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Reindeer skins and sonic looms: Borealis music festival dives into Sámi culture

At the Norwegian event, creators from Europe’s only Indigenous nation used kettles, synthpop and recordings of salmon to create music that drew on their often threatened traditions

Nevertheless, with its resonating loom and aromas of coffee, Stáinnarbánit – Wolffish Teeth, as the work is titled (named for the pattern inscribed into the cloth), is clearly stretching the possibilities of sound and performance – and raises the kind of question that this festival has been designed to bring to the fore. Sápmi has long been exploited by nation states for their own extractive ends – whether for nickel mining in Russia, timber in Finland or, increasingly, the building of windfarms on traditional reindeer herding lands in Norway, which is highly disruptive to the animals, affecting their migratory patterns. Photograph: Frid Tronstad/BorealisA consequence of all this is that many younger Sámi people find themselves rediscovering the culture of their grandparents or great-grandparents, at times actively relearning languages that their parents cannot speak, and seeking out knowledge of practices that they have not necessarily imbibed growing up.

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