At the risk of being positioned as an untimely nag, I still feel the urge to write an epitaph about the Astafjord village book project. My gut feeling was right. The village book project in old Astafjoran is dead. I guess we can use that expression. Because no one believes, as of today, that this will be resumed. Over the years, we have been fed various statements. From woolly accusations of default, to pompous political statements. None of this has benefited the project.
After the case had gone through the legal system, with various rulings, three mayors stood up in public, with a united front, and told us that this project should now be reviewed by them, or someone they considered competent. It was to be investigated whether these were useful cases that would then be assessed whether it could be utilized. We have not heard more about who was to investigate and what the material might be used for. As far as I know.
Professor-level assessments of the work have not resonated with these elected officials. A unique opportunity for historical documentation has been squandered. The work and money invested in the project apparently do not count. Eventually, there was also silence about the village book. The latest public statements have come from Gratangen's mayor; the other two may have played their part. The fact that there are many people around who would have liked to know whether this data will be available, in one way or another, to interested parties, we get no information about. It is once again an arrogance towards the people around the area. After all, public money has been spent here, but in that sense this statement, or rather lack of statement, adds to the current political agenda.
I look at my 8 books and rejoice in them. At the same time as I mourn all that we, due to unwillingness, ignorance, pettiness and little respect for our own past, are deprived of.
