Now I finally have 2 pre-readers for my doctoral dissertation, I can breathe easily again and enjoy the summer, hopefully. My subject matter is a new genre of research and therefore, finding pre-readers has meant a 3 month wait, but as they are confirmed and have received the text and published papers I can share something about the nature of my research, which actually began in 2002 when I came as Bachelor of Arts Erasmus exchange student to the University of Helsinki, from Bath Spa University in my native England, to study Indigenous Religions and Arctic Civilizations. Since that time, it has been full engagement with the study of Sámi religion and cosmology, which, for anyone who has trodden this interesting, but also ambiguous pathway, will know the road is more crooked than it is straight. As is the case when studying another’s culture and the traditions and practices that are at its core.

But, and at the same time, because in the case of the study of Sámi pre-Christian religion, there have been some parts of it where I have not been dealing with so called ‘man-made’ religion, where there is a holy book or a human figure who is a prophet. Instead, and for example, the documentation of Sámi culture in relation to religion, which is characterized by cultural memory and heritage from the study of prehistoric rock art, which has been created by the ancestors of the Sámi people. This is a topic that has brought forth many new revelations into the study of local history with regard to cosmology and shamanism, and therefore, is one of the central areas of research for the doctoral studies. I also wish to say, how, and more recently, it is a ‘man-made’ religion in the form of Christianity, which has had such an impact on the traditions and culture of the Sámi, that in the study of Sámi religion, both Christianity and indigenous religion are synonymous because of the nature of the historical discourse, which has taken place since the seventeenth century. This is when religious scriptures and prophets come into focus. In terms of the documentation of history, Sámi culture is ambiguous because missionaries and clergymen who were from outside the culture undertook the very early and indeed first documentation into the traditions and practices of the Sámi who were a hunting, fishing and trapping peoples.

Figure 1. A human being depicted at the Alta rock carvings, Finnmark, Norway, which are 6000 years old, holding a circular instrument, which looks like a drum. In the other hand is an object, which looks like a beater of hammer, used to play the instrument with. Similar images can be found painted on noaidi drums from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Photograph and copyright Ismo Luukkonen 1994-2016.

In the dissertation, I have focused primarily on how amongst both prehistorical rock paintings from Finland and rock carvings from the Alta Fjord in Norway there are many comparisons and parallels with symbolism and figures from noaidi-shaman drums from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Norway, Sweden and Finland. Moreover, in what ways these sources of traditional knowledge are reused by both Sámi shamans and artists in their work today, for a variety of reasons, but especially with regard to keeping their culture and traditions alive. Therefore, the study and investigation into Sámi religion and cosmology consists of three time periods, namely prehistory, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and contemporary culture with regard to the appearance of new kinds of drums; instruments, which were outlawed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by priests and missionaries, a mentality, which is still commonplace in some areas of Sápmi today.

In this sense, the red line (as I have heard it called), which links all the research and periods together is art. Art in the cosmology and religion of indigenous peoples is the first written language. A language characterised by symbolism, cultural codes and designs that translate into a sacred form of communication and narrative. In this way, art may be understood as one of the treasures of Sámi culture. Such a wealth of symbolism created through interspecies communication between the human world and worlds of the spirits. In fact, it could be said that the invisible dimensions in the spiritual worlds have been one of the reasons why these stories have been embedded in nature and culture for thousands of years. Art is the vehicle for the transmission of culture and traditions, reflecting the Sámi people’s relationship with nature.

Figure 2. Replicated drums, which have been modified see here on display on a souvenir shop in Ivalo. Photograph and copyright Francis Joy 2016.

Because of the nature of the historical events that have taken place throughout Sápmi, today, we find there are many reproductions of different kinds of jewelry and handicrafts, which have their origins in the handicraft tradition of duodji, and have been appropriated from drums that have originated in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These items are being reproduced en-mass within the tourist industry, thereby, bringing into focus many questions and challenges related to Sámi cultural heritage. One of the underlying causes for such appropriation concerns the consequences of colonialism, where there is a belief that Sámi religion and related traditions do not exist anymore, which is not true. On reflection, being able to interview Sámi shamans, healers and artists have been of critical importance when taking into consideration how early documentation has portrayed the culture and traditions, and the fact that shamanism has been kept a secret practice for hundreds of years because of persecution of noaidi, the spiritual healers, by the Churches. 

The research, which has been significantly influenced by participant observation, has been like deep detective work, aimed at filling in gaps in Sámi cultural history, based in the fact that when the documentation of European history has taken place, Sámi history was not included, and therefore missing. At the same time, bringing into focus new forms of research related to heritage and identity, which have much value for scholarly discourse. The main challenges throughout the course of the research have been the language and fact that many early sources have been written mostly in Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian and German. However, more recently, many new sources have emerged that have been written by Sámi scholars in the English language about their cultural history and what they have to say about it, which brings Sámi studies and research into the forefront of scholarly discourse. Depending on how the doctoral studies progress, I have enough material in addition to write a book about Sámi religion and art. This is the direction, the post-doctoral studies will take at some point in the future.

Figure 3. A picture taken with Shaman Lauri Ukkola, from Vuotso village, taken in the Sodankyla municipality in 2013. Lauri is a hunter and reindeer herder who still practices traditional shamanism and healing, which has been passed across generations in his family. Photograph and copyright Francis Joy 2013.