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.