Øksnes Museum
The beautiful Alsvåggården, a building with a history dating back at least 450 years. Enjoy a cup of coffee in historic surroundings. Exhibition in the main building every summer.
15 January 2026
At the start of the new year, Ane Eliassen started in her project position as an archive employee to go through, repackage and make available the archive from Øksnes Langenes Fiskeindustri.
At the end of 2023, representatives from the National Archives of Norway and Museum Nord gathered at Øksnes Museum to map Øksnes Langenes Fiskeindustri (ØLF)’s archive located at the museum. The archive is of national interest, and a project was thus established to arrange, catalogue, secure and make the archive available. The project is a collaboration between Museum Nord and Archives of Nordland, partly financed with archival development funds from the National Archives of Norway.
The work has been ongoing throughout 2024-2025, but accelerated now that Ane has been hired in a full-time project position until the end of April.
Ane Eliassen from Bø is 27 years old and has long had an interest in history. Now she has a bachelor’s degree in History at UiT, where she wrote her thesis on the Hurtigruten. She has since taken a one-year programme in Media and Library Studies. She previously worked as a summer employee and tour guide at Museum Nord, at the library in Bø, and at the Sortland library/youth factory at Kulturfabrikken. She has also carried out the project Ringelihorn on her own initiative, where she gave lectures on TTRPG (table top role playing games) in Vesterålen.
With experience from museums and libraries, archives are the only thing missing. The next step is to delve into the archive material of ØLF. This is a field she has wanted to work with, and she is looking forward to diving into the material. Ane shows a lot of commitment and has many thoughts and ideas about the job ahead and how she wants her work days to be like.
After the first few weeks of work, Ane notices that removing staples and the like from the archive material requires a lot of effort, but that it gets better when you get into it. Along the way, she has come across a lot of interesting information about the company. Already, several binders and boxes of material have been repackaged. She has met many new colleagues, started setting up routines and goals, and says that she enjoys her work.
A/L Øksnes-Langenes Fiskeindustri, and later Myregruppen AS, have followed the development of the fishing industry in the second half of the 1900s through periods of growth, stagnation, decline and growth again. Not only has this company been important for the development of Øksnes, but stands out as a symbol of the industrial growth in Northern Norway after World War 2.
The archive of the company is therefore worthy of preservation and important in a national context. It’s important work to preserve, make available and disseminate this history.
In addition to reviewing the archive, Ane wants to give a lecture about her findings towards the end of the project, when that time approaches. The archive is large and extensive – so it will be exciting to see what we find. More info about the lecture will come, but it is planned for around April.
The museum also puts a greater spotlight on ØLF by arranging two free gatherings to identify photos from the company together with the locals. These are set for 17th and 19th of March, one during the day and one in the evening.
These will be some exciting months! Keep an eye on the museum’s page for registration for the collections and more info about lectures: