Lapland - Sami Cultural Village
Project Coordinator - Ante Aikio
Location
Levi, Finnish Lapland.
Concept drawing for the future development of
the Lapland Cultural Village by Peter Edgeley
Geography
Levi is one of the largest ski resorts in Finnish Lapland. The resort is located in Kittilä municipality and is served by Kittilä Airport and Kolari train station. The Levi fell is 531 metres above sea level. There are 48 skiing slopes (15 of which are floodlit) and 26 skiing lifts in Levi. Levi is another of the two sites of gondola lifts in Finland.
Lapland is the home of about 3.6% of Finland’s population, and is by far the least densely populated area in the country. The biggest towns in Lapland Province are Rovaniemi (the provincial capital), Kemi, and Tornio. Of the more than 185 000 inhabitants, less than 5% are Sami people.The skiing and snowboarding season in Levi is very long. Other possible activities in Levi are cross-country skiing, snowmobile safaris, biking, husky dog safaris, fishing, hiking and canoeing.
Culture
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are one of the indigenous people of northern Europe inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of northern Sweden, Norway, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia. Their ancestral lands span an area the size of Sweden in the Nordic countries. The Sami people are among the largest indigenous ethnic groups in Europe. Their traditional languages are the Sami languages.
Traditionally, the Sami have plied a variety of livelihoods, including coastal fishing, fur trapping, and sheep herding. However, the best known Sami livelihood is semi-nomadic reindeer herding - which about 10% of the Sami are connected with and 2,800 actively involved with full-time. Reindeer herding is legally reserved only for Sami people in certain regions of the Nordic countries. To make up for past suppression, the authorities of Norway, Sweden and Finland now make an effort to build up Sami cultural institutions and promote Sami culture and language.
Socio-Economic
Until the arrival of the Black Death of 1349 in northern Norway, the Sami and Norwegians occupied very separate economic niches. The Sami hunted reindeer and fished for their own livelihood. The Norwegians, concentrated on the outer islands and outer sections of the fjords were connected to the greater European trade routes, did marginal farming in the Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark counties, and fished for trade products from the south. The two groups co-existed using two different food resources.
Following the Black Death, the socio-economic climate had changed. 60-76% of the north Norwegian farms were abandoned following the plague. The method of movement of the plague was through wooden barrels holding wheat, rye, or wool from the south, where the fleas could live - even reproduce, for several months at a time. The Sami, having a non-wheat or rye diet, eating fish and reindeer meat, living in communities detached from the Norwegians and being only weakly connected to the European trade routes, fared far better from the plague than the Norwegians.
Reindeer husbandry has been, and is, an important aspect of Sami culture. During the years of forced assimilation, the areas in which reindeer herding was an important livelihood were among the few where the Sami culture and language survived. Today, in Norway, reindeer husbandry is legally protected as an exclusive Sami livelihood, such that only persons of Sami descent with a linkage to a reindeer herding family can own, and hence make a living off, reindeer. Presently, about 2,800 people are engaged in reindeer herding in Norway.
Project Aim
- To build a centre that encourages the ideas of culture and community, that is facilitated by the arts, calling particular attention to local customs, products and materials of the “Living Sami-village”.
- Illustration of Sami culture for International travelers.
- Provide cultural education and practices for Sami/Finnish school children.
- Encourage active skills and artisan practices for Sami culture and arts.
- To encourage and facilitate sustainable community growth.
Objectives
- To create a centre for learning: handicraft, making, selling, and showing.
- Provide means to illustrate and capture culture and practice of medicine plants.
- Demonstrate the mythic side of the Sami culture.
- Prepare, demonstrate and sell local cuisine of the region, esp. Sami culture.
- Provide a working Coral for 40-50 Reindeer.
Physical Facilities Required
- Classrooms/space for: teaching of Sami skills with storage, tables, desks etc; training in medicine plants; mythic teaching/display.
- Workshops for training in handicraft.
- Kitchen and Café for local cuisine of Sami culture.
- Accommodation for local people and families.
- Tourism accommodation.
Design Criteria
- Creation of a Centre for activities based on traditional vernacular architecture and modern building design with an emphasis on transparency to include a weaving centre, books area/building, architecture/arts and fine arts centre/building and community garden and kitchen facility/building.
- Sustainable development practices; conservation; preservation; health issues; and socioeconomic issues outline for developing areas.
- Renewable energy resources as well as water and waste water recycling.
- Easily accessible and local building materials that can endure ease of maintenance.
- A website will be created to market the products and illustrate the Centre.
- Income generated through the Centre’s activities.