This exhibition presents a small selection of fascinating pictures and stories from the Arctic. The pictures are reproductions of original images gathered from museums, libraries and archives in Europe and North America. They show Indigenous peoples, cultures, landscapes and animals in Sápmi, Kalaallit Nunaat, Inuit Nunangat and Alaska. Most of the images were created between about 1770 and 1930, a period of heightened colonial contact and pressure. During this time Nordic, European, American and Russian colonial governments and agents mapped, documented, missionized, settled, took land and resources, assimilated people and depleted animal populations. Created by both Indigenous individuals and colonial agents, what connects these images is that they originate in Arctic contact zones – in meetings between people from different cultures and with different agendas and understandings of relations to other human beings, animals and the natural-cultural environment.

How do these pictures and their stories convey Indigenous knowledge, sovereignty, resistance and creative expression? What might they tell us about Indigenous relations to Arctic lands, animals and western society in the past?

And how might the knowledge they contain be taken back and potentially enrich Indigenous cultures and histories today?

Stories from the Arctic Contact Zone also includes three recent works by Sven Haakanson, Áillohaš/Nils Aslak Valkeapää (1943-2001), Elina Ijäs and Axl Ingemann-Jeremiassen. In different ways, their works reclaim stories and material that were lost or taken from Indigenous peoples and lands. In so doing, they invite conversations about the possibilities of Indigenizing and decolonizing archives, collections and (art) histories.

Stories from the Arctic Contact Zone is a smaller version of the 2024 Riddu Riđđu Festival Exhibition, Visualizing Arctic Voices, and is rooted in a collaboration between the Arctic Voices Project, the Riddu Riđđu Festivála and the Center of Northern Peoples. The exhibitions have received funding from The Research Council of Norway, Nordic Culture Fund, Fritt Ord, Riddu Riđđu Festivála AS, NAPA – the Nordic Institute in Greenland, UiT The Arctic University of Norway’s Equality and Diversity Committee, the Norwegian Chairship of the Arctic Council and Sparebank 1 Samfunnsløftet.

Curators and catalogue editors
Ingeborg Høvik and Ulrikke Marie Strandli

Exhibition design and graphic design
Arctic Armpit (Jérémie McGowan)

Catalogue authors
Svein Aamold, Silje Gauseth, Sophie Gilmartin, Sven Haakanson Jr., Sigfrid Kjeldaas, Axl Ingemann-Jeremiassen, Ulrikke Marie Strandli and Ingeborg Høvik. Biographies here!

Installation
Marc & Stella AS

Printing
Lundblad Media AS, Romsa / Tromsø

Framing
Kunstmaleren (Åshild Pedersen), Romsa / Tromsø