To Capture the Sami : Memory and Power in the Work With the Archive Portal Nuohtti

Introduction: The aim of this thesis is to enhance the knowledge and understanding about the decolonization of archives and archival material. Specifically archival material that relates to the Sámi people, indigenous to the area of Sápmi in the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia. The focus of this study is the archive portal Nuohtti that has collected and digitally made available archival material, related to the Sámi people, from cultural heritage institutions from around Europe. Method: The data used for this study is a mixture of different types of documents with information regarding the archive portal Nuohtti. The documents were the archive portal itself, articles written about the portal and presentations in video-format from when the portal was launched. Additionally, one interview was conducted with the coordinator for Sámi achival material at the National Archives of Sweden. Analysis: The methodological framework consist of a qualitative document analysis which is a combination of aspects from content analysis and thematic analysis. The main theoretical concepts used in this study are silence, memory and power. Results: The study shows that the aim of Nuohtti was to make archival material available for, mainly, the Sámi people to give them the opportunity to take back control over their cultural heritage. The study also shows the significance of Sámi representation when creating an archive portal focused on Sámi archival material. Conclusion: The main conclusion of this study shows that to operate a big archive portal is something that comes with a lot of challenges and that decolonization of archives and archival materials is complicated process due to the many different aspects, both historical and contemporary, that must be considered when trying to decolonize archival material. This is a two years master’s thesis in Archival Science