Lecture: Decolonization in Sámi Literature, Art, and Music

Literature specialist Anne Heith will give examples of how anticolonial resistance connected with the International Movement of Indigenous Peoples and Postcolonial currents influences contemporary Sámi writers and artists in processes of decolonization.

The title of Sámi artist Sofia Jannok’s album from 2016, ORDA – This is My Land, for example,reflects present day Sámi resistance to colonialism which has deprived the Sámi of their traditional land. This kind of resistance has become increasingly visible in Sámi culture during the last decades. It can also be found in the poetry and photo book The Sun, My Father by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (Áillohaš) that was published 1988 in Sámi and explicitly addresses how colonialism has affected Sámi people. In his role as a poet, yoik artist, musician, painter, Sámi politician and activist he also got influenced by the Alta dispute* in Norway in 1979-1981, which is of major importance for Sámi anticolonial struggle.

* The Alta conflict unfolded between 1968 and 1982. The Sámi stood together with environmental activists and protested against the extension plans for hydropower in Finnmark, northern Norway. Even if they did not succeed to stop the hydropower plants, their protests had a huge impact on Sámi politics in Norway. (Source in German: Wikipedia)