposition to the assimilation practice of \u201cNorwegianization\u201d that suppressed or eradicated many expressions of S\u00e1mi culture, including that of tradi<\/span>tional dress. Currently, there is active work within the S\u00e1mi community to restore this tradition by recreating costumes using older patterns, as well as creating brand new garments. However, it is uncommon to see traditional outfits just walking around the city, as \u201cNorwegianization\u201d policies are still socially reinforced, even if they are not legally binding.<\/p>\n

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\nThere is also an abundance of artwork <\/span>in various forms. Some S\u00e1mi artists draw heavily on tradition and create <\/span>duodji<\/span><\/i> \u2013 S\u00e1mi crafts or folk art \u2013 from wood, reindeer remains, and other natural materials. Others do not rely solely on their culture for inspiration and incorporate more \u201cmai<\/span>nstream\u201d art styles and ideas into their work while still representing S\u00e1mi culture, like S\u00e1mi-Norwegian singer Mari Boine, who has won several prestigious Norwegian awards for her music that mixes traditional S\u00e1mi <\/span>yoiks<\/span><\/i> with rock or jazz elements. Still other artists fall into the activist sphere, creating posters and paintings that call for the liberation of the S\u00e1mi people while highlighting traditional cultural imagery. Although the rights and livelihoods of the S\u00e1mi people have greatly improved over the decades, including the implementation of a S\u00e1mi parliament in 1989 that works in tandem with the Norwegian government, there is still much to be improved upon.<\/span><\/p>\n

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After spending some time in the S\u00e1mi cultural exhibit, we went on a guided tour of some old buildings that had been relocated to the museum, including a \u201cp<\/span>arty house\u201d and a stave church dating back to medieval times. The church was standing room only, and our tour guide told us that when it was in use it was segregated by both class and gender; the rich were situated in the front because \u201cthey could pay to be closer to God,\u201d and the men were positioned on the right-hand side because it was where the sun would be during the service (and the side where the fire exit was). Luckily, the museum does not enforce either of these rules, so I got to stand on the right at the very front. It was very cold, and standing still in a drafty church did not help, but it was amazing to see some of the architecture that has lasted for centuries and could stand for years to come.<\/p>\n

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On our second full day in Oslo, our class visited the open-air Norwegian Museum of Cultural History and took a closer look at the S\u00e1mi cultural exhibit. The exhibit is a circular room with artifacts displayed on every wall, surrounding a scene featuring a goahti, a classic S\u00e1mi tent used by the Reindeer S\u00e1mi, as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289\/revisions\/294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/genderequalitynorway-2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}