German Museum Will Repatriate Ancient Drum to South Sámi museum, Saemien Sijte

Three hundred years ago, in 1723, the Norwegian missionary Thomas von Westen took a sacred Sámi drum belonging to Bendix Andersen and Jon Torchelsen. Von Westen and this drum, along with all the other drums he collected by coercion and force from Sámi communities around and north of Trondheim, is the subject of one of the chapters in my recent book, From Lapland to Sápmi. Unlike many of von Westen’s consficated drums, which burned in the great Copenhagen fire of 1728, this drum, the Freavnantjahke gievrie, or Drum from Frøyning Mountain, went from the Royal Kunstkammer to a castle in Germany, and from there eventually to the Meiningen Museum. The Iron Curtain kept its whereabouts mysterious until the 1990s, when staff members at the National Museum of Denmark decided to try to track it down. It was exhibited on loan in Trondheim in 2017.

In 2021, Saemien Sijte, the South Sámi museum and cultural center in Snåsa, two hours north of Trondheim, opened negotiations with the Meiningen Museum for the permanent repatriation of the drum. On June 21, 2023 Meiningen Museum decided at its board meeting to return the Freaynantjahke gievrie to Saemien Sijte. It’s the first German museum to return a drum but may not be the last. Discussions between the Sámi Parliament and other museums in Berlin and Dresden, among other cities, have opened as to the possibility of more repatriations.Birgitta Fossum, museum director at Saemien Sijte, wrote in a press release:

 "Drums have been and are important in Sami society. They were sacred and important guides in life, and they were often seen by missionaries as tools of the devil. Thomas von Westen wanted to collect drums and use the knowledge he gained to Christianize the Sami by demonizing the religion. Most of the drums preserved today were collected by missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries and later by museums. This is a painful history, and the fact that we are now finally getting the drums back is a step towards coming to terms with history. This is our cultural heritage that we can now finally manage ourselves."

The Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Meiningen-Eisenach Cultural Foundation, State Secretary for Culture Tina Beer, says,

 "I am very happy about the outcome of the talks and thank all those involved as well as the Norwegian partners for their pragmatic and constructive approach. A ritual object that is important for the cultural identity of the long-persecuted Sámi people is now returning exactly 300 years after it was confiscated. It is good and important that even long-ago processes of transferring cultural property are brought to meaningful solutions. This return is an act of respect and recognition towards the northern Norwegian communities and their cultural identity. We are committed to acknowledging past injustices and ushering in a new era of intercultural dialogue and cooperation."