36 x photographs and soundtrack: Beaivi, áhčážan, Áillohaš

This curatorial installation presents a small selection from a collection of almost 400 historical photographs, which the renowned Sámi artist Áillohaš / Nils-Aslak Valkeapää (1943-2001) gathered from archives and museums across Europe and North America in the 1980s. The slide show is accompanied by his soundtrack, Jietnagovadas: Beaivi, áhčážan. The curatorial slide-and-sound installation draws on Áillohaš's Beaivi, áhčážan (1988), a book that interweaves poems and historical photographs. Connected to this publication, the soundtrack blends his reading of the poems with luohti (yoik) and sounds of animals and rivers flowing. Here brought together, Áillohaš's multimedia work invites viewers to immerse themselves in the aesthetic experience and Sámi way of seeing and being in the world it presents.

Shot in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the photographs were originally taken by Europeans and exhibited to non-Sámi audiences outside Sápmi. An example is the ethnographic portrait of the artist’s great-grandfather, Nils Nilsson Valkeapää, in the Musée de l'Homme in Paris. Shot in 1884, the portrait forms part of an extensive collection of anthropometric photographs used in French racial science. As scientific data, the photographs confirmed existing (racial and racist) theories of the alleged (biological) inferiority of the Sámi. According to such theories, the Sámi were a doomed race, destined to vanish. Áillohaš’s work directly challenges this narrative by making the resolute statement that we are still here.

To the Sámi people, Beaivi, áhčážan became a 'family album' that functions as a space to reconnect with a past fragmented by a history of Nordic colonization. By integrating historical photographs with contemporary art forms, Áillohaš demonstrates how archival materials can enrich Indigenous identities in the present and future. His practice challenges audiences to consider how narratives of the past can be reimagined to empower communities today. This makes his work a cornerstone for discussions about representation and cultural resilience in Indigenous art.

Essay by Ulrikke Marie Strandli

Further reading

Gaski, Harald. 1993. Med Ord Skal Tyvene Fordrives: Om Samenes Episk Poetiske Diktning. Karasjok: Davvi girji.

Gaski, Harald. 2020. “Nils-Aslak Valkeapää – A Powerful Poetic Manifestation.” In Let the River Flow: An Indigenous Uprising and its Legacy in Art, Ecology and Politics, edited by Harald Gaski, Katya García-Antón and Gunvor Guttorm, 205-214. OCA/Valiz.

Valkeapää, Nils-Aslak. 1988. Beaivi, áhčážan. Guovdageaidnu: DAT.

Valkeapää, Nils-Aslak. 1997. The Sun, My Father. Translated by Harald Gaski, Lars Nordström, and Ralph Salisbury. Guovdageaidnu: DAT