Exhibition in Sweden Highlights Century-Old Struggles of the Sami People

An exhibition at the Kin Museum in Kiruna, Sweden, is highlighting the lives and struggles of the Sami people, coinciding with the handover of a long-awaited report on abuses committed by the Swedish state against the Indigenous group, according to a report from The Guardian.

The show draws on the work of Johan Turi, whose 1910 book Muitalus sámiid birra (An Account of the Sami) offered an unparalleled account of Sami life in northern Sweden at the start of the 20th century. His work included a detailed multi-perspectival drawing of reindeer as well as written accounts of belief systems and childbirth practices among the Sami.

Turi created the book partly in response to racist discrimination, land disputes and the pressures of encroaching industry that Sami communities faced at the time, seeking to set the record straight about their lives as Europe's only officially recognized Indigenous people. Organizers of the current exhibition say the struggles depicted in Turi's century-old work continue to resonate with challenges Sami communities face today.

The exhibition's timing alongside the handover of the report on historical state abuses underscores a broader reckoning taking place in Sweden regarding its treatment of the Sami population, whose traditional homeland, Sápmi, spans parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia's Kola Peninsula.

Further details on the contents of the report and its recommendations were not specified in the available coverage.