Søren Andreasen Title : Borders, lines and governance in a Northern Landscape

by

Søren Andreasen

This presentation explores what the history of a nature trail termed ‘the Old Postal Route’ in Finnmark, Northern Norway, as the history of the making of a line, may tell us about processes and practices of (b)ordering a landscape. Accepting the premise that nature trails and their usage can be understood as an ongoing making and history of a line (Ingold 2007), I explore the Postal Route as a line that enables a connection between people across spatial and temporal boundaries but also a line entangled with disputes over how the landscape is understood and practiced. Specifically, I ask about the past relations of the Postal Route and how they may form part of processes that contribute to shape movement, perception and practice grounded in the landscapes of Finnmarksvidda of today. Drawing on fieldwork and archival materials, the presentation explores the ways in which the Postal Route are tied up with knots of colonial ambiguity. I argue that an untangling of these knots are relevant for understanding how the trail may continue to frame contemporary relations and disputes over boundaries and forms of landscape usage between (and amongst) indigenous and non-indigenous local populations in Finnmark.