Historjá – Stitches for Sapmí

The large-scale textile artwork “Historjá” by Marakatt-Labba made a huge breakthrough when it was shown at documenta 14 in Kassel. The embroidery, depicting motifs from Sámi history, is also the starting point of Thomas Jackson’s documentary, which tells us about Sámi culture, whose history has been marked by a struggle against the majority population. The struggle has concerned the right to land and way of life, but also underlying this are two views of mankind and its relationship to nature. In Historjá – Stitches for Sapmí, historical events and mythological images are woven together with how climate change threatens contemporary reindeer herding and thus the existence of Sámi culture.

Historjá is a poetic and visually stunning story of indigenous peoples’ struggle against climate change, told through the visual landscape of one of the worlds most sought after artists, and represented Sapmi and Sweden at the Nordic pavilion in the Venice Biennale, 2022.