"Illegal Spirits of Sápmi" portrays a Sami family's fight for their right to engage in reindeer herding, states the exhibition's curator Joa Ljungberg. It is a story of protracted conflicts with great personal losses. Behind this family tragedy also hides a larger story of oppression with colonial overtones. For Anders Sunna, art has offered an opportunity for redress and a way to make his family's case.
The disputes that shaped the lives of three generations within the Sunna family originate in the 1971 Reindeer Husbandry Act and how it came to be interpreted. The main counterpart has been the County Administrative Board in Norrbotten, but at a later stage also the Sami Parliament. The artist tells how the conflicts have resulted in the family's reindeer being forcibly relocated, a 30 km long fence has been built to prevent their reindeer from getting to their natural pastures, Sami villages have been pitted against each other and the family has lost the right to run reindeer herding.
“I remember how worried mom was when dad and his brothers were in the reindeer forest, she walked around the house and became increasingly stressed the longer it went on... wondering if they would come home or if they would be found shot. That's how bad it was during the worst period" (from the artist's text about the painting "Area Infected").
"Illegal Spirits of Sápmi" was shown for the first time during the Venice Biennale in 2022. The Nordic pavilion had then been transformed into the Sami pavilion, with Pauliina Feodoroff, Máret Ánne Sara and Anders Sunna as participating artists. The project, which was carried out on behalf of OCA – Office for Contemporary Art Norway, highlighted in an innovative and powerful way the culture of the indigenous Sami people and its land area Sápmi, whose borders cross Norway, Sweden and Finland, and also include part of Russia.
Since 2022, "Illegal Spirits of Sápmi" has been included in the Moderna Museet collection.
Exhibition dates: 28th October, 2023 - 28th January, 2024
