Original photo by: Anders Beer Wilse. Published by: saamiblog (CC BY NC SA)
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I met Nils-Anders who was doing some shopping at the annual (now 406 year-old) Jokkmokk Winter Market last week. He’s a Sámi herder from Northern Sweden close to Kautokeino who had just moved his reindeer from Norway over to Sweden for the winter.
He invited me to come experience his herd migration back to Norway this summer (particularly around Midsummer) before we walked a few stalls over to catch up with his friends and fellow Sámi herders, Jon-Nils Gaup and his wife, Kirsten J. (from the village of Máze) who were selling reindeer fur.
Every year during the first week of February, local Sámi elder, Per Kuhmunen, leads his reindeer caravan through the narrow makeshift alleys of the 400+ year old Jokkmokk market, the largest traditional Sámi festival in the world.
Pulling his reindeer and grandchildren along on wooden sleds using his snowmobile, the caravan stops next to the old Sámi church where Per parks. The family then take off their winter coats and change into a few last-minute accessories before continuing on foot towards the market.
