My country has no colours

By Kristine Magnesen, Communications Advisor

 “The story behind the Sami flag is actually kind of wild,” Synnøve Persen says. In the summer of 1977 the students at the National Academy of Fine Arts arranged a sales exhibition to earn money for a trip to Jølster, to visit the area where their professor of painting, Ludvig Eikaas, came from. “The exhibition was such a success, and we made so much, that we were able to travel even farther west. We ended up taking a boat from Bergen to Torshavn on the Faroe Islands.”

The idea was born

Since 1948, the Faroe Islands have been a self-governing territory within Denmark, and their autonomy is strengthened by the fact that they have their own flag and official language, Faroese. In this island archipelago west of Norway, Persen met local artists who spoke of their independence and Faroese identity with pride. “That lit a spark in me,” she relates.

Returning to Bergen by boat was not an option. “The trip over was horrible. We threw up and felt very seasick.” On the flight from Torshavn to Copenhagen she looked out at the sea and parts of Norway. The Sami people and the Sami homeland, Sápmi, lacked a way to mark their sense of community and identity. “I thought ‘my country has no colours,’ and that’s how the idea was born.”