Disobedience in Sámi Artist Marja Helander’s Film Birds in the Earth

Abstract

Abstract Sámi/Finnish artist Marja Helander’s lyrical short film Eatnanvuloš lottit (Birds in the Earth, 2018, 10′ 40″, single channel) captures two young ballerinas as they glide through the Nordic landscape and eventually arrive at the Parliament in Helsinki. Without dialogue and thoroughly visual and musical, Helander’s film raises the voices of the Indigenous Sámi peoples yearning for self-determination and land rights in Sápmi, their lands crossing the northern regions of Finland, Russia, Sweden, and Norway. The film juxtaposes Western and Indigenous sounds and images, using the singing tradition of yoik and the Sami garments worn known as gákti. Indigenous signifiers and myths confront Western meaning-making, especially the tourism industry in Finland. The article argues that the film disobediently escapes Western co-optation by opening spaces for Sámi identities and remembrance. Birds in the Earth points to contested political sites and insists on local land rights and the political rights of the Sámi.