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This session is held in the Art Gallery of Ontario, Seminar Room 3 East (Room 009)

Led by Matti Aikio, Mai-Lis Eira, Anders Sunna

Matti Aikio comes from a Sámi reindeer herding family and still practices reindeer herding part time in Finland. Aikio works mainly with photography and video as well as with sculptural installations, sound art and music. Mai-Lis Eira is a Norwegian Sámi artist. She has a degree from the Nordland College of Art and Film, and Film & Television studies in Lillehammer University College. Anders Sunna’s art is explicitly political articulating discrimination against the Sámi through the history of his own family in Pajala, northern Sweden. In his paintings Sunna articulates both stereotypes connected to the Sámi and ignorance about the Sámi culture.

Join Matti Aikio, Mai-Lis Eira and Anders Sunna for a conversation on the challenges Sámi artists are dealing with in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Facing the eradication of their cultural practices, and dispossession of their territories by mining corporations, logging companies and the tourism industry, the three artists will outline strategies for fighting back against assimilation processes and keeping Sámi culture alive.