The Project SKREI
SKREI will be a centre for knowledge and experiences related to the Lofoten fishery and Norway’s most important fish. SKREI extends beyond the confines of a traditional museum.
18 April 2023
In connection with the establishment of the SKREI Centre, which will open in 2026, we wanted together with colleagues to think and talk about how the museums work with topics related to the cod fishery today and what it might look like in the future.
On April 13th and 14th, Museum Nord and SKREI Research Center gathered several museums working with coastal culture and fisheries for a professional symposium in Kabelvåg and Henningsvær. Representatives from Helgeland Museum, Museum of Coastal Culture and Reconstruction in Finnmark, Museum Midt, Nordlandsmuseet, Nordmøre Museum, Perspektivet Museum, Varanger Museum and Vitimusea participated.
Cod fishing
The Lofoten fishery, and the cod fishery along the coast in general, has had great economic and cultural significance throughout history, and today it is inevitable to see this in light of issues related to sustainability and management of natural resources.
The seasonal cod fishery has brought with it movements of people and goods over large geographical distances. Museum Nord finds that there is room for more professional exchange between museum employees in this area, and that we can share knowledge to a greater extent about what museums have in their collections and what they work with in knowledge production and dissemination.
A shared history
The invited museums used their presentations as their point of departure, dissemination and collection work, and highlighted the following themes:
- Stories related to cod fishing and current practices related to seasonal fisheries. Activities with children and youth and dissemination practices.
- The geographical areas of local museums and how the fishing villages developed in their respective areas, and organized themselves based on what happened around the Lofoten fishery.
- Some examples of knowledge and narratives about cod fishing that are not sufficiently emphasized, from the point of view of the individual museums, including the role of women and the hours of work that were put in for the fisherman to travel to Lofoten’s sea.
- What do collections related to the cod fishery contain in the museums? Both tangible and intangible cultural heritage? What collection history do they have? Varanger Museum referred to their considerable fisheries archive and the problems posed by “scorched earth tactics” in Finnmark, where much material was lost both in bombing, withdrawal and other challenges in wartime. Furthermore, much that has been found is old and poorly preserved where it is not in the museum’s ownership. Nordmøre Museum showed both objects with ownership and people with documented stories related to seasonal fishing and the journey to Lofoten.
- Collaborative projects that can provide new knowledge production and dissemination were also discussed. The Nordland Museum’s active overview documentation of the status of boats in Nordland is a methodology that could be used in several areas where there is a lack of objects, etc.
- The cod fishery as a gateway to other questions and topics than those that have traditionally been communicated. The Viti Museum invites to activities such as rowing and fishing from their replica boats as a grip in their dissemination, which in turn gives the participants a physical encounter with what it meant to participate in the Borgundfjord fishery, and possibly row / sail to Lofoten.
Thank you to all participants for pleasant and inspiring days!
