Umeå University's logo

In this presentation, I will reflect on the artistic process of drawing a landscape of relations starting from Mårtensliden – a homestead in South Sápmi/Sweden. The drawing Släktlandskapet shows the migration patterns of the people who have belonged to this place, both Sámi and settlers, and aims at setting the scene for a new origin story to be told that counteracts the Swedish settler-colonial narrative. 

The drawing is printed as a puzzle of 22 square pages, presented in a box, and is distributed as a gift to people living today who have a connection to Mårtensliden. The process of making and distributing Släktlandskapet raises questions like: How do we start an artistic research project based on principles of reciprocity? How does an ethics of aesthetics manifest in the making of a drawing – in the tension between transparency and opacity, colour and white space, inscription and erasure? Who gets included in the refiguration of land that is contested (navigating ownership, stewardship, and the call for “land back”)?

This work is part of my post-doctoral research project “To Know and Be Known by (a) Place – Pedagogies of the Unknown on Site”, that documents how artistic practices that consider our relationship to site-place-land can support practices of reconnection, in and beyond times of settler colonization.