festival, with food and dance; dance in Sámi culture; dance with dance students from Uganda, India, Iran, South Africa, Colombia and Guatemala; dance with two musicians from Malawi and two from Norway; dance for deaf and hearing people; dance and music from Norway and Asia; and encounters between the genres ballroom, Lindy Hop, 60s, salsa and jazz.
At the consultation meetings, several people pointed to the importance of intergenerational meetings for the transmission of ICH, and were concerned that opportunities for such meetings are reduced in today's age-segregated society. Examples of the passing on of traditions in families include transhumance, where the number of working high-altitude summer dairy farms has fallen sharply.
Question 15.3
Do development interventions recognize the importance of ICH in society?
Yes
thereto. Sámi actors have submitted that work on this topic should be raised to a pan-Sápmi level going forward. See also Indicators 17.3 and 24.3.
• As a source of knowledge and skills
Sámi groups and the national minorities all point out that there is a strong link between the tangible and the intangible cultural heritage. Several Sámi museum institutions and actors have highlighted the right to manage their own cultural heritage through the use of their own knowledge and traditions in museum-related activities.
Both Sámi actors and representatives of several of the national minorities have pointed to the importance of protecting the language to the preservation and transmission of craft knowledge, and that if restoration work is performed by craftspeople from the majority community, this knowledge will be lost.
Examples include:
• A total of 19 Sámi language centres have been established in Norway. Apart from the one in Oslo, they are all located in Sápmi (on the Norwegian side of the boarder).
The language centres are intended to help strengthen and develop Sámi languages.
The language centres’ activities play an important role in highlighting the Sámi language in the local community. The language centres focus on their specific language areas and initiate measures tailored to the needs of the various areas. For example, some of them are active in the work relating to place names.
• Five Kven language centres have been established to strengthen the Kven language.
The language centres help to strengthen the language in various ways, depending on local conditions and requirements. The centres often provide different activities for different age groups and work with adult education, contribute to the development of teaching materials and hold language and cultural events and courses for a variety of target groups.
• In 2016, the Riddu Duottar Museat (RDM) held a river boat course in collaboration with Sámiid Vuorká-Dávvirat/The Sámi Collections and Guovdageainnu
gilišillju/Kautokeino Local Museum, in connection with the “River Boat” project. On the basis of the 2016 river boat course, an exhibition was developed in 2017, which consisted of texts, photos and films about the construction and use of the traditional river boat. In 2018, a department at RDM, Porsanger Museum, staged the “River Boats in Porsanger” project. The project consisted of a course in boat building, documentation and dissemination. The object of the course was to preserve and transmit existing knowledge. The course was held in the Kven, Finnish and Sámi.
Through the documentation project and the practical course in building river boats, the museum wanted to collect information and document knowledge of how to build river boats of different sizes and types. https://www.porsanger.kommune.no/kurs-i-elvebaatbygging-sommeren-2018.6053837-21678.html?showtipform=2
• Communicating in two or more languages is resource-intensive for museums.
However, it is important to disseminate ICH to both Sámi-speaking actors and those
who do not understand Sámi languages.
The instructor network regularly provides input to Arts Council Norway and to political processes, for example through public consultations, in which they have expressed the desire for stronger government regulation and more systematic
monitoring of work relating to ICH to ensure that traditions, practices and knowledge are adequately safeguarded.
• As a resource to enable sustainable development
Sámi cultural heritage is defined on the basis of a holistic view of culture, which includes sustainability to protect nature as the basis for reindeer husbandry, for culinary traditions and duodji (Sámi crafts), for yoik, rituals and belief systems.
Sámi actors have underlined that Sámi hunting and fishing traditions, as well as the use of uncultivated land for husbandry and gathering take a holistic approach to the exploitation of and harvesting from nature. Many of these practices and approaches are heading for extinction, since they often conflict with the majority society's regulations regarding the use of uncultivated land. Two examples were highlighted:
• The practice of “lodden”, a traditional method for hunting ducks which remains in use in Kautokeino, conflicts with how the majority society defines the use of
uncultivated land: https://www.guovdageainnu.suohkan.no/_f/p1/i3380f0e8-2424-4ab6-a633-1240ccdbd82c/lodden-en-kulturbarende-sedvane-i-guovdageaidnu.pdf
• In 2021, one of Europe’s largest salmon rivers, the Tana River, which stretches from Karasjok to the mouth of the Tana River, was closed for all fishing. This has had an impact on the River Sámi people’s culture, and it will impair the Sámi cultural heritage (cf. indicator 13.5 and 15.1). See reports and articles:
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/sapmi/guldal_jiena_solveig_joks_arvala_ahte_sami_arb ediehtu_boahta_hedjonit_go_samit_eai_beasa_deanus_bivdit_luosa/11961272 https://sametinget.no/aktuelt/mener-stenging-av-fisket-er-en-alvorlig-krise-for-elvesamisk-kultur.14358.aspx
https://sametinget.no/aktuelt/reagerer-pa-forslag-om-stans-av-sjolaksefiske.13915.aspx
Several actors have submitted input saying that ICH is relevant for the sustainable development of local cultures and helps to create a sense of belonging. Sustainable choices relate to professional identity and knowledge about durability and reuse, about the use of nature and management of the natural environment.
• Norwegian culinary culture provides useful knowledge to enable sustainable choices to be made in a public health and environmental perspective. The local community and voluntary sector are important in this effort.
• The Norwegian Folk Art and Craft Association’s initiative “Holdbart” (durable), is described in Indicator 17.1
The Norwegian Museum Association submitted that the museums create awareness of the local use of natural resources in dialogue with the local community. This includes both indigenous people and national minorities in the regions concerned and immigrants. Systematic efforts are being made to promote cultural diversity in the regional museums as well (e.g. The Museum of Oslo), through language tuition, cultural events and training courses.
The instructor network regularly provides input directly to Arts Council Norway, as well as through consultation processes, in which they point to the need to look at the Convention's intentions as a holistic and sector-transcending policy area. The political debate must be broader and encompass, in particular, the field of education and research, as well as the cultural heritage field.
Baseline and target
The first scale below automatically indicates the extent to which this indicator is met based on the information provided above. It constitutes a baseline for future reporting.
The second scale allows you, on a voluntary basis, to define a target for the next reporting exercise, in six-year time, and a text box allows you to explain how you intend to achieve this target.
Extent to which the current indicator is met:
Satisfied
Target for the next report:
Satisfied
Briefly explain why the State decided to establish this target for the next reporting cycle and how it will try to achieve it. In doing so, you can refer to the specific aspects and assessment factor(s) for this indicator that the State may wish to address: