Dagfinn Høybråten

Dagfinn Høybråten belongs to a rare group of politicians who have left a lasting impact. As the man behind Norway's smoking ban, he has driven forward one of the most significant public health measures in modern times. He knows what it takes to stand firm in one’s beliefs, push through resistance, and, most importantly, demonstrate to the rest of us what can be achieved through knowledge, focused effort, and perseverance. 

Høybråten has extensive leadership experience at the highest levels of politics, administration, and international organizations. He understands what it means to set clear, knowledge-based goals, build a team to achieve results, and endure the storms until those goals are met. 

He served as Minister of Health in two periods but has also held roles as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs and State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. Internationally, he led the global vaccine alliance Gavi for several years—a coalition that, since 2000, has saved the lives of more than 17 million children by ensuring access to childhood immunization in low-income countries. 

In his public service, he has led Norway’s social security administration, served as a municipal chief executive, and was a director at the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities. After his tenure as a minister, Member of Parliament, and leader of the Christian Democratic Party, Høybråten became Secretary-General of the Nordic Council of Ministers and later of Norwegian Church Aid. From 2018 to 2023, he chaired the parliamentary commission that investigated the Norwegianization policies affecting the Sámi, Kven, Forest Finns, and Norwegian Finns. 

 

Mari Valjakka

Mari Valjakka is a skolt sámi priest from Finland. She has has been working as a Sámi priest in Evangelic-Lutheran Church of Finland since 2015. For the last two years Mari has been working as a project coordinator in a project called The Sámi in the Church. Project was about truth- and reconciliation process between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Sámi people. Mari Valjakka is passionate about ecumenism, indigenous and climate issues. Valjakka chairs the World Council of Churches' Indigenous Peoples Reference Group, and she is part of the Climate Justice Policy Task Force -group in Lutheran World Federation. 

 

Johan Máhtte Skum

Johan Máhtte Skum is a trained church musician and one of the first Sámi church musicians to be ordained for cantor service in the Church of Norway. He currently works as an advisor for the Sámi Church Council in the Church of Norway. His areas of interest include Sámi church music, hymn singing, and traditional music. 

Johan Máhtte has been involved in planning the worship services for the Sámi Church Days in 2013, 2017, and 2022 (2021), as well as for 2025. During this year's Sámi Church Days, Johan Máhtte invites participants to a hymn singing session on Saturday, June 28. 

 

Lovisa Mienna Sjöberg

Lovisa Mienna Sjöberg is a researcher and associate professor at VID Specialized University in Tromsø, responsible for the theological education of priests. She earned her PhD in 2018 from the University of Oslo with the dissertation "Att leva i ständig välsignelse. En studie av sivdnidit som religiös praxis" ("Living in Constant Blessing: A Study of Sivdnidit as a Religious Practice"). 

Sjöberg’s research focuses on spiritual traditions and practices in Sápmi, Sámi storytelling traditions, everyday faith, and Sámi history in relation to the church. She has previously worked at Sámi allaskuvla / Sámi University of Applied Sciences as a project manager, lecturer, and associate professor. 

Her publications include both academic and popular science articles and book chapters in Swedish, Norwegian, English, and North Sámi. Her primary research interests are constructive theology, particularly in relation to the current creation crisis, as well as Sámi church history.  

 

 

Fredrik Juul

Fredrik Juul is a dean and parish priest in the Malå-Sorsele pastorate of the Church of Sweden. He is also the rural dean of the Southern Lapland deanery. For nearly 25 years, he has worked as a priest in various congregations along the Vindel River in the Ume Sámi area, through which he has gained extensive knowledge of Sámi church life and Sámi issues. 

During the Church Days, he will share his experiences regarding the repatriation of Christina Catharina Larsdotter to the cemetery in Malå in May 2024. 

 

 

Kaisa Huuva

Kaisa Huuva belongs to Gabná Sámi village in Kiruna municipality and Stockholm. For over 20 years, she has worked in various organizations to strengthen and protect Sámi cultural and community life, including Sámi church life. She has long been engaged in issues of Sámi self-determination, reconciliation, and decolonization. 

Kaisa is working on a research project exploring the enduring Sámi presence in Swedish settler-colonial landscapes.  

 

Ida-Maria Marakatt

Ida-Maria Marakatt was born in 1983. She grew up in Saivomuotka. She has her Sámi roots in the Karesuando Sámi area and in the Sea Sámi area of Lyngen, Northern Troms. 

Ida-Maria has been engaged in duodji since her teenage years, learning in the traditional way from older generations. She has an education from the Sámi Education Centre in Jokkmokk, where she studied Dipmaduodji with a northern focus. Ida-Maria masters most soft-material techniques. Working with yarn, and especially band weaving, is what lies closest to her heart. 

Today, she lives with her family in Idivuoma. Her family belongs to the Lainiovuoma Sámi village, where they are engaged in reindeer herding. Ida-Maria runs her own duodji business, taking custom orders, offering courses and workshops, and selling finished duodji products and materials. The foundation of Ida-Maria’s duodji is traditional craftsmanship, but she also creates other works, such as church textiles. 

 

Vesa Orassalo

Vesa Orassalo is 24 years old and comes from Näätämö. He is currently studying to become a primary school teacher in Rovaniemi, with plans to return north after completing his studies. 

He has spent much of his life in nature, where hunting and fishing are a way of life for him. While exploring the outdoors, he has witnessed and experienced many unique moments, which have inspired him to take up photography. Grouse and salmon are especially important to him, shaping his life in many ways.