In the new soundwork Birgon you will hear four stories about Sámi history in/or related to Birgon (what Bergen is called in Sámi). Birgon is based on historical documentation that I, Sážžá Kati – Katarina Dorothea Isaksen, have gathered, interpreted, and retold. The musical landscape that embraces the work is created by the Sámi/Kvääni/Norwegian musician and composer Sondre Närva Pettersen.
I
The first story is based on material from Norway’s oldest saga literature, from the 1100s-1300s. It tells the story of the South sámi princess Snefrid, who meets her soon-to-be husband Harald Fairhair. They lived happily together until one day she becomes terribly ill and dies. We also meet her brother and sister, who are mentioned in the Fundinn Nóregr (How Norway was funded) section of the Flateyjarbók saga, and whose family relationship to Snefrid is documented in the Landnámabók. The story exists somewhere between history and myth. Snefrid’s very existence in history still awakens controversy in Norway.
II
The second story is based on an old sámi folk tale, originally told by Erik Persen Trollvik from Gáivuotna (Kåfjord) in Northern Sápmi. The story, written in the 1880s, tells of a sámi fisherman who finds himself at sea, surrounded by a strange, dark mist. He manages to row through the mist and ends up in the world of the Háldi. The Háldi are an invisible people in sámi folklore, sometimes referred to as guardians, council or spirits of the land. Not unlike their human counterparts, they can be both merciful saviours and simultaneously cruel, unforgiving and dangerous beings. The eldest Háldi grants the fisherman and his family more food than they can eat, thus saving them from starvation. The Háldi gives the fisherman a ship and tells him to sail to Birgon (Bergen).
III
The third story is one of colonisation, witch-trials and murder. We attend a recounting of the Sámi noaidi* Poala-Ándes* witch-trial. The story begins as the governor of Finnmark, Hans Hansen Lilienskiold (a Norwegian civil servant and historical-topographical author), boards a ship in Birgon and sails towards Vadsø, a city/fort in the far north-east of Sápmi/Northern Norway. In Vadsø, he begins to study the local culture and history, and joins the wave of witch trials and burnings sweeping through Europe for several years. He attended the trial of Poala-Ánde (Anders Poulsen) 1600-1692 in Vadsø and wrote down a detailed description of how it unfolded. This recount has inspired parts of this story.
IV
The fourth and final story and the most recent one, is set to 1887 and we meet the 17 year-old south Sámi girl Máren Márja /Maren Marie Kant, who was made to work at “L*ppeleiren,” a tourist attraction site in Lakesvåg Birgon/Bergen that was run in the late 1800s «exhibiting» Sámi people in a «human zoo». Máren Márja’s parents, Moren Mortensen Kant and Marit Holm, are well-known figures in the Southern Sami community. They were reindeer herders in the Rossen/Røros area, and due to the colonisation of their grazing areas, they went bankrupt. For the Sámi in the Røros area, it was particularly the massive mining and the rapidly increasing number of Norwegian farmers settling on their lands that created conflicts. The Norwegian/Danish legislation at the time favoured farmers, and even though they had settled next to, or within the grazing land, the reindeer-herding Sámi generally had to pay compensation for the land their animals walked on. These compensation claims turned into lawsuits, and then into terrible debts. Similar stories are repeated throughout Sápmi, and were due to a number of discriminatory laws.
It is not unlikely that Máren Márja had to work in L*ppeleiren, due to the familys financial difficulties. She had also been part of the Sámi group exhibited at the human exhibition in Paris alongside her father. How did she end up being exhibited in Birgon / Bergen?
You can read more about Máren Márja and her family here: https://nsr.no/bergen-sameforening/sorsamisk-historie-bergen/
*a noiadi is a traditional Sámi «shaman, acting as a spiritual mediator, healer, and guide between the human and spirit worlds in indigenous northern Scandinavian Sámi cultures.
*https://snl.no/Anders_Paulsen Poala-Ánde (Anders Paulsen) was was the last person to be accused in the extensive series of witch trials in Finnmark, Norway/Sápmi, in the late 17th century. His case is a significant historical source for understanding Sámi religion and the Christianization efforts of the time.
Musical credits:
The work was composed, played, recorded, mixed and mastered by Sondre Närva Pettersen
Musical material:
Ivgurášša – Trad. yoik
Njoktje – Trad. vuelie (south Sámi yoiking form)
Sang Til Bergen (Song for Bergen), origin unknown
«Deilig er den himmel blå» melody by Jacob Gerhard Meidell (1853)
Visual art (dajdda) and duodji:
As part of Jiennagoahtis’s inauguration, we received funding from Sámediggi-The Sámi parliament to acquire art-and duoddji works by Joar Nango, Unna Girje Gumpi, a guest book by Hans Ragnar Mathisen, Čohkkát-gáma by Máret Rávdna Buljo and a rákkas (sleeping tent) created by Katarina Spik Skum.
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Program curation 2025-2026.
The sound-works presented in Jiennagoahti in 2024-2025 are curated by Sážžá Káhtariinná/Katarina Dorothea Isaksen, a Bergen-based artist/filmmaker from Sážža/Senja and artist/composer Elin Már Øyen Vister (NO), based on Røst in Lofoten/Lofuohtta, Sábme (Northern Norway) as well as the Borealis festival.
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