Kautokeino - cultivated landscapes

Kautokeino is one of two cultural centers of the Northern Norwegian Samis today. It has close to 3000 inhabitants, of which 90% has sami as their mother language. The biggest industry is reindeer hurding. There is a slow reduction in the population. The unemplyment rate has been high, but is now decreasing.

Historically, the Samis lived as nomads in ¨lavvo¨ tents and their main livelihood was reindeer herding, sheep herding and fishing for which they used vast areas of land. Due to assimilation and centralisation politics after the 2. World War, houses were built in Kautokeino for the Samis in a typical suburbian linear model. These are not well suited for Samis lifestyle. Yet the samis have found new and creative ways to use their houses and gardens.

The Samis have lost a lot of their traditional culture and are working to (1) obtain the sámi culture and spread knowledge about the Sami people and their way of life, (2) preventing important hunting- and raindeer hurding areas from beeing ruined by industrialisation. Working with/for this they have the;

Sami Research Center, Sami and reindeer hurding highschool, Sami University College, Culturehouse, Sami Easter Festival, Sami Radio and Sami Filmcenter plus several smaller sami handcraft stores.