In my recent book, From Lapland to Sápmi, I touched on
Sámi objects that ended up in German museums, largely in the 19th
and 20th centuries. Some were collected by tourists and amateur ethnographers;
others were bought in bulk by men who purchased them on behalf of ethnographic museums.
In the closing chapters of the book, I mentioned that most German institutions,
like the vast Museum Europäischer Kulturen (MEK) in Berlin, did not have a good grasp on the provenance
and history of their hundreds of Sámi objects and displayed very few. |
Objects from the
Sámi Collection at MEK
|
I described the situation
as it was in 2022, when I finished the manuscript. How much has changed in just
two years! In fact, things have been in movement for several years now, but
they have become much more visible since late 2021, when the Norwegian Parliament
allocated a significant sum to a five-year project supervised by Cathrine Baglo that would “provide an
overview of Sami collections in German museums, link collection history and
object-specific knowledge, and lead to increased expertise in both German
cultural heritage institutions and Sami museums.” [Nov, 2021,
Norwegian Museums Association newsletter].
The MEK in Berlin has one of the largest
collections of Sámi material in Europe (1000 objects and around 700
photographs). Aside from a few objects from the 1600s, most of the collection was
gathered from 1880 and 1929 on
behalf of the Museum für Völkerkunde (today the Ethnologisches Museum), not as part of European culture, but as examples of exotic
international culture. The MEK now claims this material as part of its recently
designated (and now searchable online) “Sámi Collection” and has shown itself eager to work with Sámi museums in the Nordic countries,
specifically Ajtte in Jokkmokk, Sweden, and Siida, in Inari, Finland. The two-year
project, which began in 2023, is called "The
Sámi Collection at the Museum of European Cultures. A multi-perspective
approach to provenance research.”
In an interview on MEK’s
blog [in German, translated here from DeepL], Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, who
works with both Siida in Inari and MEK, explained that “My task is to look
through the entire collection and identify specific pieces that we want to take
a closer look at in terms of their provenance. After that, my main task will be
to coordinate the collaboration between the museum and local artisans and artists
who want to study the collection and bring their knowledge and additional
contexts to the project.
“At the moment I'm doing a lot of archive research to
prepare. Later on, we want to invite people to the MEK who have a special
relationship with objects like these and give them the opportunity to look at
the collection and choose the objects they specifically want to research. We
want to do five different case studies, which can range from essays to art
projects to reconstructions of objects. We want to give participants the
opportunity to engage with the collection in any way they choose, to be inspired
and to learn more about materials, forms and the practices associated with the
objects.”
Elsewhere in Germany, the Hamburg Art
Museum held an exhibition last year, “Speaking
Back: Decolonizing Nordic Narratives” with the intention that “Sámi
and non-Sámi artists will critically review the Nordic colonial heritage and
its linkages to German museums and colonial history in general. Even more, the
exhibition gives space for a critical and responsible debate on decolonial
agency and strategies of resistance.” |
Marja Helander, photo
|
This exhibition was followed, beginning last September and
continuing through March, 2024 by a second exhibition, “The
Land Has a Mind to Speak,” at Museum am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste
der Welt (MARKK). The museum holds a large collections of Sámi
artefacts in Germany and was formerly the Ethnographic Museum in Hamburg. It
features the artworks of Sissel M. Bergh, Annika Dahlsten & Markku Laakso,
Marja Helander, Erica Huuva, Solveig Labba, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Outi Pieski,
Katarina Pirak Sikku and Anniina Turunen, in dialogue with historical objects in
the museum.
I knew—and hoped—when I wrote my book, From Lapland to
Sápmi, that the material about repatriation, from Nordic and European museums,
might well become outdated even before the book was published or soon after. The
momentum is building, I’m happy to see, in Germany in particular, in the financed
projects described above, and in exhibitions and workshops where Sámi duojárs
(artisans) connect with museum objects in foreign museums. The objects may or
may not be returned to Sápmi anytime soon,
but connections are being made and all things are possible.