Large Print Copy:
The Dream Dimension: Beyond The Veil
Exhibition by Juliana Nilsson Gagné
January-February 2025
Scandinavian Cultural Center
West Newton, Massachusetts
Website: juliana-gagne.com
Instagram: @jai_gagne
Patreon: patreon.com/julianagagne
Etsy: etsy.com/shop/JaiGagneStore
Email: gagne.juliana@gmail.com
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Newsletter: jaigagne.substack.com
“We, Saami are one people, united in our own culture, language and history, living in areas which, since time immemorial and up to historical times, we alone inhabited and utilized”
-Saami Political Program 1986, Saami Council Statements
Between 1820 and 1920, 2.1 million immigrants left from Scandinavia bound for Turtle Island (North America)
An unknown number of those immigrants were Sámi
Today there are estimated to be between 30,000-60,000 of their descendants, about half are believed to have no knowledge of their Sámi ancestors.
Where are the Sámi homelands?
Sápmi (also spelled: Sabme, Samiland) is the ancestral land of the Sámi people, which today encompasses the invading countries of: Norway, Sweden, Finland the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Historically Sápmi stretched much farther south than it does today as a result of colonization and assimilation practices enforced by the occupying governments.
North American Sámi Reawakening
In the 1980s a movement began to reclaim Sámi identity and history among the descendants of Turtle Island, including finding community, learning about shared history and culture and connecting with relatives back in Sápmi. Two publications are closely linked to this movement, the Báiki journal (1991) and Árran, a newsletter (1996).
For a timeline of the Sámi reawakening in Turtle Island:
samiculturalcenter.org/awakening/sami-reawakening-history/
What does it mean to be Indigenous?
International Labour Organization’s “Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention” of 1989 (ILO 169) defines being Indigenous as “peoples in independent countries who are regarded as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the country, or a geographical region to which the country belongs, at the time of conquest or colonization or the establishment of present state boundaries and who, irrespective of their legal status, retain some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions”
Whose Land is the Scandinavian Cultural Center on?
Nipmuc Land
nativeland.ca
www.nipmucnation.org/history
Further Resources:
Websites:
Saami Council English link: saamicouncil.net/en/home
Pacific Sámi Searvi: pacificsami.org
Sámi Cultural Center of North America: samiculturalcenter.org
Media:
Ted Talk by Sofia Jannok:
youtube.com/watch?v=5GZu8xECOdw
Sameblod/Sámi Blood Movie (Amazon Prime)
Stolen Movie (Netflix)
Nils-Aslak Valkeapää/Áillohaš:
Trekways of the Wind book (English translation)
Ædnan book by Linnea Axelsson, available in Swedish and English
Stolen book by Ann-Helén Laestadius
We Stopped Forgetting book by Ellen Marie Jensen
Báiki International Sámi Journal:
samiculturalcenter.org/baiki-the-north-american-sami-journal/
Liberating Sápmi book by Gabriel Kuhn
Art, Academia and Duodji
Joar Nango:
archive.pinupmagazine.org/articles/interview-mimi-zeiger-joar-sami-architecture-joar-nango
The website of academic Liisa-Rávná Finbog
www.liisaravna.blog/
Lectures by Master Regalia Maker and Duojár:
Anna-Stina Svakko
astudesign.com/