{"id":21766,"date":"2022-01-26T14:56:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-26T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonnierskonsthall.se\/?post_type=bonnier_exhibition&p=21766"},"modified":"2026-03-07T17:09:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T16:09:09","slug":"interview-with-outi-pieski","status":"publish","type":"bonnier_exhibition","link":"https:\/\/bonnierskonsthall.se\/en\/utstallning\/outi-pieski-rematriation-of-a-ladjogahpir-return-to-mattarahkka\/interview-with-outi-pieski\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Outi Pieski"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Interview with Outi Pieski<\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Senior Curator Yuvinka Medina (YM) in conversation with Outi Pieski (OP).<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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YM:<\/strong> The starting point for your exhibition at Bonniers Konsthall is an extensive art and research project, M\u00e1tt\u00e1rahku L\u00e1djogahpir \u2013 A Foremother\u2019s Hat of Pride<\/em>, that you did in collaboration with the researcher Eeva-Kristiina Nylander, between 2017\u201320, about the l\u00e1djogahpir \u2013 a Sami female hat \u2013 that was forbidden by Christian priests in the 19th century and disappeared. What would you say the l\u00e1djogahpir symbolised historically, and what does it manifest today?<\/p>\n

OP:<\/strong> We are investigating the colonisation of the mind and body in Sami women\u2019s history through the story of one object \u2013 the l\u00e1djogahpir hat. Much of the original meaning of the l\u00e1djogahpir is lost, as are large parts of the history of Sami women in general. In the art and research project we propose that the l\u00e1djogahpir is connected to gender power and female sexuality. The Christian priest\u2019s rewriting of the l\u00e1djogahpir as a devil\u2019s horn can be interpreted as a way of demonising the Sami women\u2019s power and sexuality, along with the Sami female guardian spirits living under the earth \u2013 which underpin Sami cosmology and society.<\/p>\n

Instead, Sami women started wearing a low bonnet-like hat that gave a more modest look. As a visual artist, I am interested in how the women\u2019s situation in Sami society is manifested in a visual form. How the change visualises the colonial history of gender violence, and how heteropatriarchy and western epistemologies were brought to S\u00e1pmi. I describe this as a colonialist metamorphosis. In the research project we show how the disuse and abandonment of the l\u00e1djogahpir could be interpreted as an act that violently broke down existing social bonds between genders \u2013 an act that dismantled social relations that were reflected even in Sami cosmology. During our collective work, we invited Sami women to workshops to jointly make and use the l\u00e1djogahpir, a revitalization of the hat\u2019s meaning. There is something special and empowering when Sami women use the hat today. The l\u00e1djogahpir can be regarded as a symbol of a new decolonial feminism, forwarding a message from our foremothers that live beside us.<\/p>\n

YM:<\/strong> You have included two ancient l\u00e1djogahpirs in the exhibition, which belong to Nordiska museet in Stockholm. What do you know about these particular hats, and why is it important for you to present the l\u00e1djogahpir outside the context of a museum collection?<\/p>\n

OP:<\/strong> These l\u00e1djogahpirs belonged to two women, Guiva K\u00e1re and Vulle\u0161 Ing\u00e1, from my home region in Ohcejohka (Utsjoki). They are rare, because the museums have very few old Sami objects where the user or maker is known. The provenance data usually has more information about the collector and previous owners, which indicates what kind of narrative the museums have considered to be relevant.<\/p>\n

Historic Sami cultural items are usually displayed in ethnographic museums, while western art objects are displayed in art museums. It\u2019s not correct to say that the duodji object is art, since it\u2019s a separate holistic concept, but I think that the museum artefacts can be understood from a wider perspective when transferred to an art context.<\/p>\n

YM:<\/strong> Recently the National Museum of Finland repatriated its collections of Sami objects to the Sami Museum Siida, and you were involved as one of the curators of the repatriation exhibition. Please summarise what this repatriation is about and why a contemporary interpretation is important?<\/p>\n

OP:<\/strong> Sami belongings are scattered around the European museums, and only a small number can be publicly displayed while the rest lies in storage. These old objects are really rare and true treasures from our early ancestors. This means that today\u2019s Sami societies have to live largely without access to their own cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

Decolonisation is a matter of real acts, not a symbol or a metaphor. Repatriation means reciprocity and equal dialog, it goes in two directions. One direction is the indigenisation of the museums, that national museums should present our history too \u2013 from our perspective. To be able to do that, there is a need for professionals who can lead the museological work from our perspective, not just from an advisory position. The other direction is a process, where artefacts and their contents are returned from museums to the societies they belong to \u2013 so that we can rebuild our societies by working collectively with our ancestral cultural heritage. In Finland and Norway, the repatriation of Sami artefacts is in progress \u2013 the museums in Sweden should follow their example.<\/p>\n

After repatriation, the Sami museums can be active collecting places that bring together past, present and future generations. They can be safe spaces where local communities can find their own ways to heal from the colonial traumas and empower themselves.<\/p>\n

YM:<\/strong> Could you explain the concept of Rematriation<\/em>? Furthermore, elaborate on what you and Eeva-Kristiina Nylander mean when you say that the l\u00e1djogahpir is rematriated?<\/p>\n

OP:<\/strong> Eeva-Kristiina, who is finalizing her PhD studies about the Sami repatriation politics in Nordic countries, has said that rematriation starts from where repatriation doesn\u2019t reach. The rematriation addresses the failure to liberate history from a gendered perspective \u2013 it acknowledges women\u2019s histories and values. Our research concludes that the spiritual meanings embodied in the symbolism and the aesthetics of the l\u00e1djogahpir, the knowledge involved in both making and wearing it, and the emotions generated in the involvement with the l\u00e1djogahpir is what signifies rematriation.<\/p>\n

The Sami guardian spirits dwell in the earth. When we embrace gender justice and pay attention to the larger biocultural reality, we will also comprehend that mother earth \u2013 the eann\u00e1\u017ean <\/em>\u2013 as a female being, must be respected. For real rematriation to take place, the dozens of l\u00e1djogahpirs stored in museum collections in the Nordic countries and in Europe need to be returned to eana eann\u00e1\u017ean<\/em>, to our mother earth. Only in their own cultural context can they be truly helpful in the processes of remembering, decolonising, and healing.<\/p>\n

Image: Outi Pieski. Photo: Ari Karttunen.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Utst\u00e4llning<\/p>\n\n\n\n