A place shaped by three peoples

The title Tre stammers møte – “The Meeting of Three Peoples” – has deep historical roots. The expression appeared in historical documents and oral accounts as early as the nineteenth century and has continued to shape how people understand encounters between Norwegian, Sámi and Kven communities in northern Norway.

But the phrase also carries difficult histories. Alongside neighbourliness, exchange and coexistence are stories of displacement, assimilation, Norwegianization, cultural loss and silencing.

Dyrøy/Divrrát/Tyras in the heart of Mid-Troms and its neighbouring municipalities Lavangen/Loabák, Salangen /Siellák and Gratangen/Rivttát are places where these histories remain present in landscapes, place names, memories and family stories.

Today, Dyrøy municipality has taken an active role in reconciliation and in addressing the legacies uncovered by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This civic commitment is reflected in building on a tradition of bringing research, public dialogue and local communities together through initiatives such as the annual Dyrøyseminar. This made Dyrøy a particularly meaningful location for the seminar.

Day 1 – Thursday 25 June: Knowledge, Memory, and Reconciliation

Following an official welcome from Mayor Marit Alvig Espenes, artist Trine Strand set a reflective tone with a performance before a series of presentations opened up different perspectives on the region’s past and future.

BIRGEJUPMI, WP6 Leader, Britt Kramvig from UiT explored the historical and contemporary meanings of Tre stammers møte, challenging participants to consider how the concept might help, or hinder, new ways of thinking about belonging and shared futures.

Nina Hermansen / UiT and Eva Dagny Johansen/Alta Museum, both members of WP3 and WP6 in BIRGEJUPMI, presented their work in our project on landscape and place as sites of memory, loss and potential healing.

Author Sigbjørn Skåden brought a personal and literary perspective on cultural reconnection and the process of recovering identities that have been suppressed or silenced.

Local leadership was also central. Mayor Hege Myrseth Rollmoen of Lavangen/Loabák spoke about the responsibility municipalities have to turn reconciliation into practical action. Her municipality issued an apology to its Sámi population in 2019, demonstrating how local reconciliation work can sometimes move ahead of national processes.

The message was clear: reconciliation is not only something that happens at the national level. It must also happen where people live, work, learn and raise their families.

Young people ask: What do we need to know?

One of the most powerful moments of the seminar came from the region’s young people.

Rebekka Brox Liabø and the local Youth Council presented young people’s visions for the future and their reflections on what they need to know in order to shape that future. Ahead of the seminar presentation, Rebekka and Britt met with the youth to develop methods for addressing what they need to know in order to enter the future feeling skilled and secure.

Their message was striking: they do not learn enough about the history of their own region, particularly its Sámi and Kven dimensions.

This is more than a question of curriculum. It is a question of identity, belonging and the ability to understand the place one calls home.

The discussion created an immediate response from local politicians, who committed to taking the issue forward and working to strengthen the multilingual and multicultural history of the region in local education.

This was a powerful example of intergenerational dialogue becoming concrete political momentum.

Speaking for yourself! Method

The youth contribution was rooted in the Snakk for deg sjøl! – Speak for Yourself! – methodology developed by Rebekka Brox Liabø.

The approach treats young people’s voices not simply as something to be trained or improved, but as something that already has democratic value.

Through writing, storytelling, artistic performances and creative exercises, young people are given space to explore experiences, identities and relationships. The methodology creates a low-threshold environment where spelling, handwriting or previous experiences with school do not determine whose voice matters.

Importantly, the past is not treated as something that fixes a person’s future. Instead, young people can revisit, reshape and give new meaning to experiences through creative expression.

At the seminar, this approach opened an important space for young people to articulate what they know, what they do not know — and what they need to inherit.

Stories that deserve to be heard

The afternoon continued with a facilitated dialogue about hidden and submerged narratives in the local area.

What stories have never been told publicly? Which memories have remained within families and communities? And what happens when those stories are finally given space?

That evening, Elvetun School became a stage for Jordmoder Marie Magdalena / Kvenmarja, a storytelling performance written and directed by Trine Strand.

Set in 1835, the performance followed a Kven girl coming of age in a northern landscape shaped by encounters between three peoples. Drawing on local historical sources, the performance gave an artistic and embodied form to many of the themes explored during the day.

Day 2 – Friday 26 June: Landscape, Memory, and Stories

On the second day, the seminar shifted focus — from historical reckoning towards landscape, traditional knowledge and future possibilities. The question was practical as well as ecological: how can place-based and Indigenous knowledge be mobilised creatively and responsibly and thus become living resources for the sustainable development of northern communities?

Margrethe Figved from Steinbakken Farm introduced participants to local plants as sources of food and medicine, sharing knowledge rooted in generations of close attention to the northern landscape.

Historian Lill Karin Elvestad explored the region’s layered cultural heritage and the relationship between landscape and identity.

Bjørn A. Berg presented research into stivandring – slow walking – as a way of deepening ecological awareness and developing more sustainable forms of experiential tourism.

The discussion also raised important practical questions about how visitors can move through landscapes responsibly, including the need for information about seasonal vulnerability and the species living along marked paths.

Learning by walking

In the afternoon, participants took the conversation outdoors. A guided walk led by Margrethe Figved brought the group into direct contact with the herbs, edible plants and stories of the Dyrøy landscape. It was an embodied continuation of the seminar’s central topic: knowledge is not only something found in books or presentations. It can also be carried in landscapes, practices, memories and relationships.

The seminar concluded around a shared meal based on local produce, followed by summary reflections from Tarja Salmela (Travelling Post-Corona project / UiT).

Research to the people

Across the two days, a common thread emerged. Cultural heritage, Indigenous and Kven revitalisation, reconciliation politics, and sustainable rural development are often discussed separately. In Dyrøy, they became part of the same conversation. The seminar showed how these areas can strengthen one another and how research becomes especially powerful when it is connected to the places and people it concerns.

Running across both days was a deeper question: how can traditional and local knowledge – Sámi, Kven, and Norwegian alike – be mobilised not merely as heritage to be preserved, but as a living resource for imagining and building northern futures? And how can the reconciliation process mandated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission move from national policy into the texture of local community life?

One participant described the event as an example of “research to the people”: research rooted in local communities, open dialogue and shared questions.

That may ultimately be one of the most important outcomes of Tre stammers møte.

The conversation continues

The two-day seminar did not feel like an ending.

Instead, participants and audience members expressed a strong desire to continue and expand the conversation, potentially through a future seminar involving a broader range of municipalities across Mid-Troms.

There is still much to explore: histories that have not yet been told, knowledge that needs to be revitalised, young people who want a fuller understanding of their home region, and new ways of imagining sustainable northern futures.

The two days in Dyrøy offered a powerful reminder that reconciliation is a process, not a single event.

And perhaps the best way forward is exactly what happened here: bringing people together, listening carefully, sharing knowledge, and creating space for new stories and new visions to emerge.

In the media

The seminar also received attention in the local press. Read more about “Tre stammers møte” and the conversations around reconciliation, local history and the future of the region:

https://www.folkebladet.no/nyheter/n/m08jaq/tre-stammers-moetes-her-blir-det-to-dager-med-dialog-og-seminarer

Seminar: «Tre stammers møte»

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/velkommen-til-seminar-tre-stammers-m%C3%B8te-share-7472197004023222272-HEqA/

References

Stien, K., Kramvig, B. & Brox Liabø, R. (2015). “To be or not to be: når å skrive er å skrive seg inn i et fellesskap”. In Otterstad, A. M. & Reinertsen, A. (eds.), Metodefestival og øyeblikksrealisme.