On the 28th of January, the MÁHTUT Project participated in the ILIMA Project’s webinar as the first presenter in the project’s webinar series “Harvest and Heritage – Sustainable Food in the Arctic”. The title of the webinar was “Traditional Sámi Foods and Preservation Methods”, and we were more than happy to witness how many people were interested in the topic. The webinar gathered more than sixty participants who were active in asking interesting questions. Due to the popularity of the webinar, we even went a bit overtime.

At the beginning of the webinar, Taina Stark from ILIMA introduced the project. After the introduction, MÁHTUT Project Manager Mari Viinikainen gave a short overview of the themes and goals of the project. Three MÁHTUT Project team members gave presentations: Eli-Anita øivand Schøning from the Arctic University of Norway, and Marina Falevitch and Arto Saijets from the Sámi Education Institute.

Schøning presented the wonderful “Road to Guohpparmális” bargobaddji that took place in October in Manndalen. Her presentation included pictures from the different phases of the meat preparation process, and as well as pictures of various Sámi museum objects that have been essential in subsistence activities and preservation methods. You can read more about the bargobaddji at this link.

In the second half of the webinar, Marina Falevitch and Arto Saijets presented their collaborative work with Sámi knowledge holders from workshops that took place in Inari and Sevettijärvi. The presentation included pictures from the workshops, various meat and fish containers and a guollegoáhti, a Sámi fish hut. Marina and Arto beautifully described of the process of repatriating old objects for everyday use, and how the participants of the workshop were happy to share their knowledge and stories. Diving into the possibilities of the museum objects and repatriating the knowledge to the Sámi community is an essential part of the collaboration between MÁHTUT and Sámi Museum Siida.

Olu giitu to our wonderful team members Eli-Anita, Marina and Arto, and to ILIMA for a lovely webinar – best of luck with the rest of the webinars! You can watch the recorded webinar below.

Eleonora Alariesto

MÁHTUT Project Planner