Pioneering Sami Author Johan Turi’s Historic Works Return in New Exhibition
- The exhibition at the Kin Museum of Contemporary Art brings together writings, detailed multi-perspectival drawings of reindeer, paintings, and traditional Sami handicrafts known as Duodji.
- Museum director Maria Lind noted that Turi’s book captures both the external and inner dimensions of Sami life during an era marked by the imposition of formal national...
- Turi’s historical materials are exhibited alongside works by contemporary artists Outi Pieski and Johanna Minde.
Archival Works and Rare Drawings Return to Kiruna
The exhibition at the Kin Museum of Contemporary Art brings together writings, detailed multi-perspectival drawings of reindeer, paintings, and traditional Sami handicrafts known as Duodji. Curators trace Turi’s 1910 foundational book, Muitalus sámiid birra
(An Account of the Sami
), as the anchor for the display, marking the first time these pioneering works have been on display in nearly a century. Turi, who was born in Guovdageainnu (Kautokeino) in Norway in 1854 before moving his reindeer-herding family to Kiruna, wrote the text in his native Sami language to counter racist discrimination and set the historical record straight.
Museum director Maria Lind noted that Turi’s book captures both the external and inner dimensions of Sami life during an era marked by the imposition of formal national borders. He had dreamed about writing a book about the Sami with the purpose of making the population in Sweden understand how difficult it was for the Sami because those were difficult years,
Lind said, pointing to the arrival of settlers, mining, and railways.
Dialogue with Contemporary Sami Art and Decolonial Feminism
Turi’s historical materials are exhibited alongside works by contemporary artists Outi Pieski and Johanna Minde. The exhibition takes its title, On the Ugly and the Beautiful,
from a quote by Turi—who died in 1936—reflecting his belief that all experiences hold a valid place for display. Pieski, a Finnish-side Sápmi artist who grew up with Turi’s work, explained how the historical drawings treat paper as the land itself. It’s not a western way of seeing a landscape as a beautiful view that you look at from a distance,
Pieski said, But the actual place where you are, physically placed, and you are an active member of this network of land.
Pieski’s collaborative research alongside Eeva-Kristiina Nylander concerning the ládjogahpir—a traditional hat historically worn by Sami women—also features prominently in the museum spaces. Their revitalization efforts have helped return the headwear to daily use, transforming it into what Pieski describes as a new symbol for decolonial feminism.
Parallel Struggles Over Land Use and Industry
The opening of the exhibition coincides with the official handover of a long-awaited report by the Truth Commission for the Sami People, delivered to the Swedish government at Mid Sweden University in Staare. The commission’s findings document state-backed abuses and are designed to frame ongoing discussions regarding reparations and reconciliation. Similar truth commissions have previously convened in Norway and Finland.
Organizers note that the modern challenges facing Sami communities closely mirror those documented by Turi a century ago. Contemporary reindeer herding faces severe threats from industrial expansion, particularly the aggressive search for rare earth minerals and wind energy developments, compounded by rising anti-Sami political rhetoric and the escalating impacts of the Arctic climate crisis. It’s very sad that we are kind of in the same spot still now, 100 years later,
Pieski stated. And I know the same struggles are still existing that Johan Turi brought out with the fight for industrial land use and so on.