IPY School Teachers in Kautokeino / Guovdageaidnu

Welcome to the Reindeer portal

Written by Philip Burgess

Wednesday, 02 April 2008 01:00

The Norwegian IPY initiative that has seen 20 school teachers from all across Norway come to Kautokeino / Guovdageaidnu is under way this week and has been a great success. There were Norwegian, Finnish and Sami teachers in the group.

The programme has been an intense introduction to Sami culture, livelihoods, research and the various institutions and organisations that lie at the heart of contemporary Sami society. Presentations have been made by the Sami University College, the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, GALDU - the Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Sami Reindeer Herders Association, along with a visit to the Sami Parliament. Sami food culture was introduced and the group will be taken to the tundra accompanied by the well known Sami reindeer herder, 'Farmen Mikkel', whose extended Eira family is featured in the popular NRK Boazolihkku documentary. They will be accompanied on the tundra by Marit Broch Johansen, coordinator of the Veiveisere / Ofelas programme of the Sami University College.

For several, this was their first trip to Finnmark - such as Ingeborg Johansen, who teaches in Levanger, in the Trondheim region, "This trip has been very exciting - I had not been so far North before and I have received a lot of information and been so impressed by the warmth of our welcome" Others were more local, including Sami teachers from Manndalen, such as Tor Nilsen who teaches bilingual children, some of whom are from Kautokeino and Berit Siri, who teaches Sami language and culture in Kirkenes.

Presentations were made by several researchers in the EALAT project including Project Leader Svein Mathiesen, Norwegian Meteorological Institute researcher Inger Hanssen Bauer (also in EALAT), and other EALAT researchers including Ellen Inga Turi and Mathis Bongo. Elna Sara presented the work of the Assn. of World Reindeer Herders and the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry and Philip Burgess presented the Reindeer Portal.

The visit ends Friday, April 4, with a final presentation by Ole Henrik Magga.

The trip has been a Norwegian IPY initiative who provided funding and it was coordinated by Karl Torstein Hetland of the Naturfagsenteret and Ellen Brita Eira, EALAT project coordinator.

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