{"id":342,"date":"2020-06-25T23:24:03","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T20:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/arctisen\/?p=342"},"modified":"2020-06-25T23:25:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T20:25:32","slug":"different-stories-teaching-sami-cultures-in-tourism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogi.eoppimispalvelut.fi\/arctisen\/2020\/06\/25\/different-stories-teaching-sami-cultures-in-tourism\/","title":{"rendered":"Different Stories: Teaching S\u00e1mi Cultures in Tourism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Text and photos: Ella Bj\u00f6rn<\/p>\n

Why learn about S\u00e1mi cultures? Indigenous cultures are critical to our planet\u2019s cultural diversity. Over the years in Finland, tourism entrepreneurs have spread stereotypical and inaccurate information about S\u00e1mi cultures. Although exploitation in tourism has decreased in recent times and S\u00e1mi people have started their own businesses, the need to teach the correct information about their cultures still exists.<\/p>\n

Like other Indigenous cultures, S\u00e1mi cultures usually have a holistic worldview in which humans and nature are equal rather than separated. All forms of matter, including animals, are equal actors inhabiting this world. Humanity is not above them.<\/p>\n

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In her master\u2019s thesis, Ella studied the socio-material practices of teaching S\u00e1mi cultures to tourists in Finnish Lapland.<\/p><\/div>\n

This was a central focus of my master\u2019s thesis; I studied the socio-material practices of teaching S\u00e1mi cultures to tourists in Finnish Lapland.<\/p>\n

The concept of socio-materiality holds that the social and the material are strongly connected and tightly intertwined. Material elements, such as a table, enable the social activities around them, making the material social as well. The connection between humans and material can also be social in, for example, the making of handicrafts, which can build a relationship between the maker and the product.<\/p>\n

Several ways of teaching S\u00e1mi cultures appeared in my research, and one was storytelling, a form in which material elements can also play a part. Storytelling is common in S\u00e1mi cultures, and stories carry significant meaning. They can help build individual and collective identities, are usually told by elders and are transferred from generation to generation. They highlight different values, worldviews, histories and attitudes, and they can also be funny. Stories also often represent or foretell change.<\/p>\n

Stories can be told while making handicrafts, another important aspect of S\u00e1mi cultures. A convenient way of teaching and learning about these cultures is attending handicraft workshops and working with materials at the same time, as handicrafts can also carry information. A self-made or purchased handicraft carries a story and leaves tourists with long-lasting memories of S\u00e1mi cultures and their overall trip to Finland.<\/p>\n

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The bracelet I made in Julia Allemann\u2019s S\u00e1mi handicraft workshop in Lauri House, Rovaniemi.<\/p><\/div>\n

Apart from workshops, stories can often be told in nature, perhaps while walking from one place to another. In S\u00e1mi cultures, different natural places often have their own stories, and these are rarely written down; rather, they exist in the storyteller\u2019s memory. Tellers learn the story by hearing them, and because they do so in nature, they incorporate their bodies and senses, such as touching, smelling, seeing and hearing. Once again, we see nature and different materials playing a big role in a learning process.<\/p>\n

In sum, tourists who want to learn about S\u00e1mi cultures should be exposed to their stories, as they can:<\/p>\n