Three months in Norway with Tukuuludaa-Recap Part 2: Preparing for Our Trip
- Tukuuludaa
- Aug 20
- 6 min read
We are eternally grateful to everyone who made this trip possible, including (but not limited to): ULU of Norway, the Ulakaia Center, Native Movement, Aleut Community of St. Paul Island, Norwegian Handicraft Institute, TDX Corporation, and the Central Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association. It takes a village to manage a project as big as revitalizing reindeer and fur seal crafting on St. Paul Island, and we are thankful for ours.
Aang Tukuuludaa followers!
In June, we launched our blog series, “Three months in Norway with Tukuuludaa: A Recap.” Our first installment focused on the origins of our project, while this installment will focus on how we got ready our trip! Read on to learn about where we went, what we decided to do and why!
The Market in Jokkmokk: A Dream Destination for Reindeer Handicraft Enthusiasts
As we wrote our initial grant application for Native Movement, we considered just how to make the most of a trip to Sápmi (Sápmi is the name of the Sámi homeland that spans Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Northwest Russia). What would be the most educational experience for us to participate in? What experiences would give us new knowledge that we could bring back and use to work with reindeer handicraft in Alaska?
While we had researched different reindeer tanning methods, we knew that we wanted to learn from those who have an environmentally friendly reindeer crafting and tanning practice so we can learn from them to create a sustainable and suitable program for reindeer tanning and crafting practice in our region.
During Hannah Atsaq’s time in Guovdageaidnu, she often heard about the Sámi Market in Jokkmokk and so she suggested it as the first our knowledge exchange destination. The Jokkmokk Market is the largest gathering of reindeer crafters in Europe if not the world. The market is attended by approximately 40,000 people over its 3-day span with hundreds of Sámi and Nordic vendors selling their handicrafts. What better place to meet handicrafters, see all the different types of products one can make from reindeer, and be immersed in a vibrant Indigenous setting?
We then decided to separate our trip into two parts. The first part would be attending the market, and the second part would be completing specialized training in reindeer fur and leather tanning as well as shoe-making.
Reindeer Species and Design Considerations: Selecting a Hide Tanning and Reindeer Crafting Training Partner
In December of 2024, we were notified that we had advanced to the final stage of the Native Movement grant selection process. Since we planned to begin our project in February (the date of the Market in Jokkmokk), we decided to start looking for someone who could teach us tanning, ensuring we had enough time to get in touch with different instructors and set a plan.
One thing that we were keenly aware of in our search was that the reindeer on St. Paul Island are a different breed than the ones in Sápmi. The reindeer on St. Paul were brought here from Siberia, not Norway. Based on our observations, the reindeer on St. Paul Island are easily twice the size and weight of Norwegian stock. So we needed someone who could be flexible and teach us in such a way that the techniques could be adapted to fit a different sub-species of reindeer.
As we discussed considerations for learning to tan, we also discussed if we should learn a specific reindeer craft that we could bring back and then revitalize making in Alaska? In the days of Sámi in Alaska, there was a strong reindeer-based crafting culture. Sámi introduced their handicraft to native communities, who quickly adapted the styles to fit their needs, such as reindeer leg and head skin shoes, reindeer leg pants, and even pesk-calf fur coats have been recorded in Alaska. However, this knowledge has all been lost. One of our project goals was to return this crafting knowledge to Alaska, so we can fully utilize all parts of the reindeer in our reindeer communities.
Alaskan reindeer herder with pesk calf fur coat, reindeer leg pants, and reindeer fur boots. 1897. Image Credit: Wiki Commons
We decided that we would start with making the reindeer leg fur winter shoes (known in Norwegian as skalle, and in Northern Sámi as gápmagat or nuvttohat) and reindeer leather summer shoes (known in Norwegian as kommager, and in Northern Sámi as čazehat). Hannah Atsaq began to search people who had taught skalle/gápmagat/nuvttohat making courses in the past. She found a course from 2020 taught at the Auskin Creative Senter, which was taught by a woman named Sofie Kleppe, who ran a company called Ulu of Norway that offers traditional hide tanning courses for many animals -- especially reindeer.
As Hannah Atsaq showed Garrett Iĝayux̂ their website, we were inspired by how the company and its founders, Sofie Keppe and Roni Öhman, researched, practiced, and adapted tanning techniques from different cultures. We felt confident looking through Ulu of Norway's website that they would be flexible enough to train us in a way that was versatile enough that we could bring it back to Alaska and use it to process and tan reindeer hides here.
Sharing the grant wealth: How we supported other Unangax̂ Artists with our Funding
In January of 2025, when we received grant funding from Native Movement, and then shortly after additional funding from Tanadgusix Corporation, we knew we were lucky -- and that it was important we share the wealth with fellow creatives of Unangam Tanangin. In the spirit of mutual aid, we allocated a certain portion of our funding to create an "Unangan Artists Support Fund" through which we could commission pieces from fellow Unangax̂ artists and art organizations that we could take with us to showcase in Norway, Sweden, and Finland.
The two Unangax̂ artists we got to work with were Qaadax̂ Studio (for two aĝadax-sun medallions) and Cyri Thompson (for a hand crocheted shawl). Unfortunately, due to the timing of the grant payout, we were unable to get artists their support to start working until shortly before we needed to leave for Europe, so not all the pieces made it to Norway. However, they'll surely be along on our next knowledge sharing trip!
Disaster Strikes! Replanning our trip after a 6-day plane delay
Those of you who have traveled to and/or from St. Paul Island know just how unpredictable the weather on the island can be. Hannah Atsaq had knee surgery at the end of October 2024, and with the price of flights to and from St. Paul Island – decided that she wouldn’t return to the island until the grant project travel was over. So we made a plan that Garrett Iĝayux̂ would meet Hannah Atsaq in New York (where she was doing her post-surgery rehabilitation) and they would travel to Sweden together for the Market in Jokkmokk.
However, the weather on St. Paul did not decide to cooperate with that plan, so Garrett Iĝayux̂ could only leave the island 6 days after we originally planned, meaning that we were going to miss the entire Market. We were crushed that we wouldn’t get to do what we envisioned as the biggest part of our trip, but we decided to just continue with the next stage of our trip, which was Sámi and Nordic community knowledge-sharing visits.
And … we were off!
Garrett Iĝayux̂ Flew from St. Paul Island to New York, where he met with Hannah Atsaq. We had one day to prepare before we flew to Europe. Then we got on a plane from New York - Stockholm with a stopover in Paris. We enjoyed some reindeer burgers at the Stockholm airport before we flew up to Ubmeje (Umeå), our first stop.
All in all … 1.5 days of flying for Hannah Atsaq and a whopping 4 days of flying for Garrett Iĝayux̂. So, once we got to Ubmeje, we just crashed.
Curious how the rest of our journey went? Be on the lookout for the third installment of this blog series!
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