Making Differences in a Changing World: The Norwegian Sámi in the Tourist Industry

Abstract

This article analyses the representation of the Norwegian Sámi in local and regional tourist brochures and at tourist sites. The argument put forward is that these representations give an impression of the Sámi that perpetuates their image as radically different from Norwegians. The main reason for this is the conceptual difference between tradition and a single all embracing modernity found in Western thought. To become something to see, a tourist attraction, indigenous peoples have to keep alive an image where features assumed to be modern have no place. This is not an image that only relates to a global discourse. By analysing the sites tourists encounter, it is shown how these exposures are embedded in different local and national discourses that still have consequences in the contemporary everyday life.

Keywords:

• Indigenous peoples
• tradition
• modernity
• image
• Sámi

Acknowledgements

This article was first presented as a paper at the conference; Taking Tourism to the Limits, Hamilton, New Zealand, 8–11 December 2003, and as a lecture to the students at my 2003 Tourism course at Finnmark University College. I wish to thank the participants one those two occasions, the two anonymous referees, and the editors for valuable comments.

Notes

1. “Uskyld og overtredelse – nakenheten kunne tjene som tegn på begge deler, og de to kontrapunktiske temaene l⊘per side om side fram til Opplysningstida og inn i vår egen tid: villmannen (overtrederen) og den edle villmann (uskyldigheten)” (Larsen, 1998, p. 176).

2. Wang claims that eight phases of the travel experience are found: the accumulation of mental images about vacation experiences, modification of those images by further information, the decision to take a vacation trip, travel to the destination, participation at the destination, the return home, modification of the images based on the vacation experience, and the revelation of the modified images of the destination to their friends (Wang, 2000, p. 135).