Arctic Indigenous Design Archives

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The project is a three-year collaborative project led by Samearkivet in Finland, in collaboration with Samisk høgskole in Norway and Ájtte museum in Sweden. The overall goal of the project is to strengthen and bring to life the region’s culture and cultural heritage through duodji and strengthen entrepreneurial skills among duojdi students at Samisk høgskole. Duodji refers to Sami handicraft, art and design. Individual duojár means Sami handicrafts, artists and designers. The project also strengthens cooperation between archives, museums and universities in Sápmi, each of which are important institutions for the strengthening and development of cultural heritage and industries.In the framework of the project, the Samearkivet and Ájtte museum will carry out an active collection and several duojár archives will be created. Duojár archives are a new type of individual archive at the institutions and are currently not available for duojár. In the archives, the focus is not on the handicrafted object, but on the archives that reflect the creation and marketing process and which are not usually taken into archives. The project has three parts: 1) Lift the value of duodji as a cult heritage by increasing awareness of duodji, Sami design, duojár profession and Sami duodji philosophy, 2) Create labour market and product opportunities for aspiring duojár, and 3) Increase knowledge of Sami language and terminology in duodji. The established archives and materials will be included in the Samisk høgskole higher education courses in Duodji. The course content focuses on digitisation of duodji processes, marketing and profiling of duojár. Archives and museums and duojár archives are used as a learning platform to create new designs based on cultural heritage. Through digital technologies and assistive devices, present new products via a personal history.Between five and ten individual duojár archives will be established at museums and archives in Sweden and Finland. The archives are made digitally searchable in the Swedish and Finnish archival systems that are already established, and are made available to the project’s target groups. Museums and archives take responsibility for managing an important part of the Sami cultural heritage for future generations that have not yet been exploited. An in-depth relationship with individual duojár will also have been established during the project as a lasting result. Within the framework of the project, a digital educational material will also be created based on the collected archive material. The goal is thus to reach out with information about duodji and duojár to young people and children, in order to ensure a transfer of knowledge to the next generations. Various forms of public events will pay attention to the duojár archives and together with partners, both workshops and university courses will be held based on the archive material.The individual archives will also be used in university courses at Sámi allaskuvla/Samisk høgskole. Students use the material in the archives as inspiration for their own creative work. Through the archives, they develop tools to profile their future entrepreneurship in duodji. There are goals that 10-20 students can complete the course during the period 2017- 2019. In connection with the project, two workshops are planned with 10-15 participants per workshop (one in Finland and one in Sweden), where children and young people will have the opportunity to get to know the philosophy of duodjin in a new way, which they can also use in their own creation. It is expected that Sami youth will become aware of the value of their cultural heritage, and develop a skill in the use of Sámi special terms. Young people can thus gain a greater understanding of what Sami values and cultural expressions are, and how these can be further developed in the 20th century.

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