Learning by Herding – Transmission of Sámi Reindeer Herding Knowledge and Skills

Abstract

The chapter addresses the issues of disseminating the knowledge and skills of the Sámi reindeer herders: frameworks, methodologies, and ways of knowledge transmission in reindeer husbandry. The chapter overviews existing teaching practices, learning levels, and learning arenas, comparing traditional knowledge transmission and academic curriculum. The authors discuss lifelong learning, systematic learning methods, and responsibilities. The chapter findings are based on the interviews with the Sámi reindeer herders from Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, a literature review, and author’s reindeer herding experiences.

5.1 Introduction

For though the Laplanders have never learned the science of the stars, yet they know the various stars and their situation and designate them by certain names (Leem, 1808: 411).

Reindeer herders have developed extensive knowledge of reindeer herding and reindeer husbandry and the environment sound surroundings. A quote from the early 1700s explains that the knowledge transmission among Sámi people does not depend on the formal school education but traditional knowledge which provides learning in many disciplines in line with science, e.g., glaciology, knowledge about snow that Sámi reindeer herders possess which they combine with reindeer herding strategies on snow-covered ground (Eira et al., this volume, Chap. 4; Eira & Mathiesen, 2021).

Reindeer herders as Indigenous people have unique ways of transmitting traditional knowledge compared with learning in formal schools (Bongo, 2005). Transmission can be defined as getting to know something from someone else, as when someone else who knows (Greco, 2020) tells one. Transmission can also refer to the process of transferring cultural items, such as skills, from one individual to another (Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997). The term reindeer herding skills refers to the expertise and competencies involved in being self-reliant and making a livelihood off the reindeer herding (Bongo, 2005).

According to Berkes et al. (2008), the transmission of traditional knowledge (TK) has improved livelihoods in turbulent times and changes in many Indigenous communities. The learning process of children from Reindeer herding families and the adults’ transmission of different types of knowledge has always been significant in reindeer husbandry. For the reindeer herding families, it is important to teach children to become skilled reindeer herders (Bergland, 1998). Furthermore, it is important to avoid loss of traditional knowledge in reindeer husbandry society, as is the case in many other Indigenous societies (Paniagua-Zambrana et al., 2016).

Reindeer husbandry parents organize and facilitate learning strategies for how the children are to best achieve reindeer husbandry competence. Reindeer herding competence is complex and deals with many different subject areas, which together constitute the body of knowledge necessary to function as a skilled reindeer herder (Bergland, 1998). Competence is the ability of an individual to do a job properly and includes a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior used to improve performance; or as the state or quality of being adequately or well qualified, having the ability to perform a specific role (Wenger-Trayner et al., 2014).

Sámi reindeer herding has always taught children traditional knowledge that is practically linked to traditional Sámi trade (Hoëm, 1996). Cajete and Bear (2000: 97) states that Indigenous teachers understood that people learn in many ways and that each person perceives, thinks, and then acts in individual ways.

The Sámi reindeer herder parents still raise their children to function within the special environment and culture of reindeer herding. The learning process of reindeer herders traditionally and historically largely takes place in the field while working with the family and operating siida’s. The term siida is one of the most important terms in Sámi reindeer husbandry (Sara, 2013). A Sámi reindeer herding siida is a unit that organizes joint work with reindeer herders who for generations have adapted to the reindeer, grazing areas, climate, and ecological conditions (Sara, 2013). Siida is an old form of organization with families, reindeer herds, grazing areas, migration sites, infrastructure as the most important elements (Hågvar, 2006; Sara, 1983). According to Mikkel Nils Sara, the siida is the original Sámi self-governing local community, where people have moved between different settlements within the siida area, depending on the resources sought during the year.

In this chapter, We will provide an overview of what transmission of traditional reindeer herding knowledge contains based on the issue on what are the characteristics of transmission of reindeer herding knowledge and skills to children in reindeer husbandry in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino, Northern Norway.

• What characteristics are found in the transmission of Indigenous/traditional knowledge in reindeer husbandry in Guovdageaidnu.

• What kind of methods and what content do reindeer husbandry parents use when they teach reindeer husbandry knowledge and skills to children in reindeer husbandry.

This chapter is based on studies and methodological framework from the Rievdan and Ealát projects. Collection of data to this study is also based on conversations and interviews in North Sámi language with four Sámi reindeer herders (two women and two men) who are between 65 and 80 years old. All of these have worked all their lives and still are working with reindeer in Guovdageaidnu. They also have experience of transmitting reindeer herding knowledge to younger generations. The interviews were conducted from 2017 to 2020. There have also been used written sources: Leem, 1767, Nielsen, 1979 (1932–1962) and Eira (2011, 1984). The authors of the chapter are themself also reindeer herders from this area and have become acquainted with reindeer husbandry knowledge through their own upbringing and many years of practice. The subsequent presentation must therefore also be considered a result of extensive participatory observations of their own culture, and in contrast to researchers from outside. The authors have acquired the knowledge through the Sámi language, which is the reindeer husbandry professional language. The analysis of the material and explanation of the characteristics of reindeer husbandry knowledge transmission will be done within the framework of the Sámi understanding of sustainable reindeer herding (Eira et al., 2016).

In this chapter, We will give an overview of what the dissemination of traditional reindeer herding knowledge contains. We will present only a few selected examples that concretize different parts of the process. Reindeer husbandry knowledge, competence and skills contains much more than what We had the opportunity to present here. The findings led to an opinion on different paths in the development of knowledge for reindeer herding children/youngsters, the reindeer husbandry method for teaching, learning by herding and a small comparison to the academic way of approaching teaching and learning.

5.2 Reindeer Herding Knowledge: An Overview

Long before the development of academic science, Indigenous peoples have developed their ways of knowing how to survive and ideas about meanings, purposes, and values (Magga, 2005: 2). Indigenous people have observed and experimented to understand how the world worked, and to apply what was learned. (Cajete & Bear, 2000: 44) Reindeer herding has accumulated knowledge from generation to generation; this knowledge has been and still is the basis for survival and further development of the livelihood (Oskal et al., 2009). According to Cajete and Bear (2000) the accumulated knowledge of the Indigenous people represents an ancient body of thought, experience, and action of environmental wisdom, that can form the basis for evolving the kind of needed cosmological reorientation. This knowledge is presented in “high contexts”, in which many levels of information are shared at many levels of communication.

New generations are introduced to reindeer herding since childhood, and in this way, they already have early knowledge of the various elements and tasks. The transmission of knowledge thus includes these knowledge bases passed from one generation to the next. In each generation, individuals make observations, compare their experiences with what their teachers have told them, perform experiments to test their knowledge’s reliability, and exchange findings with others. What is characteristic with traditional knowledge is not its age, but how it is acquired and used (Balto 2003; Battiste & Henderson, 2000).

Sámi traditional knowledge is often linked to practical tasks in utilizing nature and engaging in traditional Sámi industries such as reindeer husbandry (Hoëm, 1996; Lund, 2001). Thus, reindeer herders’ knowledge represents traditional knowledge (TK)/Indigenous knowledge (IK). TK is “a cumulative body of knowledge, practice and belief, evolving by adaptive processes and handed down through generations by cultural transmission” (Berkes, 2012: 7) like oral history, stories, myths, songs, lessons and more recently exists in written form. Traditional knowledge is dynamic; it is modified by its holder to reflect changes in the environment as each new generation incorporates its own empirical knowledge or local observation (Nichols et al., 2004: 69). TK is holistic knowledge produced and further developed through daily work, most often in practical situations within a constantly recurring annual cycle (Bergland, 1998: 42). According to Jan Henry Keskitalo (2009), TK is based on certain similar conditions where the relationship between human and nature is a construction that can be seen as a social process. Traditional Knowledge exists through people and their work and practice and is in oral form. Keskitalo argues that knowledge can be seen as a process, something that changes over time and has different levels and different parties (Keskitalo, 2009).

Reindeer herding knowledge base represents a whole knowledge system that includes a set of networks representing different knowledge with corresponding subsystems (Eira, 2022). This include, e.g., topography and characteristics of terrain and landscape, place names, weather, snow and climatic conditions, evaluating access to forage beneath snowpack (guohtun) and tracking, adaptation strategies to climate conditions and how to live with uncertainties in this environment. Furthermore this include land management, biology, physiology, behavior of reindeer, animal welfare, botany, navigation, astrology, mathematics, economics, management, strategic thinking and planning, etc., of Sámi reindeer husbandry with knowledge processes, insights, cosmology, and values related to individual reindeer, business adaptation, reindeer herds, reindeer owners, households, and siida work (Benjaminsen et al., 2016). This knowledge base contains multidisciplinary knowledge (Eira, 2022) and reindeer herding specialist language (Eira, 1984, 2012).

Reindeer herding represents a way of life (Oskal et al., 2009) that is professionally challenging and rewarding, and thus represents a meaningful life for people (Turi, 2008). The reindeer husbandry way of life includes, according to Keskitalo (1998: 338) “knowledge, skills on and intimate relationship with the animals and the landscape”; special closeness to the reindeer, knowledge of its biology and living habits, and its relationship to nature; special proximity to the landscape, weather and traveling conditions; traditional knowledge of animals, nature and farming methods acquired through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Thus, reindeer herders need an extensive array of skills when managing a herd. It is, e.g., important to be able to distinguish between the different animals in their own herd and in herds that belong to others. If a herder is asked to give a description of a reindeer, they must be able to recognize individual animals, identify the earmarking of the reindeer and connect it to the owner (Sara, 2001).

This also includes knowledge and skills about maintaining good social conditions in reindeer husbandry; social proximity in the siida is centered on the reindeer and working with these animals, on nature and weather conditions, grazing conditions, strong family ties, kinship, loyalty, and positive external relations to other siidas – with interpolation through operational and social considerations.

It is also important to mention something about the gender distribution in Sámi reindeer husbandry. Reindeer husbandry is gender-neutral and does not formally differentiate between women and men (Reindeer Husbandry Act of 2007). As early as A.D. 550 there are narratives about how women are regularly on the hunt with men, and thus women and men are doing everything in cooperation and in the same way engage in hunting and other activities. This is confirmed by the historian Procopius’ writings about a people called the Scrithiphini (referring to the Sámi) whose sustenance came from reindeer (Dewing, 1919 Procopius, English translation vol. III. New York). Other academics like Leem (1767), Pirak (1933), Demant-Hatt (1931), Sara (2002), Joks (2007) and Utsi (2010) have confirmed that the traditional division of labor in reindeer husbandry from earlier times until today presupposes that both women and men can be mobilized for all types of work, such as herding, marking, migrating, slaughtering, etc. According to Joks (2007) and Utsi (2010), there has, to some extent, been a gender division of labor, but this is not constant because this depends on a siida’s size, number of members, and gender division (Joks, 2007). Women must be able to perform work that is defined as male work and what is defined as female work, and which men do not perform (NOU, 2001: 35) presented as a two-way relationship, namely a knowledge and skills basis for being able to perform general and gender-specific tasks in households and siida and a material basis for establishing business or livelihood. Therefore, it is necessary that knowledge transfer is gender-neutral and that both girls and boys learn the various work tasks that are part of the daily operation.

Reindeer herding families emphasize that children must from early childhood be given an opportunity to participate and contribute to the family’s work with reindeer and at the same time acquire skills and knowledge. Everyone in the family from several generations can be a teacher¹ or reindeer herding tutors. This way of raising children can help both younger and older family members develop a natural relationship with each other (Bergland, 1998).

Tutorial given by Indigenous peoples is based on the nature and quality of communicating at all levels of being. Indigenous teachers practice the art of communicating through language, relationships with social and natural environments, art, play (Cajete, 1994). This can be shown by the extensive terminology both in terms of the animal itself, herding and grazing, snow, weather conditions, landscape, and food culture etc. (Eira, 1984, 2011, 2012; Sara, 2003; Sara & Eira, 2021).

5.3 Learning by Herding

The aim of this chapter is to show different paths in the development of knowledge for reindeer herding children, the reindeer husbandry method for teaching, learning for herding. We have used learning by herding as a metaphor to learning by doing (Dewey, 1916) to show how reindeer herders aims to bring reindeer herding to the real world in learning situations using different learning methods for different learning levels, feedback methods and methods of how to assess reindeer herding children’s acquiring of knowledge.

The learning process of reindeer herding practices includes most of the element’s indicative of traditional knowledge systems like being informal, intuitive, oral, practical, experimental, inclusive, and holistic (Sara, 2011: 140). This competence is developed and managed through the reindeer herding and embodied in language and communication methods, clothing, working methods, work tools, manners, and social norms (Bergland, 1998). Learning the reindeer husbandry’s professional or technical language and using correct and relevant concepts related to context, work tasks, and activities are necessary to become a suitable reindeer herder.

5.3.1 Learning Levels

Learning by herding and the process of transferring reindeer husbandry knowledge is a lifelong process. The development of transmission of knowledge and skills starts already at an early age and that learning continues throughout life, which shows a lifelong apprenticeship.

According to our informants there are age-related levels in the knowledge process. Already as the child is a baby, at approximately 6–12 months, the parents start the first level of learning, by socializing their children to reindeer husbandry.

In the Sámi carrying cradle, gietka (Nielsen, 1979), the children follow the parents and observe their working and communicating. They follow the parents for example when the reindeer are brought into the fence and inside the fence when the marking is carried out. Even if the child at this stage only observes the activities, e.g., listening to the grunting, ruovgat, of the reindeer, they experience the smell of reindeer, the activities will still be remembered for a long time.

From the children are approximately 1–2 years, they are allowed to participate in different types of activities adapted to their age. Now the process of socialization continues with the siida, reindeer and reindeer husbandry and gradually they gain an understanding and interest in reindeer husbandry. At this level, parents begin to use various methods to encourage their children to engage in reindeer husbandry. Children will, e.g., be introduced to important and necessary reindeer husbandry artifacts such as a belt with a knife, lasso etc. that the children can use in play activities. They start by training to use a lasso to catch toy reindeer. They are playing by marking an ear tag on a calf with a knife (see Fig. 5.1).

Fig. 5.1

1–2 years old reindeer herder child playing earmarking a calf. (Photo: Inga BM Triumf)

The parents use different methods to get the children interested in reindeer and reindeer herding by letting them train and play with reindeer toys. This shows that to do, and play are integral parts of reindeer husbandry learning; apprenticeship is a form of activity-based learning. The playing and freedom to participate in real work tasks preparing the child into the reindeer husbandry profession (Hoëm, 1996).

When children are from ages before they start at public school, they can be present to learn, observe and work, e.g., within the enclosure, for instance “helping” parents earmarking calves (more about marking calves, see section Learning earmarks by herding in this chapter). At this level, they begin to participate more actively with the assistance of an adult by trying to catch the calf, feel the calf’s ears with their fingers, hold the calf’s head when the parents earmark the calf, and participate in the conversations.

They will also be introduced for various work in reindeer herding, e.g., get to know the landscape and communicate properly together with those who know this.

From the age of 8–10, the children are introduced to herding reindeer, among other things. The purpose of this is to learn to herd the reindeer to avoid the reindeer getting away from the herd. At the same time, it is also necessary to learn and know the behavior of reindeer, find a grazing area where the reindeer finds food and graze calmly. This task belongs to the foundation of siida (siidavuođđu) (Eira et al., 2016). Reindeer are habitual animals that instinctively return to their usual grazing areas at different times (see Eira et al., 2022, Chap. 4). Therefore, it is important to teach the children knowledge about the reindeer’s behavior. The informants say that it is important to teach children “to think like a reindeer”, so that they learn to understand where the reindeer can go or how they will behave. This means that during herding, if a reindeer has left the herd, they can find the lost reindeer by thinking like a reindeer in relation to its behavior on the landscape.

The first herding assignments the children receive are most often the herding of a herd of male reindeer (luovas eallu). Most siidas separate males from the main herd to establish a separate unit to be herded. It is easiest to herd male reindeer in the spring because they no longer strive for spring grazing areas as pregnant female reindeer (čoavjjehat) do (Eira et al., 2022, Chap. 4).

One of the informants says that when he teaches children how to herd reindeer, he first takes the child to the herd to explain how the herding should be done and which direction the reindeer must not be allowed to go. This is a part of the herding training. Furthermore, herding assignment content herding with supervision. The child can be left alone by one edge of the herd (dien rávddas) to herd. However, the adult makes sure that at this edge it is easiest to look after the reindeer. The adult himself/herself withdraws a little, to another edge of the herd, but no further away than he can have an overview of how the child is doing. This is reassuring for the child who sees that the adult is not that far away and can help if any reindeer runs away. This is an example of teaching and learning strategies for solving the task of herding.

During the herding exercise in dark time (polar night) when darkness lasts for more than 24 h (Eira et al., 2022, Chap. 4) the adult can give the children guidance and knowledge how to use the moon for light and stars for knowing the time and direction (orientation). An elder reindeer herder said that the stars like gállá bártnit (orion’s belt) also as čuoiggaheaddji (who chase on the ski) are the three stars that form a belt constellation in line by and appear in the night sky at the proper times. In the area of Guovdageaidnu, when gállá bártnit appears in the south, then the time is approximately 7:00 pm. These observations can be used to guide in an astronomical way.

As the children get older, they get more difficult herding work, in relation herding the celestial direction at the edge of the herd that the reindeer are moving towards. In this way, they expand their herding skills and get a sense of mastery of the work that has been done in a good way. The learners must also acquire knowledge of how to develop and maintain a robust and functional herd adjusted to local landscape and climate (Benjaminsen et al., 2016; Sara, 2001). The herding achievement can also be a topic of conversation at home about how the child has managed alone as a reindeer herder.

5.3.2 Competences and Skills

Reindeer herder teachers facilitate learning by using multiple learning methods and content in the transmission of reindeer herding knowledge (see Fig. 5.2) and involve the learner to participate in processes that take place throughout the reindeer herding annual operating cycle (Eira et al., forthcoming, Chap. 4). Facilitating learning of herding is often linked to work tasks that are also useful for reindeer husbandry in collaboration with adults, teachers, and supervisors (Balto, 1997, 2005; Hoëm, 1996; Sara, 2002).

Fig. 5.2

6–7 years old reindeer herder girl “helping” grandfather earmarking calves. (Photo: BEA Bals)

These processes allow herding knowledge, skills, and professional/specialized language to gradually develop until one finally emerges as a fully trained professional reindeer herder (Fig. 5.3).

Fig. 5.3

Learning methods in Sámi reindeer husbandry (Adapted from Bongo, 2005)

The objectives are based on the core values of reindeer herding: children must receive knowledge and practices based on herding values and specialized language and reindeer herding societal life. Every reindeer herder is expected to have knowledge of and skills in it (Eira, 1984).

Teachers must also prepare children to understand and use nature to provide optimal resources for covering the necessities to make a living from reindeer husbandry and protect it for future generations. The parents want the younger generations to become competent reindeer herders who have accumulated enough knowledge, skills, and experience to perform and evaluate various actions and work alternatives related to reindeer husbandry (Bongo, 2005).

Our informants emphasize that parents must teach children to gain self-confidence to believe in what they do, and to become independent, while at the same time learning to work individually and collectively. Parents want to teach children to master different work types, such as herding, knowing how to describe the reindeer and the herd, different weather conditions, snow types, landscapes, navigation, marking, slaughtering, etc.

In reindeer herding, there is a need for both individual and collective knowledge and skills. Knowledge transmission is organized so that learners acquire knowledge and skills that (1) they, individually, need and (2) they need in siida or the household. An individual reindeer herder according to our informants must acquire individual skills and knowledge based on the need for siida’s reindeer husbandry and self-oriented interests over time. They must thus have individual and household-specific knowledge, local siida knowledge, and more general knowledge exchanged in siida communication and relationship (Benjaminsen et al., 2016). This is the private level that deals with the household business income, called birgejupmi, as a «form and degree of self-salvage» (Nielsen, 1979 I: 179). This does not directly concern the siida but includes business adaptation comprehending reindeer and other resource utilization belonging to the household economy, including the meat-producing economy (Sara, 2013: 10–11).

Furthermore, the collective part of reindeer herding is made visible in connection with siiddastallan (Sara, 2013) so there is a need for knowledge and skills that contribute to being able to cooperate and collaborate with other siida members, different parts of the siida unit and between other siidas. In reindeer husbandry, everyone must learn to cooperate and contribute to sharing with others in activities related to daily operations and other reindeer husbandry-related activities to become a part of the working community (Sara, 2001). They have to learn siiddastallan, the part of the reindeer husbandry practice that the traditional Sámi siidas have been responsible for meaning keeping/running a siida, working with reindeer and a reindeer herd (Sara, 2011, 2013).

According to our informants, about the reindeer’s behavior, there is no point in moving the herd to other areas because the reindeer are habitual animals that instinctively return to their usual grazing areas. Herders follow the reindeer rather than seek complete control over the reindeer or the landscape (Benjaminsen et al., 2016). So, in this knowledge process, children witness and learn how experienced herders facilitate the animal’s natural behavior, its adaptation to the natural environment and the annual cycles and weather conditions, and how they protect the reindeer from external threats.

Children learn and experience that reindeer permeate all life in the siida and therefore the reindeer need full attention regardless of the season. That is why reindeer must be protected, herded, and sometimes assisted with relocation or when there is not enough food for it. This is at the core of social, cultural, and economic life (Liégeois et al., 2019). It is important to come to terms with reindeer. In a metaphoric sense, the reindeer herders are “negotiating” with their reindeer (Sara, 2013) and with nature on their siida’s behalf. They negotiate with the climate and environment to ensure the survival of reindeer. This comprises learning how reindeer are a free-range animal, for the most part, in their natural surroundings (Sara, 2001) and that the reindeer grazing area or land is constituted through the herders and reindeer activities in it.

Parents teach their children that having reindeer luck means if your reindeer survives, the herd prospers, the cows calve and the herd is healthy, well provided for, and beautiful. (Oskal, 2000) This luck presupposes ethics and morals for everyone and everything, both animals, humans, and the environment. This ethics is thus about being honest, fair, and getting along with the animals, the reindeer grazing land, and people (Oskal, 1995). According to Oskal (1995), it is important for reindeer herders to come to terms with nature, be reconciled with it, and manage it conscientiously to the best of their ability and care. In this understanding all animals including insects are necessary for the ecological functioning of the survival of all living things, e.g., some Sámi myths also say spiders have an important function as protectors.

Transmitting the knowledge of a worldview or cosmologies and ethics that encompass the holistic relationship with reindeer and the herd is important (Benjaminsen et al., 2016; Oskal, 1995). Cosmologies are deep-rooted, symbolically expressed understandings of “humanness” (Cajete & Bear, 2000: 52).

Our informants tell us that it is important to transmit the reindeer herding knowledge by adapting various methods and content to give children competence and skills to understand and work with the reindeer, landscape, seasons, and climate. Further, they state they are strongly influenced by their relationship with the reindeer, which is a part of a larger socio-ecological system that is simultaneously predictable and unpredictable, repetitive, and changing (Oskal et al., 2009). Reindeer herder parents make their children ready to use knowledge and understanding from both the past and the present to prepare them as reindeer herders for a sustainable future. This approach can be compared with eco-education, as Cajete & Bear (2000: 63) call it.

5.3.3 Transmission of Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Development

The traditional knowledge to be transferred is based on the foundations – or vuođđu, used both as the first or last part of compounds meaning fundamental, main, or chief part of the word (Nielsen, 1979).

Vuođđu constructs the basic principles of the Sámi reindeer herding traditions and customary customs. This is bound to different sides and at the same time, it once binds Sámi reindeer husbandry, and the way of life. (Eira et al., 2016).

This understanding of the foundation applies to both knowledge and action with a view to being a good reindeer herder and having reindeer luck. According to Cajete and Bear (2000: 267–268) foundation is “the metaphorical truth that one works through to express one’s life—reflects the evolution of ways of “coming to know and of living based on a life-sustaining cosmology”.

The basis for the reindeer husbandry’s worldview is both about the reindeer, human as well as nature, which presupposes a responsibility to take care of, maintain and respect other living beings, plants, animals, own and others grazing land and the places you live. Our informants mention that children must also learn to maintain this indefinitely to maximize the well-being and safety of reindeer and humans. In this understanding, there are nine foundations for versatile utilization of various resources within the annual cycle, which is an attempt to continue the reindeer herding style for the sustainability of reindeer husbandry (see Eira et al., this volume, Chap. 3).

The different vuođđu represent the sustainability of reindeer husbandry (Eira et al., 2016). Figure 5.4 shows these nine foundations:

• 1. the knowledge base (máhttovuođđu) with different types of knowledge related to the other vuođđu,

• 2. the herder,

• 3. the siida (siidavuođđu),

• 4. the worldview including ethics (vuođđoipmárdus),

• 5. the herd (eallovuođđu),

• 6. the earmarking system (mearkavuođđu),

• 7. the household (báikevuođđu),

• 8. the resources, nature, and labor (birgenvuođđu).

• 9. the rights (vuoigatvuohtavuođđu) (Eira et al., 2016; Johnsen, 2018).

Fig. 5.4

The content framework for what herding children must learn in order to gain a Sámi understanding of sustainable reindeer husbandry. (Adapted from Eira et al., 2016)

All of this includes knowledge and skills about a range of tasks, decisions, and actions, from the part related to the performance of annual recurring tasks that prepare for action in confusing and not previously experienced situations (Sara, 2001: 10–11). The blue border represents external influences affected by local, national, and international politics and economic processes regarding globalization, land use, laws, regulations, economics, prices, and subsidies that have affected traditional reindeer husbandry (Sara, 1978). These are expected to be known by reindeer owners to protect and develop the industry and culture for future generations.

Reindeer herding practice-based knowledge contains elements that must be present to achieve sustainable reindeer husbandry. Thus, this approach to nature and management is very similar to the idea of sustainable development (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987: 43). In traditional Sámi reindeer husbandry, the whole family is still involved in herding, although this is changing since the women have work outside the reindeer husbandry and the children are in compulsory school (Utsi, 2010).

The future herders must also learn how external factors can affect reindeer herding, including laws, regulations, prices, plans prepared by the authorities and political decisions and objectives on land use, and resource allocation in the reindeer grazing areas which affect reindeer husbandry (Sara, 1983).

5.3.4 Learning Earmarks by Herding

In this section, we will show an example of a specific task of transmission knowledge, how children gain knowledge about marking the ear of a calf, as a part of the earmarking system (mearkavuođđu) in the model of sustainability of reindeer husbandry (Eira et al., 2016).

The earmarking system is an ancient system that is the core principle in Sámi reindeer husbandry (Eira et al., 2016), and thus transmission of knowledge and skills on how to mark reindeer is one of the core elements for those who want to become reindeer herders. The system provides a great opportunity to identify reindeer quickly and efficiently, even if the animals are far away. We will use earmarking as an example in this chapter and describe this in learning levels to explain knowledge transmission in reindeer herding (Nystad & Eira, 2005, Ruddle & Chesterfield, 1977; see Fig. 5.1).

The description of Sámi reindeer herders labeling their reindeer is given by Leem and others (1767, 1808) as early as the seventeenth century: “The Laplanders impress a mark on the ears of their reindeer that each may be enabled by it to distinguish his own” (Leem, 1808: 403). The reindeer earmarking system is one of the customary legal schemes for reindeer husbandry (Norwegian Reindeer Act of 1933) implemented by oral agreements and agreements within the relevant siidas (NOU, 2001: 34). The right to a reindeer mark is closely linked to a person’s identity. A reindeer mark that has been in the family’s possession for generations not only provides a cohesion within the family through all the marks that are derived from the main mark, but it is also used as an external identification for other families, siidas and districts. (NOU, 2001: 34). The earmark system is a visual language in which notches and cuts are the words (Uhre, 2020), but it is also a knowledge system with concepts like njávkat (to feel with your fingers), rievdadus (a change made to the original main cut), gáhččanbeallji (not an ordinary cut made due to a mark that was cut too deep), šearus (as a perfect cut), according to the informants.

Over the years children learn to become proficient in earmarking. The goal is to give children the knowledge to become familiar with this complex system. The learning methods used are closely linked to real working tasks (Aikio, 2010; Balto, 2005; Bongo, 2005; Hætta, 1993; Keskitalo, 2009) to eallovuođđu (Eira et al., 2016) and other tasks in Sámi reindeer herding. Parents introduce children to earmarking from an early age: at the beginning children observe and learn.

In the following levels (see Table 5.1), they gradually participate themselves and learn to feel with fingers (Sámi language njávkat) how the several cuts of reindeer’s earmarks are composed, i.e., the various cuts in the child’s earmark using specialist language of earmarking. This is repeated several times, and the children gradually begin to participate in the whole process of the adults cutting the ear tags.

The next level on the learning ladder is to mark the calf itself with detailed guidance from the adult, first just by making incisions in the earlobe – luddestat – to get a feeling of cutting in the ear and then the whole earmark with the family’s main cut – Oalli – and the child’s sub-cut – rievdadus (informants). It is appropriate here to talk about the importance of creating a nice and easily identifiable earmark (šearus). It is also appropriate to start talking about the reindeer’s gender and appearance, hair color, antlers, and whether the reindeer has special characteristics that make it easily recognizable (Eira, 1984; Leem, 1767, 1808).

At level six, the student is ready to move on and complete the entire earmarking process solely, but still with an adult who holds the calf’s head and provides expert guidance. This involves reflecting on the result and identifying any potential for improvement in the future (Balto, 2005; Triumf, 2011). Both the child and adult are responsible for the result as equal partners. In this connection, it is also appropriate to talk about gáhččanbealji, a bent ear caused by too deep cuts in the ear (Eira, 2011).

In the seventh level, the student begins to earmark independently, without significant help from an adult. Depending on the skill’s complexity, the student first began to perform part of the skill complex, and finally, the entire skill complex (Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997).

After years of practice, the learner in the eighth level appears as a knowledgeable person with their own earmark signature. The work process is now automated, and the learner has gained a more integrated knowledge for how things must be done, without always being able to explain it (Eira, 1984).

5.3.5 Traditional Knowledge Transmission

Transmission of traditional knowledge and skills has its own learning models (Nystad & Eira, 2005; Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997; Ruddle & Chesterfield, 1977). Studies by Ruddle and Chesterfield (1977) and Nystad and Eira (2005) show that the learning process with traditional knowledge and skills is level-based and emphasizes learning by doing repeated practices over time instead of by passive watching and copying. So, instructions are not only sequential but additive so with each succeeding level, tasks learned earlier are repeated.

The goal of both models is to make the learner independent and competent in solving a certain type of task. In the Sámi model, this level is called ieš (by him/herself), in the sense of being able to solve the work on their own with personal solutions and methods. This level is in the model by Ruddle and Chesterfield (1977) described as becoming a peer (or equal partner) to the teacher. Although the two models have different levels, the transmission process, and the goal of it are similar (Table 5.1).

Table 5.1 Indigenous learning process of traditional knowledge and skills in levels

In the Sámi sense of education and knowledge transmission, it is important to let learners make decisions on their own, e.g., when they participate in herding, slaughtering etc.

Our informants tell us if the learners do something that is not entirely correct, the teacher provides feedback by not directly saying what to do but leads the learner to make their choices. The teacher can say this: “It may be a good idea to patch the pesk ² slightly on the side, to prevent it becoming too wide; or perhaps it is best to rip up this seam, to prevent it becoming a little bit skewed” (Bongo, 2005: 30). By this, the teacher does not give instructions but rather gives the opportunity to decide and gradually discover themselves that perhaps it is appropriate to do so as the teacher says (Balto, 1997).

These models are at the same time similar to and different from the western academic teaching models (Bongo, 2005). The transmission of knowledge in reindeer herding takes place holistically and often through daily work (Bergland, 1998). The foundations utilize various resources within a constantly recurring annual cycle, whose conditions are related to birgejupmi, which is part of the foundations of the household and the resources (báikevuođđu and birgenvuođđu). This forms the basis for knowledge transfer, which most often occurs in the interaction between humans, animals, pastures, and the various reindeer husbandry situations that often involve the whole family.

Learners are gradually lifted to a level of knowledge where they can make independent decisions and find their own ways of working and learning (cf. Informants). In this way, the knowledge is made available to others in the household and the siida. The levels of the transmission process are adapted to the learner’s level of knowledge, and assessment on how much he or she can absorb learning content, mentioned as Indigenous learning models (Nystad & Eira, 2005; Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997; Ruddle & Chesterfield, 1977).

The teacher uses communication methods, talking and chatting to explain, narrate, communicate, show, and demonstrate. Furthermore, as in cuoigut (a method to make a mental note of something; Eira, 1984) by pointing is often used in the process of how to distinguish a reindeer from others through language (Eira, 1984), articulating and describing partly without language and word descriptions (cuoigut), that can be compared with Harris’ (1990: 13) statement that we understand what words mean by having the objects they stand for pointed out to us. In addition, distinguishing can be in talking reindeer herding talk, boazoságat (explained below), and using the professional reindeer herding language.

Teaching identifying a reindeer, can be characterized as a complex teaching, and learning system. This traditional knowledge transmission process is called bagadallan, which means to explain in detail to a person. In this process the reindeer are described in detail regardless of whether they are visible or not. The learning system of distinguishing reindeer is based on a mathematical approach, garžžideapmi; that means reducing the number of possible animals. Step №1 of the process is to identify the earmarks of the reindeer, then №2 state the gender, then №3 describe the color and, №4 describe the antlers. Also, in step №5 the herder must recognize which reindeer are not present in the herd. These factors are used to limit (exclude) the number of possible reindeer to only a few animals.

In all the task examples we have mentioned in this chapter, the reindeer herding language is significant for learners’ outcome. Through the whole knowledge transmission process, the reindeer herder tutors use specialized or professional language with a high level of precision for descriptions and vocabulary of reindeer herding. Language thus plays a key role in structuring knowledge and knowledge sharing (Eira, 2022; Von Krogh et al., 2000), and it is through language that traditional knowledge is available. (Eira, 2012; ICR, 2006). The reindeer herding concept systems, like herding system, earmark system, etc., have evolved under the conditions of systematic working cooperation between the learner and those who have the responsibility to transmit knowledge. The use of language or acquisition of knowledge is based on various phenomena and how they are named and seen in the light of the traditional reindeer herding knowledge (Eira & Mathiesen, 2021).

The specialized language is used in communication, the process of assigning and conveying meaning to create shared understanding (Eira, 2012; Sara & Eira, 2021). Language is also significant for the participants of the reindeer herding in their communication. They need to use and know how prominent specialized terminology in Sámi language is used in different situations (Sara, 2013). If there is a breach of the language structure, there is also a breach of the knowledge transfer (Meløe, 1988; Sara, 1978). According to Eira (1984), when communicating reindeer herding issues (as in boazoságat), knowing the specialized language of reindeer herding is a prerequisite. Boazoságat or reindeer talk is characterized as the Sámi reindeer herding internal communication and conversation method, for example, used in connection with herding shifts or when the reindeer herder comes from the herd/siida. With reindeer talk, herders communicate with the people who are not present at the herd about the herd situation and how they did manage herding the herd.

In our opinion boazoságat, is not only the siida communication, but also a learning method which, together with actions, among other methods creates in-depth knowledge that can be both local or global notions that impact reindeer husbandry such as climate, mining, etc. The learner naturally has less knowledge and understanding of what deals with the conversations and work tasks but are still seen as a full-fledged participant at the individual’s level or age level. This process can be called in-depth learning (Sawyer, 2006). It is expected that herders know the subject content of concepts in detail and by this can relate and use them in the proper context. By participating in boazoságat, the learners become active listeners of the issues discussed and can intervene in the conversations, ask questions, and suggest solutions (Eira & Mathiesen, 2021).

An important part of the learning process is learning not only to articulate knowledge through words. The basis of the Sámi oral traditions it is also customary to use stories, sayings, experience, joik and diiddat in learning. The telling of stories is a part of communication and learning. Story is one of the most basic ways the human brain structures and relates experience (Cajete, 1994).

Joik is the traditional Sámi form of music. It is a way of communicating with other people, between animals and humans, and between people and nature (Jernsletten, 1978; Skaltje & Utsi, 2005). The joik is closely linked to nature, and people often get the yoik from nature, the wind, the sound of the river, the formation of the mountains, the sounds and rhythm of the reindeer, and the sound of other animals and birds (Utsi, 2011). Turi (1910) writes the joik (luohti) about a reindeer that springs out like a ray of sunshine and about grunting (ruovga) to reindeer calves. There are joiks about animals, insects, birds, fish, nature, pastures, mountains, fishing lakes, etc. People can communicate directly with these via the joik (Skaltje & Utsi, 2005; Utsi, 2011). A good example is the joik of mosquitoes that come to midsummer every year and help the herders to gather the reindeer herd up from the valleys (Utsi, 2011). These are important transmission methods in reindeer husbandry (Bongo, 2005). By learning these, the learners will be aware that, e.g., joik can be part of the herding situation and can be used during reindeer herding in the darkness to communicate through joik with other herders and other siidas.

Using Diiddat have also been important in teaching. Our informants explain that diida is a rule of thumb that is Sámi guidance sentences that each individual must interpret and consider whether to follow. Here is an example of a story presented that is adapted to different age groups. Parents remind the children after having eaten reindeer meat, where there are bones left, that: “The one who goes out with the bones out of the lávvu, herding cabin or house will get many reindeer”. The children have been told that while throwing the bones back to land they should say “let me get many reindeer”. Often this activity makes a sort of competition among the smallest children because everyone wants to receive many reindeer. At the same time, the children perform useful work (Bongo, 2005).

5.3.6 Feedback and Assessment from the Tutors

Reindeer herding tutors or teachers use feedback and assessment in the learning process to encourage and motivate the children to trial and error for their further development. Based on the goals, the teachers are continuously using different methods to assess how the learners understand the task and how they master task-solving. One method is to assess whether the learner is fitmat, which means one who has a keen faculty of recognition that finds it easy to notice and remember (Nielsen, 1979). In reindeer herding it is common to give feedback to the child that he/she when you see that the child can remember reindeer marks and special reindeer. One who is fitmat has easy to notice and remember earmarks and has the capability to make mental notes of reindeer and easily discovers those reindeer in the herd (Eira, 1984). It is common to give feedback to the child that he/she is fit.

Also, in reindeer herding, teachers are assessing how the children are learning. In Sámi language there are some concepts used to expressly characterize how a person carries out the work they are doing, e.g., hága and searra. These concepts are a part of the learning process of response. These describe how learners have implemented work using their knowledge, skills, and behavior. It is the teacher or someone who observes the student and who gives feedback on how the learners have solved. The student naturally has less knowledge and understanding of the core of the conversations and tasks because they have a lower level of knowledge, but they are still seen as a full-fledged participant in their own level of knowledge and age and completed the individual or the collective work. One who is characterized searra is someone, who is good at all kinds of work and has the skill (Nielsen, 1979, p. 625 Volume III). Hága is used to describe someone who is strong and skilled to solve tasks or work (Nielsen, 1979, p. 287 Volume II). In some areas in Guovdageaidnu, the concepts are synonyms and used for both female and males, but in other areas the concepts are related to gender, where searra is linked to a male reindeer herder’s competence and hága to female (information retrieved from the informants). It is precisely through such encouragement that learners are motivated to actively participate in the working and learning process. In this way, the knowledge is made available to others in the household and the siida.

Both feedback and assessment of learning in traditional reindeer herding can be called unique ways of learning. With these methods, the unique qualities of each child as a learner are naturally accepted and honored (Cajete & Bear, 2000: 97).

5.3.7 Reindeer Herding Teachers, Tutors and Learning Arenas

Knowledge transfer from generation to generation takes place by different generations participating in and collaborating on different work tasks within different fields (Benjaminsen et al., 2016). The responsibility for knowledge transmission belongs foremost to the parents, siblings, grandparents, and relatives or other people in siida (Benjaminsen et al., 2016).

Elder reindeer herders are important in the learning process (Bongo, 2005) because they are relied upon as the keepers of essential knowledge. Elders provide guidance and facilitate learning, often through story along with artifacts and manifestations of traditions (Cajete & Bear, 2000). In a study by Ohmagari and Berkes (1997) many elders pointed out that expertise and competencies involved in being self-reliant and making a livelihood of the land were not taught by formal education, but their way was learning by doing through apprenticeship. This can also be characteristic of the ideology in reindeer herding knowledge transmission (Bongo, 2005). This shows that there is substantial agreement between the Indigenous peoples’ way to transfer knowledge (Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997).

It is assumed that reindeer herding is reindeer herding children’s way of life (Eira et al., 2016: 45; Bongo, 2005; Sara, 2003). Reyes-Garcıa et al. (2010) indicate that the transmission of traditional knowledge occurs through:

- transfer from parents to children which assumes individual variations.

- transmission between individuals of the same generation results in the rapid spread of new knowledge.

5.4 Transmission of Knowledge from Older to Younger Generations Involving Knowledge Transferrers and Receivers

Ways of knowledge transmission take place in the different arenas related to the different vuođđu, following the reindeer herding annual cycle. In the time of the first Sámi author to publish a secular work in a Sámi language, Johan Turi (1854–1933) deduced (Demant-Hatt, 1931) that nature is affecting the herders’ way of thinking. The best arena for thinking is outside, in the tundra or in the mountains:

The reason for this is that when a Lapp gets into a room his brains go round … they’re no good unless the wind’s blowing in his nose. He can’t think quickly between four walls. Nor is it good for him to be among the thick forest when it is warm. But when a Lapp is out on the high fells, then his brain is quite clear, and if there was a meeting-place on some fell or other, then a Lapp could state his case quite well (Demant-Hatt, 1931: 19).

The arenas are at the level of family and household, siida, and meeting points between different siidas and with the rest of society (Eira et al., 2016: 38).

According to informants, parents use different concretization methods found in natural arenas of the reindeer husbandry, e.g., they use reindeer skin that is in the lávvu to show/teach children how to describe a reindeer in detail and talk about reindeer earmarking knowledge and fur colors, while antlers description can be done practicing lasso throwing. Continuation of learning this can be done close to the reindeer and herd, e.g., in connection with work in the fence (gárddástallan), but also in connection with boazoságat (Eira, 1984, 2011). According to Eira (1984, 2011) one can observe the reindeer with all senses be done in the herd, while in the home arena, you must use other methods.

Another example is the household as an arena for learning of economic decisions and these types of knowledge and skills (Utsi, 2010). Arenas are out in nature where learners are trained in the interpretation of natural conditions and sustainable adaptation to the natural environment (Balto, 2005; Benjaminsen et al., 2016; Keskitalo et al., 2017; Triumf, 2011).

5.4.1 Traditional Knowledge vs. Academic Curriculum

According to Cajete and Bear (2000: 44) both Western science and Indigenous science use research and data gathering because people need to discover, or rediscover, their own creative abilities.

In the perspective of Sámi traditional knowledge, it also practically links to traditional Sámi reindeer husbandry (Hoëm, 1996). The transmission of knowledge is informal and has been carried out through Indigenous learning system; a system that is closely related to nature and essential daily tasks. On the other hand, school and education is mandatory for children between the ages of 6 and 16 (Thune et al., 2019). Educational programs provide important human development tools, but they can also compromise the transfer of Indigenous peoples’ knowledge all around the (Sub)arctic circumpolar area (UNESCO, 2020). Regarding children from reindeer herding societies, the school system isolated them from the reindeer herding environment, thus nothing in the academic curriculum reflected reindeer culture (Lund et al., 2007).

The association between formal school and the reindeer herder’s knowledge seem to have two diverging views, based on how the formal school system with organization and content that is regulated by law (Lund et al., 2007) have precedence over the informal learning system in reindeer herding with lack of this subject in school (Lund et al., 2005).

The formal school argument is if the children do not attend school, but are instead herding, they lose important school knowledge (Bongo, 2005), like mathematics and other subjects. However, children lose important reindeer herding knowledge if they cannot participate in work with reindeer (Marakatt, 2020). This also shows a dimension in the historical, social, and cultural contexts, the experience of the relationship between the state and the minority population (Keskitalo, 1993).

Sámi reindeer society experiences that reindeer herding children cannot learn the knowledge system for herding at school. It means that the school does not contribute knowledge that is useful and relevant to reindeer husbandry (Marakatt, 2020; NRK, 1978). This view is also expressed by Johan Turi (1910), written by Demant-Hatt (1931: 39) at the beginning of the twentieth century:

But for all that, school spoils Lapp children, they get a good education, but they learn a lot of useless things too, and they get a peasant’s nature … and they are away from the Lapps during their best learning years, and they only learn about peasant life and nothing at all about Lapp life. And their nature is changed too, their Lapp nature is lost, and they get a peasant nature instead. And many of the children in the schools get consumption; and when there are no schools in the Lapps’ own tents, then they have to go to where there are schools, even if it is not altogether good.

Table 5.2 is a simple schematic comparative representation of knowledge transmission from two ways of knowing.

Table 5.2 Formal education knowledge vs traditional knowledge compared with reindeer herding knowledge

Compared with reindeer herding knowledge and Indigenous knowledge, the Western School system has a great impact on reindeer herding knowledge and skills. There is a gap between what is emphasized by content, methods, and guidance between the Sámi reindeer herding world and the world of public education. While formal education is based on the western ways of understanding, the schools in Sámi areas have occasional projects dealing with reindeer husbandry, which are not included in curricula (Bongo, 2005). This shows the status of how the western knowledge prevails in the school system for reindeer herding children where there ought to be two ways of knowing.

The public school systems omit knowledge about reindeer herding that is necessary for those who are going to work with reindeer, and omits traditional knowledge related to belief systems, spirituality, and cosmology, which are a natural part of the knowledge transfer of the Indigenous people themselves (Ohmagari & Berkes, 1997). However, some schools allow reindeer herding parents to take their children out of school for periods to work with reindeer herding, and they gradually can build up the knowledge necessary to become a skilled reindeer herder (Hætta, 1993).

The reason being that it is difficult to learn reindeer husbandry, i.e., the knowledge needed to become professional reindeer herders, through the public education systems (Hoëm, 1996). Today, the reindeer children in primary school Sámi areas have neither reindeer husbandry as a subject nor as part of the curricula (UDIR, 2022). On the other hand, some schools offer sporadic projects that deal with reindeer husbandry. At high school level there is only one school in Norway, reindeer husbandry school in Guovdageaidnu that offers comprehensive reindeer herding education to both reindeer herders’ youngsters and others that are interested in this subject (SVSRS, 2022). This shows that the knowledge, values, skills, and interests that Indigenous students possess are largely ignored in favor of strategies aimed at enticing them to conform to mainstream education (Cajete, 1994).

5.5 Discussion

The characteristics of reindeer husbandry parents’ transmission of reindeer herding knowledge and skills to children in reindeer husbandry is that they are using different methods and different content in time and space. Findings represent learning levels, competence and skills, transmission of traditional knowledge and sustainability, learning earmarks by herding, teachers, and arenas.

5.5.1 Lifelong Learning

The findings show that knowledge transfer in reindeer husbandry takes place in the same way as it has been done for generations, as a lifelong learning process. The transmission of knowledge starts already in childhood through knowledgeable guidance from a more competent person. In adolescence, learners appear as people with good beginner skills who can complete many work tasks, still with support from an experienced reindeer herder who can evaluate work performed. The goal is to develop advanced knowledge that makes learners independent and self-confident and throughout life.

According to Cajete and Bear (2000: 76) The Indigenous universe can be illustrated as a circle of learning, life, and relationship that is inclusive of all-important information needed to make life decisions.

The knowledge transmission focuses on learners’ personal development, initiated by parents, but also self-initiated. This training is best done through daily chores in the siida with trial and errors, and this takes place outside the formal educational institutions. With herder’s solid specific knowledge and skills of reindeer husbandry and experience through life make them outstanding reindeer husbandry professionals, who act wisely, handle the siida safely all year round, and pass on knowledge to new generations.

5.5.2 Systematic Learning Methods and Content

Reindeer herding knowledge transmission proves to be a systematic teaching and learning process in relation to content, age, space, and time. Reindeer herding parents use different methods and different content based on children’s age and throughout the reindeer herding year. Learning methods reflect the nature of reindeer husbandry: both individual skills and working mode, and collective knowledge and skills. One learns individually how to be a reindeer herder, to handle animals, people and nature while maintaining reindeer herding. At the same time, learning is a part of collective settings: participation in conversations, work, and gaining the ability to collaborate and cooperate. The systematic learning process plays a key role in developing children’s path to becoming reindeer herders. Knowledge among Indigenous peoples is acquired in a completely different way than in the formal school, but still extremely systematic. (Cajete & Bear, 2000: 80) Learning processes and learning methods are based on learning through inductive and action-oriented working principles (Bongo, 2005). This includes innovation and learning through repeated practices that emphasize practical application of knowledge in authentic work situations (Bongo, 2005).

These findings support a study conducted by Bongo (2005) where it is emphasized that reindeer herding teachers choose teaching methods to ensure that learners first and foremost learn what they are supposed to, but also to let them gain knowledge about what they need to know about reindeer husbandry. Thus, this is both Indigenous (Hoëm, 1996; Keskitalo, 2009) and hybrid knowledge (Berkes, 2012). This includes knowledge and skills about a range of tasks, decisions, and actions, from parts related to the performance of annual recurring tasks to the parts that prepare for action in confusing and unknown situations (Sara, 2001: 10–11).

The content is based on the framework of reindeer herders’ understanding of sustainable husbandry, multidisciplinary content, and multiple ways of knowing. Learning contributes to the learners’ development of important adaptation strategies and skills in living with the uncertainties in the Arctic environment to adverse climate conditions and managing to create sustainable livelihood systems (Eira, 2022; Mathiesen et al., 2018).

Learning the reindeer husbandry’s worldview and ethics is important from a reindeer husbandry perspective, which deals with teaching children to take responsibility for both humans, animals, and nature. Children have to learn to be honest, fair, and get along with everything that includes reindeer husbandry (Oskal, 1995). According to (Cajete, 1994) morals and ethics are modeled by the family and community and embrace respect for the elderly, honesty, proper behavior, and proper treatment and respect for all living beings.

The findings state that the reindeer herding learning system contains a holistic approach, as an understanding of the reindeer husbandry as whole and that all the parts of it are closely interconnected and explainable only by reference to the whole. The holistic way of thinking is common in Indigenous people’s lives (Berkes, 2012) and in the philosophy of learning in a Sámi context (Balto, 2005).

In the learning process and in communication, the reindeer herding language is prerequisite for obtaining this special knowledge. Learners hear words repeatedly used in their proper places in various working situations, and thus they gradually learn to understand the significance of processes and objects. Throughout the learning processes, learners participate closely in work (Bongo, 2005) and acquire concretizations of concepts related to subject contents and processes and discover the symbolic function of words (Eira, 2012). According to Wittgenstein (1997), this method provides learning the special language effectively because of the short distance between the work, learning goals, the learning content, and the professional language. Learners learn through understanding and using the Sámi reindeer husbandry language developed and with words that are older than proto-Sámi (Lehtiranta, 1989), i.e., words that are older than about 2000 years (Sara & Eira, 2021).

To encourage and motivate the children to perform the tasks in the best possible way and to develop their own competence and skills, reindeer herding tutors or teachers continuously using different methods for feedback and assessment in the learning process. The feedback is meant to get the learners to understand the master task-solving. In this process teachers use specific Sámi concepts – fitmat, hága, searra – that aim to highlight the learners’ strengths and achievements. This can be compared to feedback and assessment in a formal education (UDIR, 2022).

5.5.3 Responsibility for Learning and Learning Arenas

The findings indicated that the responsibility for learning in reindeer husbandry is added to the family, siida members and other reindeer herders. These represent an extended view of who the child must relate to. This means that children early learn the significance of family, responsibility, respect, and the foundations of relationship and kinship, as mentioned by Cajete and Bear (2000). In our opinion this makes the teaching both flexible and robust because the learning is addressed to many tutors. Furthermore, this optimizes learners’ knowledge: the learners receive different knowledges since there are so many responsible for the teaching. This kind of responsibility to teach children has its basis in interacting with other people. What children do with an adult today, they can do alone tomorrow.

The process of transmission of knowledge turns out to include the performance of functions and activity in reindeer herding and is related to which learning arenas are used at different times. Reindeer herding learning arenas include different herding areas, landscapes, siida, lávvu, fence etc. These arenas are important and useful because these are where the authentic reindeer herding work tasks are carried out.

5.6 Conclusion

In this chapter, we have presented an overview of the characteristics of how transmission of reindeer herding knowledge and skills to children in reindeer husbandry in Guovdageaidnu are done.

Reindeer herders need a comprehensive range of knowledge and skills to manage a reindeer herd on different landscapes in different times of year. A repetition of the activities that are done on purpose (competence management) is the success criterion for a strong learning culture for the reindeer herding population. Here, knowledge is transformed into competence in practical reindeer husbandry work through concrete and planned activities and learning processes.

The reindeer herding teachers use multiple methods, thought processes, philosophies, concepts, and experiences in their teaching of reindeer herding children for they need to achieve and apply knowledge about reindeer herding and the natural world. Through examples, We have illustrated several main points that characterize the Sámi reindeer husbandry education system, e.g., learning by doing different tasks; learning by example; cooperative and collaborative learning; the role of repetition; learning from own mistakes; the relationship between learner and teacher; manage motivation through appropriate praise and guidance; etc.

The children learn through practical and authentic reindeer husbandry activity and work and communicating reindeer herding specialized language in interaction with others. Teaching through a real situation expands the realm of learning beyond speculation and allows the students to judge the truth of a teaching for themselves (Cajete, 1994). The student makes observations that are included in the work and contributes to the work according to his own ability at the same time as the teacher makes observations of the learner who performs the skill. Teachers facilitate learning by using different methods to involve the child in the participation in the work tasks that are often related to different work processes that take place throughout the annual operating cycle. Through these processes, reindeer husbandry knowledge and skills are gradually developed until you finally emerge as a fully trained professional.

Obligations and responsibilities related to knowledge transfer are assigned to both parents or close family members, the household and the siida, depending on how work tasks are generally divided between them. The learning arenas are often outside, in nature, at the places where the various works take place, in lávvu, in houses etc.

The development of detailed practical reindeer herding knowledge and the accumulation of the learner’s personal wisdom are crucial to ensure sustainability and resilience in reindeer herding and reindeer husbandry. To learn what a reindeer herder must learn, one needs the methods that reindeer husbandry teachers use in the learning process. On the other hand, there is a catch to this. Knowledge transfer that previously took place through long-term and natural surroundings in the siida, today takes place through short periods where pupils and students can participate and acquire the traditional reindeer husbandry knowledge.

Although educational programs provide important human development tools, no reindeer husbandry education program and curriculum have been developed based on the methods and content of reindeer husbandry. Because the school system isolates children from their reindeer herding environment, that can then compromise the transfer of knowledge to future reindeer husbandry generations. There is a great need for a professional curriculum for reindeer husbandry that teaches reindeer owners to cope with external influences such as globalization, infrastructure development, loss of pastureland, laws, governance, administration, politics, economics, capacity building etc.

There is a need for a formal education program for reindeer herders in all levels in the educational system based on reindeer herding understanding and knowledge base and combined with western knowledge which is relevant to reindeer husbandry. Because of the nature of reindeer husbandry, the program must be developed as a flexible learning model in relation to content, time, and space to combine the schoolwork with daily work in reindeer husbandry.

With a changed view of educational programs and curricula to offer reindeer owners customized teaching programs by gaining reindeer herding knowledge, understanding and creative thinking from past and present to prepare reindeer husbandry for a sustainable future.

Appendix 5.1: Glossary of Sámi Terms

Sámi concept	Definition
báikevuođđu	household foundation
bagadallan	to explain in detail to a person
birgejupmi	a form and degree of self-salvage
birgenvuođđu	resource foundation
boazoságat	“Reindeer talk” characterized as the Sámi reindeer herding internal communication and conversation method, for example used in connection with herding shifts or when the reindeer herder comes from the herd/siida
cuoigut	a method to make a mental note of something by pointing is often used in the process of how to distinguish a reindeer from others through language, articulating and describing partly without language and word descriptions
čoavjjehat	pregnant female reindeer
čuoiggaheaddji	one who chase on the ski
dien rávddas	on that edge of the herd
diiddat	a rule of thumb that is Sámi guidance sentences that each individual must interpret and consider whether to follow
duodji	Sámi handicraft
ealát	pasturage, food
eallovuođđu	eallu foundation
eallu	reindeer herd
fearánat	occurrence, event; experience
fitmat	a person who has a keen faculty of recognition that finds it easy to notice and remember; is good at imitating (Nielsen, 1979: 779)
gahččanbeallji	not an ordinary cut made due to a mark that was cut too deep
gállá bártnit	the stars in Orion’s belt
gárddástallan	working with reindeer in the fence
gáržžideapmi	reducing the number of possible animals
giđđajođidettiin	during the spring migration with reindeer
gietka	Lapp cradle (in which the child can be carried)
goahti	tent (with two pairs of tent-poles curved at the top, where they are joined by a transverse pole: ef. lávvu).
guohtun	assessing how easily reindeer can access by digging through snow to the food
hága	description of someone who is strong and skilled to solve tasks or work
ieš	my self, themself, himself, herself etc.
luddestat	(made) fissure, crack; as a part of earmark: narrow cut lengthwise in the ear
luohti	Sámi song method, with the tune belonging to it; about a particular person, animals, or things.
luovvasat	the male reindeer herd (when they are kept separate from the herd of females during the calving time in spring).
máhttovuođđu	knowledge base
mearkavuođđu	earmark foundation
muitalusat	narratives
niibeboagán	belt with a knife
njávkat	feel with your hand or fingers the ear of the reindeer to confirm owners of the reindeer
Oalli	the main earmark of the family
orohat	pasture area
pesk	jacket made of reindeer skins
rievdadus	a change made to the original main cut
ruovgat	grunt: the noise is made by the female reindeer and reindeer calf when they have got separated
searra	someone who is good at all kinds of work and has the skills
šearus	as a perfect cut in the ear
siida	the original Sámi self-governing local community, where people have moved between different settlements within the siida area, depending on the resources sought during the year
siidavuođđu	siida base
siiddastallan	the part of the reindeer husbandry practice that the traditional Sámi siidas have been responsible for meaning keeping/running a siida, working with reindeer and a reindeer herd
suohpan	lasso
vuođđoipmárdus	worldview
vuođđu	foundation or base
vuoigatvuohtavuođđu	base for rights
báikevuođđu	household foundation