Keskustelu
A Journey with Objects - Sámi Cultural Heritageim with Áile Aikio and Fumi Takayanagi

TO, 09.12.2021
KLO 19:00 CET MARKK

Discussion

Fr 9.12. at 19:00 (CET)
Zwischenraum, MARKK Hamburg

Indigenous self-determination calls into question museum ownership of objects in Indigenous collections, the meaning of cultural heritage, and who has access to it.

While restitution is a burning question for museums in Germany, the Finnish National Museum returns its Sámi collection (over 2000 objects) to the Sámi Museum Siida in Anár (Northern Sámi)/Aanaar (Inari Sámi)/Aanar (Skolt Sámi)/Inari (Finnish) in Finnish Sápmi. There are over 2000 objects in the Sámi collections of German museums; of these, at least 400 are in the MARKK.

The Goethe-Institut Finnland is initiating a dialogical research residence to address this current issue by bringing together two scholars, Áile Aikio from Sápmi and Fumi Takayanagi from Germany. The programme promotes the exchange of provenance research between museums in Sápmi and Germany, as well as the social significance of cultural heritage and material culture, collecting practices, and colonial effects on the basis of Sámi collections in Sápmi and Germany.

The residency programme joins the Goethe-Institut’s global discussions on (post-)colonialism and restitution. The Goethe-Institut Finland concentrates on Nordic colonialism. Partners in the project include the Finnish National Museum, MARKK, MEK and Sámi Museum Siida.
Aikio and Takayanagi’s joint residency will develop into a public programme for 2022 in Helsinki, Sápmi,and Germany. This will address central themes of provenance and restitution of objects, the revitalization of cultural heritage, as well as questions of repair.