Museums portraying indigenous heritage: the case of Sámi museums in Sweden

Figures & data

Figure 1. The geographical location of Ájtte in Jokkmokk/Jåhkåmåhkke and Silvermuseet in Arjeplog/Árjapluovve.

Figure 2. Silvermuseet in Arjeplog/Árjapluovve (Photo: Dieter K. Müller).

Figure 3. Scheme of Ájtte’s exhibition halls resembling a reindeer corral (Photo: Richard Pettersson).

Figure 4. Interpretation in three languages at Ájtte (Photo: Dieter K. Müller).

Table 1. Musealized connotations of Sámi and Swedish culture.

The Sámi represent	The majority Swedish represent
The timeless pre-industrial without a distinct starting point	Modernity in all its forms and aspects
A relationship with nature and the animals’ time and space logics	A bureaucratic and legal social order, as well as state power and the monopoly on violence
Traditions, rites, and religion	Individualism whereby traditions, religion, and rites have in principle been abolished or have become niches subordinate to the modern way of life
Crafts before mass-production	Mass-produced and globally standardized goods and services
The oral and intangible transfer of cultural heritage, in which not least the language is a key factor	Culture as leisure consumption
No real distinction between work and leisure – the Sámi reindeer owner lives, so to speak, his Sámi life 24/7	A distinction between work and leisure
A primarily intangible cultural heritage in which the Sámi as a quality is represented through tradition and objects – heritage is as a rule craftsmanship and knowledge, more than the object itself	A focus on material and place-bound heritage, which is thus often manifested with reference to the unique and authentic object/environment – however, pre-industrial traditions also play their roles here, e.g. as an allusion to the Swedish pre-modern, with the same logic as for the Sámi

Figure 5. The Sámi craft exhibition at Ájtte (Photo: Dieter K. Müller).