About the Sámi National Theatre
Dirk Gindt, professor of Theatre Studies, has written an article in Theatre Research International vol. 47, issue 3 (2022). It is published in open access online.
The title is “‘We Already Carry Out a National Assignment’: Indigenous Performance and the Struggle for a Sámi National Theatre in Sweden”.
Since the early 2010s, the arts and culture in Sweden have taken a stand against the prevailing epistemic ignorance of the country’s Indigenous Sámi people by confronting majoritarian society with the realities of settler colonialism. This article suggests that theatre and performance form part of this Sámi cultural activism and highlights the decolonial labour of Giron Sámi Teáhter, the oldest professionally driven touring company in the Swedish part of Sápmi. Taking one specific production as a springboard, the article demonstrates the larger, structural issues at stake. Giron Sámi Teáhter deploys the stage as a vibrant, decolonial forum where the history of settler colonialism and the Sámi people’s struggle toward self-determination is performed, celebrated and encouraged. The company has long striven to gain official status as the national theatre for Sámi performing arts in Sweden and the article therefore also outlines the financial and political impediments encountered by Giron Sámi Teáhter.
The article at Cambridge University Press website
Dirk Gindt is Professor of Theatre Studies at the Department of Culture and Aesthetics. His current research, Circumpolar Performance Cultures, is a four-year project financed by the Swedish Research Council. It concentrates of the intersectional and decolonial labour performed by Giron Sámi Teáhter in Kiruna/Giron (Sweden). He is serving as Head of Research in Theatre Studies and as Director for the International Master's Programme in Performance Studies.
Last updated: October 13, 2022
Source: Department of Culture and Aesthetics