The series Merrasami Arbevierut depicts the society of Coast Sami people in Northern Norway, and explores the everyday life of a society working to resore a culture nearly lost because of interference from the the Norwegian Government for decades. The work aims to show the beauty of the culture, and at the same time the brutality of the memories and struggle they are left with.
Coast-Sami people have inhabited the coast of Northern Norway for thousands of years; as the indigenous people of Norway they have had a strong culture and traditions. However, a process of modernisation and local expansion developed in the Coast-Sami culture in the mid 1800's led by the Norwegian government. An interpretation and assumption of the Sami society as less 'intelligent' group made the Norwegian state start working towards a 'revolution'. We can identify this period as the 'Norwegifying period' which continued by more than a 100 years, controlling school systems and the everyday life by use of Social Darwinistic and race discriminating elements. The Norwegian state's attempt to 'modernise' the community did not include the indigenous people's own requests and views in the process and a vital part of the culture and traditions was simply deconstructed.
Throughout the 1990's until present, large positive changes in the attitude towards the Sami language and culture have been seen. This has led to a wish from a large number of Coast-Sami people to restore their culture again; finding back old traditions. Today, several children have Sami as their first language and the Sami culture is a central part of the everyday life in local schools.
