Research project Circumpolar Performance Cultures: The Decolonial Labour of Contemporary Sámi Performance
Circumpolar Performance Cultures is a four-year research project financed by the Swedish Research Council and pursues three overarching and interrelated aims. First, it seeks to chart the history of Sámi performance in the Swedish part of Sápmi by analysing the processes of production and reception of selected historical and contemporary plays and performances. Particular focus is devoted to Giron Sámi Teáhter, Sweden’s oldest and largest professional Indigenous ensemble. Giron Sámi Teáhter is a touring company whose origins can be traced back to 1971 when a group of young Sámi activists staged a play to protest the damming of a lake by a Swedish hydroelectric power company. It has its administration and production base in Kiruna/Giron, an industrial town that is located 145 kilometres north of the Arctic circle and the centre of the largest active iron ore mining areas in Europe. The project documents the history of this ensemble and studies its ongoing struggles to become anointed a fully state-financed Sámi National Theatre.
As a second aim, the project highlights the political and decolonial labour of Sámi performance, which represents, embodies and challenges the manifold abuses committed against the Sámi by Swedish and Nordic settler colonialism. Ever since 1971, Sámi performing artists have been relentless in staging plays dealing with topics such as the right for self-determination, the preservation and promotion of Sámi languages and cultural expressions, the damage done by the mining, hydroelectric, and forestry industries, the historical traumas of racial biology and forced displacements as well the simultaneous processes of segregation and assimilation in residential Nomad schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The decolonial labour performed by Sámi performing artists cannot be analysed in an isolated or nationally confined context. Not only does Sápmi stretch across four nation-states – which means that Sámi performance de facto unfolds in a transnational way across the, historically shifting, geopolitical borders implemented by Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia – but the rich cultural and political networks that Sámi artists and ensembles cultivate with Indigenous partners across the Arctic necessitate a more holistic approach. The third objective therefore seeks to further open up the discussion of these cross-border creative practices and influences and proposes a circumpolar approach to Sámi performance. Such a circumpolar understanding honours the mutual political and artistic influences of Indigenous communities across the Arctic and situates contemporary Sámi performance as a prominent participant in the decolonial processes that are unfolding across the circumpolar North.
The project is framed by performance theories and Indigenous methodologies and is conducted in consultation and close dialogue with Giron Sámi Teáhter in Kiruna/Giron. It builds upon extended guest scholar visits at the theatre, interviews with the artists and staff, archival research, and production analysis of both live and video-recorded performances. The project has been tried and approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority and adheres to research guidelines and protocols formulated by Sámediggi [the Sámi Parliament of Sweden].
Popular science texts
‘Decolonial Performance in the Swedish Part of Sápmi: Notes from a guest visit at Giron Sámi Teáhter’, Arctic Arts Summit 2022.
The article at Arctic Arts Summit's webpage
Confefence Presentations
- December, 2023: Presentation at the conference Nordic Reflections, arranged by The Department of Theatre, University of Ottawa.
- March, 2023: Guest lecture: “A Theatrical Truth and Reconciliation Commission: The Decolonial Labour of Contemporary Sámi performance”, Department of Drama, Queen Mary, University of London.
- April 2022: Invited lecture: ‘Contemporary Sámi performance in the Swedish part of Sápmi: A research presentation’, Lectures and Conversations on Racism and Discrimination, Stockholm University of the Arts, Sweden
- Sept 2021: Conference paper: ‘Giron Sámi Teáhter and the decolonial labour of contemporary Sámi cultural performers’, Association of Nordic Theatre Scholars (ANTS) conference, Stockholm University, Sweden
- July 2021: Conference paper: ‘Environmental activism and the gift of modern Sámi performance’, International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) 2021 conference, National University of Ireland, Galway