Sámi drums were banned during the Christianisation of the Sámi people. Many were confiscated, destroyed, or hidden away. The Bindal drum was tucked away in the mountains for years, kept out of sight and safe from harm. Eventually, and with great reluctance, it was brought down and added to the University’s ethnographic collections in Oslo.
Naejtie by the campfire
The flames from the hearth (aernie) in the centre of the goahti (gåetie) cast a warm orange glow on the rough inner walls. The only sounds are the crackling of the fire and the steady, rhythmic beats of the rune drum (gievrie) played by the nåejtie.
At the sacred spot at the back of the goahti—the båassjoe—lit only by the fire, sits the father of the household. He is a nåejtie. Seated at an angle to the flames, he holds the gievrie, the rune drum. His gaze is turned upwards as he strikes the taut drumskin with a small hammer—the vietjere—in a steady rhythm. He speaks in a low voice. Whether he’s speaking to himself or to the gievrie, no one can say.
The others in the goahti sit in silence, completely absorbed by what is unfolding.
With a firm strike on the gievrie, the nåejtie then purposefully picks up one of the two small triangular pointers—viejhkie. He places it over one of the many symbols on the drumskin before gently resuming the rhythm. Slowly, steadily, he beats the drum until the viejhkie begins to dance.
He speaks, but whatever he is saying cannot be heard.
Decisions in Reindeer husbandry and marriage
Everyone watches intently as the viejhkie dances across the drumskin. If it now moves cleanly from the central circle to the symbol for the reindeer grazing lands—and then back to the circle—it’s a good sign. The family will manage well.
But if the viejhkie wavers, veering this way and that, it signals misfortune. It means they must abandon their plan to move the reindeer along that route and instead seek a new path—for the herd, and for the family.
Perhaps it was just like this that Lars Olsen experienced it in the early 1800s, when his uncle, Njaarke-Næjla, used his gievrie—the very drum we now know as the Bindal drum.
Bindalstromma
“Njaarke-Næjla” – Nils Jonsen Vesterfjell (1795–1869) – was a well-off reindeer herder who lived in the mountain areas of Njaarke, southwest of Vefsn. He was the last known user of the Bindal drum, which had been passed down through generations.
The Bindal drum is adorned with a range of symbols and pointers, together forming a map of the drum owner’s life and spiritual worldview. Over 300 years old, it is one of the best-documented Sámi drums in Norway.
The drums were banned when the Sámi people were to be Christianised.
Many drums were confiscated, destroyed, or hidden away to prevent their use. Bindalstromma lay hidden in the mountain for a long time
…before it was reluctantly retrieved and collected into the University’s ethnographic collections in Oslo, and later displayed at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History.
Bindalstromma came back
The Bindal drum returned to the South Sámi region and Saemien Sijte in Snåsa through the Båååstede programme in 2022. If you visit the exhibition “GÏEJIDE GOEREBE – WE FOLLOW THE TRACKS” at Saemien Sijte, you will gain a deeper understanding of South Sámi history and culture.