“Never Shut Up My Native”: Indigenous Feminist Protest Art in Sápmi

312 Feminist Studies 45, no. 2/3. © 2019 by Feminist Studies, Inc. Kyle Bladow “Never Shut Up My Native”: Indigenous Feminist Protest Art in Sápmi This article situates the performances and productions of the Sámi artists Maxida and Timimie Märak within a longstanding tradition of Sámi “artivism” for environmental justice. The Sámi are the Indigenous peoples of Northern Europe, and a number of recent examples of Sámi art demonstrate the successful entwining of local issues with global movements for Indigenous solidarity. In acting to protect their lands, such artivism—including the poetry and music of Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Sara Marielle Gaup Beaska, Sofia Jannok, Niillas Holmberg, and the posters and installations by the group Suohpanterror—amplify the calls for environmental justice around the world, especially the need to address anthropogenic climate change. Gesturing to this solidarity, this article focuses in on the Märak sisters and their advocacy on Sámi issues in Sweden. The town of Jokkmokk lies just north of the Arctic Circle in Sápmi, the traditional lands of the Sámi, which range across northern Scandinavia and the Kola Peninsula. Sámi inhabitation long predates the formation of the Nordic nation-states from whom they currently receive varying degrees of political recognition. The Sámi are peoples with multiple distinct languages and traditional lifeways; Jokkmokk is within an area where Lule Sámi is spoken. The Jokkmokk Winter Market, first established in the seventeenth century by King Karl IX of Sweden as a way to secure tax revenue for the crown, remains a highlight of town life and a Kyle Bladow 313 popular tourist attraction. Taking place each February, it also serves as a space for Sámi activism. At the February 2015 Winter Market, a group of Sámi artist-activists performed a ceremonial protest before the Swedish Minister of Culture and Democracy, Alice Bah Kuhnke. Several played violin and joiked (a traditional form of singing) while poet Timimie Märak read aloud a manifesto critical of the Swedish government.1 As Timimie read, their sister, musician and producer Maxida Märak, slowly cut off Timimie’s long dreadlocks. Disrupting a prominent festival to perform before a Swedish government officer, the Märaks’ striking act of haircutting employed its widespread associations with mourning, sacrifice, and even oppression. The cutting of hair was a common practice in assimilationist residential schools and therefore vividly expresses the unsatisfactory conditions to which the Sámi are subjected by the Swedish state. Alongside demands for sociopolitical rights, the Märaks’ manifesto also featured repeated mentions of Eanan, an entity described as “mother, land . . . the base for everything.”2 By advocating for the sacredness and vitality of place, and by combining direct action with joik, the activists effectively marshaled Sámi tradition in a call for environmental justice. But their description of Eanan also acknowledged forms of Indigenous and environmental activism in other places: one line reads, “We need to reconnect with Eanan, the Earth. People all around the globe should reflect on their relationship with nature.” The manifesto was posted on the prominent Canadian Indigenous activism website Idle No More, which brought this very local act to the attention of sympathetic audiences around the globe. By aligning their portrayals of Eanan with other depictions of a living Earth and by using social media resources to organize, activists develop global connections in their protests against resource extraction, climate change, and other threats to Sámi self-determination. 1. Since the demonstration, Timimie has changed names, asserting their trans, gender-fluid identity and preference for gender-neutral pronouns. This is recognized here through the use of “they/them/their” pronouns for Timimie and “siblings” when referring to both Märaks. 2. Niillas Holmberg and Jenni Laiti, “The Saami Manifesto 15: Reconnecting through Resistance,” Idle No More, March 23, 2015, http://www.idlenomore.ca /the_saami_manifesto_15_reconnecting_through_resistance_the_saami_ manifesto_15_reconnecting_through_resistance. 314 Kyle Bladow Motivation for the Märak siblings’ 2015 demonstration stemmed in part from recent mining developments in Sápmi. In particular, the British company Beowulf Mining and its subsidiary, Jokkmokk Iron Mines, seek to extract iron ore from Gállok (Kallak in Swedish), an area west of Jokkmokk. The...

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