Last year, the Ájtte mountain and Sami museum in Jokkmokk received two drums on loan from a museum in Marseille, France.
They are from the 18th century and originally come from the Umesami area. For the past year, the drums have been on display at the museum, but soon you will also be able to meet one of them in the virtual world.
“Want to show what it looked like”
Sara Ajnnak and Anna Nutti Wiandt are now working together with game developers to produce a game that revolves around just one of the drums.
– It actually started with us wanting to show what it might have looked like when it was used in practical terms. So we have built our idea and history around how we envision that the drum has been used for real, says Sara Ajnnak.
– We try to use the Sami storytelling culture. But we are trying to do it in a new way so that this is a game that preserves both a cultural history and a valuable object, says Anna Nutti Wiandt.
“A long process”
The project is carried out across national borders with funding from the EU through the Northern Periphery and arctic programme. On the Swedish side of Sápmi, the Västerbotten Region is the project owner.
– We created a story and from there, technical people have had to take care of the actual creation of what you will see in the game. It has been a long process as our culture requires a lot of description about, for example, how a band should be created and that the colors are right. We have specific things that are important to get into the game, says Sara Ajnnak.
But now they are approaching the final stage of the project. If everything goes according to plan, the game should be ready by spring. Then it will then be available on a game portal and within Region Västerbotten.