Heart of a Story joining people together along Northern Lights Route

On Monday 28th of August we started our journey from Tornio-Haparanda along Northern Lights Route. Our destination was Storslett, Nordreisa (Northern Norway).

Our event kicked ofd at Halti culture house next day, on Tuesday. The seminar was also streamed online. JORD opened the workshop with music. After opening the event we had a short Yoga exercise to make people more active.

Professor Tove I. Dahl from UiT held a presentation about psychological aspects of stories and storytelling. Tove told us about her background, living in USA, Minnesota. She reminded us that it is impossible to tell all the pieces of a story, the role of the listener is to connect the dots and elaborate on the content of what they have heard. In order to tell good stories, the storyteller needs to tell stories vividly with concrete examples, metaphors, analogies and describing actions.

“ Say what you say clearly and what you don’t see, you need to show with emotions..”

Professor Young-Sook Lee (UiT), was talking about the Asian perspective and how Confucianism shape tourists views. Confucius (551-479 BC) is an educational philosopher focusing on morality and ethics. It’s important to recognize that Asian tourist’s behavior is underpinned by Confucian values. One interesting point was, that when we plan tourism services, it’s better to think small instead of big, because “small is beautiful”. Asian people consuming food also consumes stories.

Björn Ylipää, was telling his own story; how stories can be told by food. How to experience and visualise stories? How does the Northern Light taste? In the evening, we all participated in his food-workshop at Ovi Raishiin. We prepared four courses whilst being guided by Björn and his wife, Lena.

“Last taste of wilderness.. The story of Kaunisvaara – coffee cheese, reindeer meat pitsa”.

At Ovi Raishiin we had our workshop and evening programme. The businesses were able to practice and try storytelling themselves, this included solving assignements which lead to stories about their own businesses. Real and authentic stories are built upon the emotions and values that our businesses are based on. The purpose of developing a story for each business was to show that each business matters and makes a difference.

The next morning we had our fieldtrip. First, we visited a local horse breeder, Lyngshestlandet. The entrepreneurs were telling us about the place and the owner told us his story and his relations to Nord-Troms and Northern Norway. At Kronebutikken we had the opportunity to taste the northernmost syrups and make our own art from fish skin guided by Reisa Skinnprodukter.

At the end of this 2-day event, we concluded the workshop with Tove I. Dahl. She was telling her own story about the workshop and what we experienced along the way. Everyone were asked to think about the future and what they do in the next two hours, two days and two weeks.

We started our journey back home on Wednesday afternoon. The rest of the group from Finland and Sweden were also visiting Äkäslompolo, where we met local storyteller and shaman Uuttu-Kalle. There we experienced so called Lapinkaste – Lappish pabtising.

Heart of a Story event was held in between 29.-30. of August in Storslett, Northern Norway. It was organized by Our Stories project.

Heart of a Story event was held in between 29.-30. of August in Storslett, Northern Norway. It was organized by Our Stories project.