Contextualizing Exhibited Versions of Sami Noaidevuohta

Abstract

An attempt to visit (and revisit) at least some of the exhibitions and museums in Arctic Scandinavia that present versions of Sami noaidevuohta had taken our group on a rather long detour during the summer of 2013—driving in a wide circle through the northern parts of Norway, Finland, and Sweden. One day we visited the Steilneset Memorial in Vardø, a spectacular monument to the memory of the victims of the Finnmark Witchcraft Trials 1600–1692. Opened in 2011, it had been created by the French/American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) and the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor (b. 1943). The site commemorates the 91 victims who were accused of practicing witchcraft and sentenced to death by burning, often after severe torture. One of the main components of the monument is a chair with an eternal flame burning at the seat, symbolizing the ordeals the victims suffered, while a 125-meter-long Memorial Hall exhibits the names of every one of the victims in small niches, together with a summary of the accusations made against them, and what little is known from the legal records about the everyday lives of these people (Willumsen s.a.). Some of the victims were, as might be expected, Sami healers who had practiced traditional noaidevuohta, but were sentenced to death after the violent encounter with the Church and legal representatives of the Danish/Norwegian government.