The Ume Sámi Resource Center is located on Hemnesberget and Langbakken, with beautiful views over the fjord. Here you can meet the Ume Sámi artist Jørn Magnus Rivojen, who is passionate about preserving the local Sámi culture.
By appointment you can come here and experience and learn more about Sami culture, language, history and social life. In the large lavvo in the park you can enjoy the peace, listen to stories and learn about Sami traces both in local expressions and in local geography. You can taste campfire coffee and enjoy homemade local and Sami specialties.
The Ume Sámi language has an ancient, rich and proud history and was once spoken in a geographical belt stretching from the Norwegian Sea in the west to the Bothnian Sea in the east, where the language was the mother tongue of the Sámi people from Umeå to today's Rana and Hemnes/Okstindan Nature and Culture Park. Today, the language is almost extinct and only a handful of people speak the language fluently.
Jørn is a renowned non-Sami multi-artist who creates everything from installations, modern expressions of Sami forms, traditional objects and Southern Sami ornamentation. According to Jørn, Duodji – creating something with your hands – the only thing in a Sami context that is older than reindeer herding.
His art has been given as a gift from the Sami Parliament to the Royal House, and you can also find it for sale at the center. Spaces of the Polar Worlds in the Alps in France.
You can find more information about Jørn's art and about the Ume Sámi Resource Center on the Facebook page "Rivojen Art and Craft".
