Author: Nico de Leeuw
Britta Marakatt-Labba was born in a kåta in 1951, during a fall migration of her Sámi community from Norway to Sweden. Britta’s family are reindeer herders, like most of the families in the Sámi community. Britta, however, is more of a storyteller. She uses textile art to tell stories and depict scenes from Sámi culture, history, mythology and daily life.
At an early age, she already knew she wanted to create art through embroidery. She was inspired by her mother’s craft, and always believed the medium to fit her personality.
“It requires unending patience and time. It has a lot to do with how you look at the material, how it all fits together. And I think you also have to have your own personality, be a bit stubborn. And that’s me.”
Britta describes her head as a book, full of stories that she needs to tell through her art.
If you look at her art pieces, it is clear that Britta has many stories to tell. From the 24-meter wide piece Historjá telling the story of the Sámi people, to Garjját depicting a scene of the protests against a hydroelectric dam in Altá in the 90s, to Girddi noaiddit showing characters from Sámi mythology. Britta has already told many stories, and will continue to tell more.
The Sámi Community
The Sámi are the Indigenous people of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northeastern Russia. Sámi culture is unique – they live a nomadic lifestyle, but their practices and traditions are closely tied to the land. For generations, the Sámi have fostered a deep spiritual connection to the land, to the mountains and to the water. Their way of life revolves around preserving the balance of nature. In Sámi culture, knowledge and experiences are passed on through oral storytelling, as the written word came late to their community. Next to a culture of stories, of a nomadic existence, and of reindeer herding, Sámi culture has always been one of resistance.
“In Sámi culture we have always had to fight” –
Britta tells in the documentary Historjà – Stitches for Sápmi. Sámi have had to fight against oppression from the State and invasion of their land, and for the preservation of their culture and religion. These last decades, a new fight became part of the Sámi struggle: the fight against a changing climate.
The People of the Underworld
In the documentary Historjà – Stitches for Sápmi, Britta describes how her mother taught her about how Sámi live in balance with nature. She also talks about the “people of the underworld”, who tell the Sámi how to take care of nature. If you sit still and be quiet, you are able to hear and see them, Britta explains. They live under the mountains and under the lakes. But the people of the underworld are slowly disappearing. They are fleeing because of the digging in Sápmi, the Sámi land. Digging for ‘development’ projects, such as dams and mines. Like many Indigenous lands, Sápmi is portrayed through colonial efforts as empty and untouched, legitimizing the extraction of resources in the name of development. The truth is that Sámi people have cared for their land for thousands of years. Land that is changing due to global warming and exploitation of resources.
House of Cards
Nature is being depleted in Sápmi, new mines and wind farms are threatening the reindeer habitat. The changing weather takes away the reindeers’ opportunity to feed. They cannot find food anymore, and entire herds have fallen through the thin ice layer of a lake that was supposed to be thick and sturdy. Britta describes nature degradation as a house of cards falling apart. If you remove one piece, the entire house will eventually collapse.
Resistance Art
Britta uses her embroidery to tell stories about Sámi culture, about their relationship with nature and their political struggles. Using nothing more than a needle, a variety of coloured threats and a sheet, she creates beautiful images depicting the struggle for climate justice from an indigenous perspective. Viewers can find lots of reindeers, kåtas, snowmobiles, figures from Sámi mythology, deforested and destroyed land, and tiny humans in the midst of it all. Through her embroidery, Britta wishes to tell the story of what is happening in Sápmi. In an interview with Christoffer Åhlén she explains:
“Embroidery is often seen as something cute, but when my work is being studied, it reveals a political tone, a resistance.”
It comes as no surprise then, that she likes to categorize her own art as “resistance art”.
A Flock of Crows
A flock of crows descends to the land. More closely to the ground, the crows slowly morph into people, or more specifically, into police officers. Police officers that are dragging away Sámi people defending their land.
This is the scene depicted in one of Britta’s most outspoken works: Garjját, or ‘The Crows’. Crows are a symbol of supremacy in Sámi culture. In this piece, they represent state power. The crows fly across protestors in Altá, where the government wishes to build a dam. “The crows have been following me since 1981,” Britta says in Historjà – Stitches for Sápmi, “because I was standing on the barricades in Altá”. She refers to the protests in January 1981, where she was arrested alongside eight hundred others during a major civil disobedience action against the building of a hydroelectric dam.
In Sámi stories, the crows take everything they come across, swarming their prey. Just like the Norwegian government did in Altá, taking energy by building a dam that displaced Sámi residents and disrupted reindeer migration routes. And then sending a flock of crows to pick off those fighting to their land one by one.
Resistance Beyond Art
In 1968, the Norwegian government proposed the plan of building a hydroelectric dam in the Altá river, which would put an entire Sámi village under water. Protests against this plan began in 1970 and continued until 1982. Land was occupied, there were hunger strikes, occupations of buildings, and camps set up to defend the land. In January 1981, the Norwegian government sent 600 police officers to the base camp of the protestors, arresting everyone engaged in civil disobedience. Britta had chained herself to a kåta made of ice to delay her arrest. She described that it “felt like war” when the police arrived. She began working on The Crows right after this, inspired by her mother’s stories of the animals that take everything that they can get their claws on.
Stitch by Stitch
Through her powerful embroidery, Britta Marakatt-Labba does not only share the traditions and culture of the Sámi people, but also shows the urgent need for environmental justice and the protection of Indigenous land. With each stitch, she tells the stories of cultural survival, the fight for land, and the deep spiritual connection to nature passed on through generations of Sámi people. Her art is a testament to the resilience and resistance of the Sámi community, and a reminder that the colonial struggle also takes place within European borders.