The Saami National museum happened to be closed on Monday, but I was not upset. This museum claimed to be one of the best world museums of Saami history. The one thing I did want to see was the stone with pictographs, allegedly found not long ago, but even still there is no guarantee I missed anything; it may not have even been an authentic piece of Saami Culture. Already, I had enough materials to make accurate conclusions.
Saami ancestors have quite possibly reached more goals than we used to think. They have reached harmony in mutual relations with nature while it is unachievable for us. The nature of the North gave Saami everything they required. Nature dressed them and provided them with food and drink. Saami found happiness in dialogue with nature for their spiritual needs. The Kola Saami lived in harmony with nature. They have been a part of nature. Elderly Saami are less appreciative of the benefits of the modern civilization and are more in tune with the way of life conducted by their ancestors of centuries and even the millennium ago.
The Saami ethnic group never had a written language, never had even a tiny state or any kind of government helping to guard and protect their own people and land. They followed natural needs by hunting wild animals and reindeers, fishing, picking berries, and by living in caves, digging holes and chums. Deerskins were their clothes, and food was everything and anything that could safely be digested. They didn’t need anything. They were happiest people on the Earth, not leaving behind signs of their culture except seyds, several legends and stories, and art of communication with nature. Labyrinths and pictographs are the only real remainders of other civilizations that existed before Saami or were brought by travelers from other part of world. They lived on the edge of civilizations.
The Kola Saami during pagan times idolized animals and birds, stones (seyds), trees, and Earth, but a special place in Saami folklore certainly belonged to a deer-more precisely, a person-deer called Mjandash. This deer Mjandash could voluntarily become a person. One of legends tells of Mjandash’s marriage to a woman named Matryonoj who happened to be a Saami. Another legend is about their children becoming deer and having to leave the tundra following their father.
We also took a tour to my hostess childhood house. Many local houses were relocated in times of centralization to Lovozero. When her family moved to Revdas’ high rising building, she sold this house. Now, somebody occupied the house with the same utilities still in the backyard. It was interesting to compare housing for newcomers and people who lived in this area for thousands years. A modern time and past existed alongside with each other. Housing is still a major problem for Lovozero. Many promises were made and are as of yet still unrealized, and problems did not disappear.
Next, we observed the hotel. It was a nice, homey, warm, small place with rooms awaiting guests, and it had a definite inviting energy. It had an exotic exterior, and the interior was completely different from others I have seen and stayed in before, designed with a folk taste with intention to please tourists. The atmosphere or energy was incredibly warm. It was worth the visit just to see the architecture and interior of this remarkable building. I felt a future tourist industry could be grown up here with improved infrastructure and locals making efforts to learn how to entertainment and please tourists. I thought that now is the time to expand marketing on a national and international level. The right investors from neighboring countries with a similar ethnic background could be found if the right marketing plan can be offered. Everything is possible.
At the end of our travels, we stopped at the local grocery store. It was a small shop located in a corner of one of the five store apartment buildings. On the display were the same products as in a large city, but more of a selection than in Revda. We tried to find a local meal, but all products (including sausage, cheese, and pirogues) were brought in from Murmansk. However, we did find a local bakery baking a very tasty white bread. Later, I found out that local deer meal production plants are working only for export to the Sweden and other countries. Quite like in old Soviet time, this is somewhat of a foolish paradox.
To my surprise, in the daytime of the weekday, many people were wandering on streets. I forgot to mention the high unemployment, not only in the Saami community, but in others as well. More than sixty percent of all eligible working population is now unemployed. Also, alcohol is a great treat for existence of Kola Saami because the bio-system of their bodies in the Pole Arctic is different from those of Westerners.
The Russianism of Kola Saami is almost finished, and it’s only a matter of time before their existence on Kola Peninsula falls into serious question. However, everything is possible, and the miracle of the resurrection of Saami traditions, their way of life, and their language could be possible. History has examples. © Rachel Madorsky