Nesseby
Encyclopedia
Unjárga or Nesseby (Norwegian
Norwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...

) (also Uuniemi in Kven/Finnish
Kven language
The Kven language is a Finnic language spoken in Northern Norway by the Kven people. For political and historical reasons it received the status of a minority language in 2005 within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

) is a municipality
Municipalities of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 in Finnmark
Finnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...

 county
Counties of Norway
Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Varangerbotn
Varangerbotn
Varangerbotn is the administrative centre of Nesseby municipality, Norway. It is located in inner Varangerfjord.The band The BlackSheeps comes from Varangerbotn....

.

On 1 January 1846, the municipality of Nesseby was created by merging the Nesseby area of Vadsø
Vadsø
is a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality and the county of Finnmark....

 together with the areas of Berlevåg
Berlevåg
is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Berlevåg. Berlevåg was separated from the municipality of Tana to form a municipality of its own on 1 July 1913....

, Polmak
Polmak
Polmak is a village and a former municipality in Finnmark county in Norway. It is located in the southern part of the present-day municipality of Tana...

, and Tana  from Lebesby
Lebesby
Lebesby is a municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Kjøllefjord. Lebesby is also the name of a village in the municipality....

. Tana and Berlevåg were separated from Nesseby on 1 January 1864 to form the new municipality of Tana. Polmak was separated from Nesseby on 1 January 1903.

Name

The official name of the municipality was Nesseby before 1989 when it was changed to Unjárga-Nesseby. It was the second municipality in Norway to get a Sami
Sami languages
Sami or Saami is a general name for a group of Uralic languages spoken by the Sami people in parts of northern Finland, Norway, Sweden and extreme northwestern Russia, in Northern Europe. Sami is frequently and erroneously believed to be a single language. Several names are used for the Sami...

 name. In 2005, the name was again changed, such that either Unjárga or Nesseby can be used.

The municipality (originally the parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...

) is named after the old Nesseby farm, since the first church was built there (in 1858). The first element is nes which means "headland
Headland
A headland is a point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water.Headland can also refer to:*Headlands and bays*headLand, an Australian television series...

" and the last element is by which means "town
Town
A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

".

The meaning of the first element (u-) in the Sami name is unknown and the last element is njárga which means "headland".

Coat-of-arms

The coat-of-arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

 is from modern times. They were granted on 27 June 1986. The arms show a cloudberry
Cloudberry
Rubus chamaemorus is a rhizomatous herb native to alpine and arctic tundra and boreal forest, producing amber-colored edible fruit similar to the raspberry or blackberry...

 plant (Rubus chamaemorus), since these plants are commonly found in the municipality and the region. The berries were historically exported to other parts of Norway by the barrel.

History

Wild reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...

 used to cross the isthmus
Isthmus
An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas usually with waterforms on either side.Canals are often built through isthmuses where they may be particularly advantageous to create a shortcut for marine transportation...

 in prehistoric times until the year 1900, causing extensive human activity throughout the millennia. Therefore, the area is full of archeological finds from different periods.

Sami culture

Most inhabitants are of Sami
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...

 origin, and today Sami is being taught as the first language in schools. The municipality has its own Sami costume.

The Norwegian Sami Parliament's department of culture and environment is located in Unjárga-Nesseby. The Várjjat Sámi Museum is located in the municipality. The museum is about the sea-sami culture. Unjárga-Nesseby is also the birthplace of Isak Saba
Isak Saba
Isak Mikal Saba was a Sami teacher and politician. On October 11, 1906, he became the first Sami to be elected to the Stortinget, and he was the representative of Finnmark for the Norwegian Labour Party from 1907 to 1912.Isak Saba wrote the text to Sámi soga lávlla, which the Sami Conference made...

 the first Sami to be elected into the Norwegian Parliament.

The popular teen-age pop-band The Blacksheeps
The BlackSheeps
The BlackSheeps is a band from Nesseby in northern Norway. Their breakthrough came following their participation in the MGP jr, a song contest for children organised by Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. Having won MGP jr 2008 with the song Oro jaska, beana the group went on to represent Norway in...

 come from Nesseby.

Geography

The municipality is situated on the isthmus between the Varangerfjord
Varangerfjord
The Varangerfjord in the county of Finnmark, is the easternmost fjord in Norway. It is approximately long. In a strict sense, it is a false fjord, as it does not have the hallmarks of a fjord carved by glaciers....

 and the Tana River
Tana River (Norway)
Tana river , is a long river in Sápmi, in the Norwegian county of in Finnmark and the Lapland of Finland. The Sámi name means "Great River". The main tributaries of Tana are Anarjohka and Karasjohka....

. People live in small settlements along the fjord
Fjord
Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

.

Birdlife

The municipality of Unjárga-Nesseby is known for its interesting birding localities and is mentioned in several birding guide books. Other than the Varangerford, the main habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...

 is tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...

 with areas of bog
Bog
A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

 and marsh
Marsh
In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

. One species that can usually be seen on small ponds during the summer months is the Red-necked Phalarope
Red-necked Phalarope
The Red-necked Phalarope, Phalaropus lobatus, is a small wader. This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, winters at sea on tropical oceans....

.

External links

  • http://www.nesseby.kommune.no/ Official homepage
  • http://www.varjjat.org/ Várjjat Sámi Museum
  • http://www.isaksaba.no/ Isak Saba center
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