Sami Activist Art as Spaces of Resistance
In this series of essays, we will take a deeper look at the spiritual divide that exists in Arctic Indigenous communities by developing a framework through which to interpret grassroots activism in the arts as practiced by the Inuit of the United States (Alaska), Canada, and Greenland, and the Sami of Northern Scandinavia. Our focus here will be on the recent surge of Sami activist art as a means of navigating the journey of the abyss across the spiritual divide (Scharmer, 2018).
Indigenous Worldviews
Within our exploration of Arctic Indigenous communities, there are parallels that manifest in individual and collective expressions in these spaces of resistance. From the individual markings of Inuit tattoos to the shared spiritual connectedness of the pan-Arctic community that has catalyzed around this movement, it becomes clear that there is no separation between individual and collective. From here, we must keep in mind that the key to seeing reality as a living eco-system is to see circles of influence rather than straight lines – to move away from linear thinking (Senge, 2006). By tracing the flows of influence, we can see that every circle tells a story (Senge, 2006).
One of the stories that is being retold in current sustainability frameworks in relation to climate change is the story of anthropocentrism – of seeing ourselves, as humans, at the center (Senge, 2006). According to the Sami, everything is connected; the landscape, the nature, the climate, politics, culture, society, the law, art – they are all entangled (Higgins, 2022). This worldview is one that has shaped the subsistence livelihood of the Sami, who have inhabited Northern Scandinavia in close connection with the land and water since time immemorial (Leu et al., 2018). This also connects to the Sami notion of duodji, which crudely translates to “craft” while embodying a philosophy of life based on the indivisibility of humans, animals, and nature (Fullerton, 2022). By centering Indigenous worldviews of relationality and interconnectedness, the potential to adopt a systems perspective represents a profound shift in awareness so that we see ourselves as part of nature, not separate from nature (Senge, 2006).
Responsible Tourism
As visitors to these communities, it is our responsibility to apply the power of mindfulness to the transformation of the collective system (Scharmer, 2018). As we strive to promote sustainability in our everyday lives and in our pursuits as travelers, we must keep in mind the lived experiences of those whose communities we visit as guests and do our best to infuse our listening with empathy (Scharmer, 2018). In order to co-create this future potential, it becomes essential for us to ground our thinking in the Indigenous worldview of Ubuntu from Southern Africa, which transcends geographic and cultural boundaries. This relational philosophy states that “I am because you are” or “I am because of others,” which means that a person is a person through other people and living and non-living things (Chigangaidze et al., 2021).
The Spiritual Divide
Like most Indigenous communities, the Sami are familiar with the legacies of colonization and the ongoing struggles for self-determination involving: self-identification and recognition of Indigenous and tribal peoples; cultural identity and non-discrimination; collective property, lands, territories and natural resources; political and participatory rights; consultation and free, prior and informed content; and economic, social, cultural, and environmental rights (IWGIA, n.d.). Within Indigenous communities, these issues of self-determination translate into the abyss that exists within the ecological divide, the social divide, and the spiritual divide (Scharmer, 2018). The goal, then, is to sense and actualize the highest future potential (Scharmer, 2018) in these liminal places of possibility.
Our focus here will be on bridging the spiritual divide, not because the ecological and the social divides are less significant, but because the spiritual element is inextricably intertwined in every aspect of Indigenous life from the ground up. There is no separation between individual and collective, living and non-living (Tuhiwai Smith, 2022). Many Indigenous worldviews and paradigms can be traced back to creation stories linking people through genealogy to the land, the stars, the universe, and to birds, fish, animals, insects and plants (Tuhiwai Smith, 2022). Therefore, it becomes impossible to separate the spiritual element that has imbued Indigenous worldviews for thousands of years.
A History of Activism
This sense of interconnectedness extends to the history of grassroots activism in Sami communities, which began in the modern political context with organized efforts in the early 20th century (Rorosmuseet, n.d.). Despite geopolitical boundaries in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia, the Sami have always thought about their future together as one people beyond national borders (Roue, 2019). In this way, Sami activists have been co-sensing and co-shaping emerging future possibilities with systems thinking (Scharmer, 2018). These early days of activist efforts were shaped by Sami reindeer herders seeking to present a unified voice to advocate for their rights (Rorosmuseet, n.d.) with eco-system awareness (Scharmer, 2018). From there, the Sami continued to catalyze change as grassroots activists who eventually established one of the oldest active Indigenous peoples’ organizations in the world, the Sami Council (WWW, n.d.). Their advocacy efforts have continued to expand and evolve while promoting the cultural, political, economic and social rights of the Sami, including the protests of a hydroelectric power plant in the 1970’s (Sami Parliamentary Council, n.d.) and wind turbines built on land traditionally used by Sami reindeer herders in 2023 (Fouche, 2023). This, however, was just the beginning.
Art as Activism
For Arctic Indigenous communities, art as political ecology activism addresses the interwoven aspects of political domination, social marginalization, and ecological vulnerability in a form that considers the local culture and political environment (Ahlness & Gauto, 2019). The Sami are among the most prolific in using art and storytelling as political venues with protest art centering on issues involving reindeer herding, which has a complicated political and social history (Ahlness & Gauto, 2019). This activist space has experienced a metamorphosis in recent years with a transformative expansion across multidisciplinary social and political platforms, including the arts, music, storytelling, and film. These forms of resistance have historically been overlooked since they exist in a political ‘gray space,’ showing that resistive art is both intersectional and political (Ahlness & Gauto, 2019). The intersection of this creative tension yields a gap as a source of energy that translates the vision of an emerging future into an active force (Senge, 2006).
Creative, artistic, and local forces in Sami culture challenge dominating state processes and ecological colonialism (Ahlness & Gauto, 2019). These spaces attest to the power of contemporary Indigenous activism to address multiple interconnected concerns under neocolonialism while building a sense of solidarity with imaginative messaging (Feminist). They are connecting with international audiences in a simultaneous process of resistance and connection-building (Ahlness & Gauto, 2019). These actions may be intensely local, but also situate themselves within a broader sphere to articulate a global Indigenous identity and spread their message to international audiences (Bladow, 1019).
The politically-charged activist art of the Sami is, however, not entirely focused on anti-colonial activism for the purpose of resistance and self-determination; it extends to their role as stewards of the Arctic environment since time immemorial (Janse, 2022). These forces of resistance often make a statement using dialogue as an artistic discipline to activate a deeper understanding of our relational spaces with shifts that lead to transformation (Center for Systems Awareness, n.d.). In this way, we can see that this resurgence of cultural traditions and ancestral knowledges is cyclical, but transformed for the moment (DeVos, 2020).
Pile o’Sápmi
This local-global dynamic has become especially clear in recent years with the work of Sami artist Máret Ánne Sara, who first protested a government-imposed culling of her brother’s reindeer herd in February 2016 by collecting 200 reindeer heads with bullet holes from the slaughterhouse to pile them up in front of the local courthouse. The installation was inspired by an 1892 photograph showing a mound of thousands of bison skulls in Michigan (Janse, 2022). This refers to the brutal colonial history of North America, where trophy mountains of bones attested to the buffalo massacre that served to dispossess Indigenous peoples of their land (Documenta14, n.d.). Pile o’Sápmi, as Sar’s installation has been titled, references “Pile of Bones,” the Indigenous name for the place where the Cree nation stacked buffalo bones to anchor the animals’ spirit to the land to ensure their continued presence in the future (Documenta14, n.d.).
Much like the connection between the buffalo and the Indigenous peoples of North America, the Sami are connected to reindeer at a spiritual level. According to Sara (Higgins, 2022), “the reindeer is actually a very close relative. Humans, nature and animals are interdependent and equal. So destroying any part of this is like suicide from our perspective. What’s happening to the reindeer is our story, as well.”
Since Pile o’Sápmi came into being in its original form, it has gone through its own metamorphosis in a four-year campaign with a ripple effect that has dimensionalized social transformation and change (Scharmer, 2018). In 2017, the installation evolved into a curtain of 400 reindeer skulls in front of the national parliament in Oslo and was then featured in documenta 14, one of the world’s largest recurring contemporary art exhibitions in Greece and Germany (Heyn-Jones, 2019). In 2022, Sara was one of three Sami artists who transformed the Nordic Pavilion into the Sami Pavilion at the Venice Biennale to draw international support for protecting Sami lands (Fullerton, 2022). Sara’s tapestry of skulls has recently taken center stage in the entrance at the National Museum in Oslo with a 10-year placement that will surely start conversations at all levels with the potential to shift our relationship to the system (Scharmer, 2018). Pile o’Sápmi has also created a broad discussion that leaves space for other artists to work individually on these topics with music, guerrilla street performances, and independent art pieces to inspire a larger, more interconnected debate (Sara, as cited by Schippers, 2022). Additionally, Sara has been working in dialogue with other thinkers from the academic and legal fields to debate and think critically in order to activate exchange (Sara, as cited by Schippers, 2022).
The Future
According to Sami activist artist Pauliina Feodoroff, “art is a space that can cause some freedom of movement” when institutional or legal processes have ground to a halt (Higgins, 2022). This space lays the groundwork for shifts into a deeper field of collective presence (Scharmer, 2018) that serves as a model for new generations of artists (Olsen, 2024). Within this transformative space, Sami art is art – pure and simple (Olsen, 2024). As it says on the walls of Sámi Dáiddamusea in Tromsø: “There is no set of rules for Sami art. There is no fixed definition of Sami art. There is no limit to Sami art,” (Olsen, 2024). There are no limits on who can write about Sami culture and politics (Olsen, 2024), and there are no limits on how people can engage themselves in ways that they feel are relevant (Sara, as cited by Schippers, 2022). With this in mind, it becomes essential for us, as travelers, to support this emergence of ideas with the space that they deserve to take on a life of their own.
References
Ahlness, E. & Gauto, M. (2019, July). Decolonizing gray spaces: storytelling and art as political activism among Saami herders. Ecologia Politica, 57(1), 43-50. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334638654_Decolonizing_Gray_Spaces_Storytelling_and_Art_as_Political_Activismamong_Saami_Herders_Decolonizar_los_espacios_grises_el_arte_y_la_narracion_como_activismo_politico_de_los_samis
Bladow, K. (2019). “Never shut up my native”: Indigenous feminist protest art in Sapmi. Feminist Studies, 45(2), 312-332. https://doi.org/10.15767/feministstudies.45.2-3.0312
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Appendix
Figure 1. Pile o’Sapmi, Máret Ánne Sara.
Higgins, C. (2022, March 31). ‘Our traditions have been criminalised’ – the Arctic artists bringing protest to the Venice Biennale. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/31/criminalised-sami-artists-arctic-venice-biennale-loggers-miners-global-heating-culling-protest
Figure 2. Men Standing with a Pile of Buffalo Skulls, photographer unknown, 1892. Janse, T. (2022, December 12). Piles of bones. Third Text, 36(6), 535-557. https://doi-org.wv-o-ursusproxy01.ursus.maine.edu/10.1080/09528822.2022.2149010
Figure 3. Pile o’Sapmi, Máret Ánne Sara. National Museum in Oslo, Norway. Higgins, C. (2022, March 31). ‘Our traditions have been criminalised’ – the Arctic artists bringing protest to the Venice Biennale. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/mar/31/criminalised-sami-artists-arctic-venice-biennale-loggers-miners-global-heating-culling-protest
KELLI PARK 