| Summary: | Craftsmanship is recognised as a source of practical wisdom that can inform sustainable management and use of natural resources. However, there are many outstanding questions about how the skills and tacit knowledge embedded in craftsmanship can facilitate social-ecological resilience for sustainability. It has also proved difficult to access and articulate the knowledge embedded in craftsmanship. With this study I explore the skill and tacit knowledge components of craftsmanship as a repository of cultural-ecological memory through two case studies: the duodji, or handicrafts, produced by a Sámi craftswoman living in Jokkmokk, Sweden, and the fishing style of a fisherman in the Stockholm archipelago. As such, the research has two main aims: 1) to understand how the skills and tacit knowledge embedded in craftsmanship function as carriers of cultural-ecological memory; 2) to explore ways of mobilising and capturing these knowledge types by making them visible through the use of visual methodologies like photography. The research highlights the value of the accumulated knowledge and the portfolio of skills that are components of craft practices. Visual methods, in particular photo elicitation, invite participants to link their craftsmanship to their culture and identity. In doing so, visual methods contribute a new perspective on the role of craftsmanship as a carrier of cultural-ecological memory because the craft practices themselves become reservoirs of tacit knowledge and embodied skills that can be drawn upon in responding and adapting to changes or disturbances in the social-ecological system.
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