Points of Return: Place-Making in Finnmark

This essay collects four places from a journey in Kirkenes, eastern Finnmark, Norway, in September 2024. As part of a PhD project on Mesolithic wetland place-making, the visit focused on exploring the concept of place in wetlands by documenting my personal experiences in palsa mires (permafrost peatlands) in the region, namely Enaremyrane, Færdesmyra, Korpmyran and Slambanken. Each place prompted reflections on principles of belonging, courses of change, and impermanence in and between inner and outer worlds. Furthermore, alternating foci between physical experience, photography and text yielded insight into how perception begins with, rather than facilitates, anchoring in and making place. Personal recollection of contextual specificity provides alternatives to archaeological narration of person/ecology/place intersections. Despite the ethical challenges of intervening in contested and, to me, unknown land, critical photography in these landscapes offered valuable insights into the politics and fragility of ‘homeness’. By emphasising the politics of place, this text conveys a story about how experience and practice carry ethical premises that are equally valuable in archaeological place narration.