I would like to thank the Krampe family, Ilmari Käihkö, Jelena Spasenic and Jonathan Hall for their friendship and hospitality during my stay in Uppsala. Enormous thanks are also due to Elena and Arlo for their patience and support. I would also like to thank the countless people engaged in language revitalisation and other aspects of Indigenous efflorescence who have shared their knowledge and experiences with me over the years, and have thus helped to shape the ideas that went into this project. And finally, I would also like to express my gratitude to my coeditors for their dedication to this project through its many ups and downs.xv Notes on Language: Locations in Sapmi -Land of the SamiSami authors are familiar with Sami language in various degrees from being fluent speakers to having some knowledge of the language.The most natural way for many authors is to name some places in Swedish/Norwegian/Finnish and others in Sami. The revitalisation of place names is currently ongoing and some place names, like the town of Staare (known as Östersund in Swedish), are increasingly heard. That said, many of our contributors feel more comfortable using Swedish, Norwegian or Finnish for certain place names. Despite the fact that this is a book in English we have encouraged our coauthors to use the place name they want as it is not for us as editors to decide the pace and extent of the Sami revitalisation process.

Røyrvik is a community situated in the southern part of Saepmie, on the Norwegian side, in Nord-Trøndelag, with Jämtland District in Sweden to its east. The community is inhabited by approximately 500 persons, of which 10-20 per cent are believed to be Saami. From a South Saami perspective, this area is considered to be among the most culturally strong and significant areas, as many Saami have their origin here. Some important and powerful persons in South Saami history also have their origins here. One example of such a person was Ella Holm Bull (1929-2006), a preserver of the Saami language who produced a considerable amount of educational literature and music in South Saami, and was an initiator of, and for a couple of years the principal of, the Saami school Åarjel saemiej skuvle (Hermanstrand 2009: 345). The geographical area of the Røyrvik community was colonised rather late in Norweigan history, with the earliest settlers coming as late as 1806. Colonisation, and damming and mining in the area from 1950-2000, dramatically changed the daily life of the reindeer-herding Saami people in the Røyrvik area. Reindeer herding became markedly disturbed, for instance, by the damming of Lake Namsvatn, where a whole village was drowned and had to be rebuilt on the new shore higher up (Jürgensen, et

This paper presents some results from a community-based project among local South Saami in the Norwegian and Swedish part of Saepmie. I was co-coordinating a two-year community-sponsored project in the community (Røyrvik) in which a local South Saami midwife documented stories from elder Saami about childbirth in earlier times, both from their own memories and from stories they knew. Her work became an article in a book, and the project helped us to understand much more about childbirth and general living conditions for Saami one to three generations ago in this area. As a PhD candidate, I have complemented her work with a theoretical framework (Indigenous Research Methods, colonial perspective), a historical analysis, and a contemporary context. Apart from presenting an example of stories she was given and how they can give us new knowledge. But I will focus on the meanings, processes, theories and practices of engaged Indigenous community research. I will describe our different methods and the benefit of working together and will point out how it will further research.