Arctic Voices in Art and Literature in the Long Nineteenth-Century is a collaboration between Riddu Riđđu, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum and UiT The Arctic University of Norway. It comprises four days of seminars and experimental workshops in curating and exhibition design. Cultivating a relational way of conducting research by involving indigenous researchers and communities whose histories might intersect with our work, the conference is taking place at the Riddu Riđđu Festival, where the public is encouraged to take part in the seminar and workshop.
The seminar approaches the thematic of the project – Arctic indigenous voices and animal presences in the Nineteenth Century – from a range of vantage points, from the self-expression of Sámi, Inuit and and Greenlandic individuals, through to the representation of Arctic indigenous peoples and Arctic animals by Western artists, travellers, explorers and scientists of varying cultural backgrounds and gender. Of particular interest is the question of authorship and identity, in terms of how, when and to what ends we differentiate between indigenous and Western, coloniser and colonised, and the degree to which such terms and categorisations might at times be ambiguous and fluid.
Building on the seminar sessions, the workshop takes its starting point in a strategic juxtaposition that aims to create new dialogues by pairing together key works in Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum's collection with the alternative visual materials introduced by the conference papers, and their attendant historical and conceptual issues. Through a range of design-driven brainstorming sessions and visual/spatial mock-ups, the workshop develops ideas for a future exhibition about the Arctic, as understood through the (marginalised) historical representations of and by Sámi and other Arctic indigenous peoples and of Arctic animals.
The overall ambition of the conference is to: 1) gather nineteenth-century texts and images containing or pointing to Sámi, Inuit and Greenlandic voices, and animal presences with a view to generating an overview of the scope of this material; 2) exchange ideas for the development of new theoretical and methodological approaches; 4) discuss strategies for publishing an anthology; 5) develop ideas for a possible exhibition project.
PROGRAMME
DAY 1
Tuesday 9 July / Arrival, seminar and departure
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum
For those travelling from outside Tromsø, luggage can be dropped at the reception in Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum (Northern Norway Art Museum) until 16.45 and departure by car to Olderelv Camping in Skibotn. The museum is located downtown: Sjøgata 1, 9008 Tromsø.
13.30–14.15 Reception and guided tour of Like Betzy, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum
Charis Gullickson
Seminar session 1: Other perspectives and voices in the Arctic and beyond
14.30-14.45 Introduction and welcome
Ingeborg Høvik and Charis Gullickson
14.45 – 15.30 The Unsettled Eye: Colonial Voice and Vision in Australia and New Zealand, c. 1770 – 1830.
Bruce Buchan, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Moderator: Svein Aamold
Break 15.30 – 15-45
15.45–16.30 Enslaved Fugitives in the Canadian Winter
Charmaine Nelson, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.
Moderator: Ingeborg Høvik
Intervention / workshop on the way to Olderelv
17.00 – Departure from Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum to Olderelv Camping, Skibotn. The drive to Skibotn takes approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.
18.15 – Dinner all participants at Vollan Gjestestue, Nordkjosbotn: https://www.vollangjestestue.no/no/
ca. 21.00 – Arrival Olderelv Camping, Skibotn.
Accommodation in shared cabins: http://www.olderelv.no/menuitem.aspx?ID=53625db5-bb45-4ef9-999e-a9aad4ece3d6
DAY 2
Wednesday 10 July / Seminar and workshop
Báldalávvu, Riddu Riđđu
8.30 departure from Olderelv Camping to Riddu Riđđu, Manndalen
9.00 – 09.30 Welcome, coffee/tea in Báldalávvu.
Kjellaug Isaksen (Centre for Northern Peoples).
Seminar session 2: Sámi voices in art and literature
09.30 –10.15 'Savage' Laughter: Humour as Resistance in Colonial Encounters in Sápmi and Greenland c. 1670 – 1800
Linda A. Burnett, Linnaeus University
Moderator: Marie-Theres Federhofer
10.15 – 11.00 Imag(in)ing Saami Life: Emilie Demant Hatt’s Arctic Documents
Hanna Eglinger, FAU Erlangen–Nürnberg.
Moderator: Silje Gaupseth
11.00 – 11.30 Short break (Possible sound outside Báldalávvu: 11.00 – 11.30)
11.30 – 12.15 Ecology and Johan Turi
Svein Aamold, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Moderator: Sigfrid Kjeldaas
12.15 – 13.00 LUNCH, Center of Northern Peoples
13.00 – 16.00 Workshop/Intervention + Yéil Ya-Tseen (Nicholas Galanin) (artist)
Possible sound outside Báldalávvu 15.30 – 16.00
Moderator: Jérémie McGowan
16.30 Dinner, Center of Northern Peoples
18.00 Opening of festival art exhibitions (Chippewar and Gieresvuodajn/With Love), Center of Northern Peoples
19.00 Departure to Lásságámmi
19.30 – 20.15 Visit to Lásságámmi – Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s house Lásságámmi is a residence for native and foreign artists or researchers with a Sámi or indigenous people’s perspective in their work: http://www.lassagammi.no/home.249858.en.html
20.30 Arrival at Olderelv Camping
DAY 3
Thursday 11 July / Seminar and workshop
Báldalávvu, Riddu Riđđu
8.30 departure from Olderelv Camping to Riddu Riđđu, Manndalen
9.00 – 09.30 coffee/tea in Báldalávvu.
Seminar session 3: Arctic presences in European narratives
09.30 – 10.15 Absent or Present, Part of the System or of the Land: The representation of animals in some nineteenth-century narratives of Arctic exploration
Sigfrid Kjeldaas, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Moderator: Sophie Gilmartin
10.15 – 11.00 Pictures from the Bering Street: Louis Choris’ Voyage pittoresque autour du Monde (1823).
Marie-Theres Federhofer, UiT / Humboldt University, Berlin.
Moderator: Eavan O’Dochartaigh
11.00 – 11.10 Break
11.10 – 12.35 Workshop / Intervention + Raisa Porsanger (artist)
12.35 – 13.30 LUNCH, Center of Northern Peoples
13.30 – 14.15 ‘Arctic Hysteria' or 'Polar Eufori'? Voicing Otherwise in Early Arctic Narrative
Renee Hulan, Saint Mary’s University, Canada.
Moderator: Hanna Eglinger
14.15 – 15.00 An Alternative Vision of the Friendly Arctic? Ada Blackjack’s Diary from Wrangel Island
Silje Gaupseth, Polarmuseet, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Moderator: Charmaine Nelson
15.00 – 15.10 Break (10 min)
15.10 – 15.50 Intervention
Possible sound outside Báldalávvu 15.30 – 16.00
P.S. We have to be out of the lavvo by 16.00
18.00 – Dinner, Center of Northern Peoples
DAY 4
Friday 12 July / Seminar and Workshop
Báldalávvu, Riddu Riđđu
8.30 – Departure from Olderelv Camping to Riddu Riđđu, Manndalen.
9.15 – 09.30 Coffee/tea in Báldalávvu
Seminar session 4: Arctic presences in Western imagery
9.30 – 09.50 Curatorial Strategies
Charis Gullickson, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum.
Moderator: Jérémie McGowan
9.50 – 10.35 Tea and Sympathy in the Arctic: sociability and survival among Western women and Inuit, 1840-1900
Sophie Gilmartin, Royal Holloway University of London.
Moderator: Renée Hulan
10.35 – 10.45 Break
10.45 – 11.30 ‘Exceedingly Good Friends’: The Representation of Indigenous People during the Franklin Search Expeditions to the Arctic (1847-59)
Eavan O’Dochartaigh, Umeå University.
Moderator: Linda Andersson Burnett
11.30 – 12.15 Traces of an Arctic Voice: The Case of Qalasirssuaq
Ingeborg Høvik, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Moderator: Bruce Buchan
12.15 – 13.00 LUNCH, Center of Northern Peoples
13.00 – 15.00 Workshop and forward planning
Curating and designing an exhibition on historical otherness
Charis Gullickson (introduction)
16.15 Departure from Riddu Riđđu to Tromsø.
18.15 Arrival Tromsø.
