Universities from around the globe had for a time had the Habit of Building an Indigenous building on their campus. The Royal Roads in Canada is one example. The university's description of the traditional building on their campus the (Blue Heron) e’lun (House), is a “home away from home” for Indigenous students, faculty and staff. Victoria University of Wellington New Zealand celebrated the thirtieth anniversary of Te Herenga Waka Marae’s wharenui located on its Kelburn campus on December 6th 2016.
In August 2017 it was twenty years since the University of Tromso initiated and got a Sámi goahti on its campus in Tromsø. That story has two periods. The first period is about acknowledgement and celebration. That period took place during the watch of rector Tove Bull. The Goahti was was given the name of professor Nils Jernsletten in Sámi, Joho Niillas, so the goahti was named Joho Niillas Goahti. During the first ten years the Goahti was used in different celebrations, meetings and also in courses. So far so good.
The last ten years in the second and not so good part of the story. That took place under the watch of rector Jarle Aarbakke and rector Anne Husebekk. Is a story of more or less deliberate negligence. Is it a wider story than just not taking care of a highly symbolically loaded cultural building? Practically the University has not taken care of the Goahti the last ten years, but just let it slowly fall apart. It has almost been like hanging up a flag, and then let that very flag hang and hang there for it to be consumed by the weather. The textile to be teared apart. The colors to get bleaker and bleaker. The shame to be more and more bitter.
The sad story ended by the University tearing down the Goahti at the end of May 2018 while nobody was watching.
This practise of negligence correlates with a shift of paradigm when it comes to how different Sámi subjects has been administered by the University. The University seems to have slipped back to the time of making Sámi subjects invisible and insignificant. How UiT the Arctic University of Norway has administered The Sámi language program is not unique. The program had one single professor, and when he stepped down for his retirement, there was no one to replace him. The result is a huge time gap to get a new professor in place. One person's retirement is a predictable phenomenon and given the situation for Sámi language in general, every letter in the book should have pointed the university to at least get a new professor in place for at least a year ahead of the retirement of the professor running the program. Not to mention that the program should have been expanded.
One does not have to be a tort lawyer to know that there is a lot to read from different practises of negligence. UiT the Arctic University of Norway’s inaction/action speaks with a loud voice, and the messages to the Sámi community isn't clear, but it doesn't seem to be a good one.
The spokesperson for the Norwegian arctic University says to the Sámi paper Ávvir 14th of June 2018 that they plan to replace the Goahti with a new one or with a different building. Hopefully they will build a new building that doesn't have the same cultural significance as a Goahti. In that case neither Sámi students nor Sámi staff at the University or any other Sámis for that matter would not have to suffer from this type of devaluing conduct from the university.
However. Are there lessons to be learned from Joho Niillas Goahti for the Sámi Community and for other Indigenous peoples? One is perhaps that it should not be a matter of free enterprise for any University or any public entity from the mainstream societies to build up and start to use/abuse Indigenous cultural items on their campuses. There need to be a consent from the Indigenous communities and the codes of conduct need to be in place before such consent is given.
In case of a Goahti in Tromsø or where ever. The lesson has to be that the Universities have to ask the Sámi Parliament, and that the Sámi Parliament has to make sure that the case of Joho Niillas goahti never shall to be repeated.