Arctic Highways

Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous Peoples of the North brings together circumpolar Indigenous artists from across the Arctic at Santa Fe Indian Market alongside Common Thread: Indigenous Perspectives from the Arctic. Curated by and featuring works from four Sámi artists—Tomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, Dan Jåma, and Britta Marakatt-Labba— this exhibition illuminates connections to Arctic lands while addressing how 'green' energy projects threaten communities and environments. Through works that explore land rights, language, and artistic expression, the exhibition embodies its "unbounded" theme of moving freely and connecting across borders. In this interview, the curators share their individual perspectives and collaborative visions for strengthening global Indigenous art.


What were your main goals for Arctic Highways at Santa Fe's Indian Art Market?

Gunvor Guttorm, Dan Jåma, & Tomas Colbengtson: Our goal was to meaningfully participate in the global Indigenous art community. We wanted to present our artistic expressions and shared philosophy of love and respect for the land to our largest audience outside Sápmi. The Santa Fe Indian Market is a major gathering point for Indigenous artists from the US and Canada, and Arctic Highways has been a crucial step in strengthening the global Indigenous artist network.


How does the title Arctic Highways reflect the exhibition's themes?

Britta Marakatt-Labba, GG, TC: Arctic Highways represents the connections between circumpolar Indigenous peoples. It represents our lived pathways—landscapes, rivers and life in Sápmi and other Indigenous areas. The title is inspired by Sámi poet Nils-Aslak Valkeapää’s (Áillohaš’) final poem, entitled “Arctic Highway,” which envisions Indigenous peoples as kin. We believe this exhibition fulfills that vision. The “highways” carry our stories from current environmental challenges in the Arctic regions, including the exploitation of land and global warming, to our enduring artistic practices.

Britta Marakatt-Labba Installation view Urgröpt 11/Hallowed Out (2021) COURTESY IAIA — MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY NATIVE ARTS © THE ARTIST

How does this exhibition reflect your own perspectives as Sámi artists and curators?

BML: This exhibition reflects decades of experience working across various media, including art, duodji, photography, and film. I create stories with needle and thread, translating our oral traditions into pictorial form. While we have preserved our oral stories well—and I'm grateful to my family for keeping them central in our lives—I recognized early on the power of visual storytelling. Inspired by this, my work depicts Sámi everyday life, cosmology, politics, and cultural history.

GG: My background is in Sámi practices of duodji (Sámi handicraft) and duddjon (making). While duodji is often reduced to mere "decoration" to make an exhibition appear Indigenous, it carries deeper cultural meaning as living knowledge tied to our lands. This holistic approach, where makers handle every aspect from concept to creation, exists across artistic practices. In Mátki Sámi ja Sámi áigodagaid čađa, I use knitting to express Sápmi's seasons and honour mothers like my own, who found peace in this practice while raising nine children. I install these works in fishing nets to symbolize our vigilance against industrial threats. As both practitioner and academic, these continuities inform my curatorial approach.

DJ: We wanted to showcase our versatility as artists, to present different ways of expressing our shared fight for our rights, land, and culture. In Leave No Trace, I examine how wind farms—celebrated by the Western world as positive change—threaten Sámi reindeer herding families. These projects spread across our mountains, which others label 'wilderness' but that form the foundation of our culture. I aim to show how this supposedly beneficial transition casts dark clouds over our future. I aim to show the true cost of this transition for Sámi people.

TC: We look upon ourselves as unbounded people, expressing our art and culture in our own ways. In Giela dájva (Language Landscape), I layer a 1900s image of a Sámi boy in Teller, Alaska—whose family brought reindeer herding knowledge from Norway to Inuit communities—with my homeland Tärna's landscape inscribed with South Sámi text about language loss. This raises questions about migration and identity: When we move, do we remain the same? Does losing our mother tongue change who we are? Despite centuries of colonization, we are actively decolonizing and asserting our freedom to express ourselves without constraint.

How did you select and collaborate with artists?

BML, GG, TC: Arctic Highways evolved from the 2018 Sápmi salasta / Sápmi Embraces circumpolar Indigenous art residency program we initiated in Sweden, which sought to empower artists and strengthen the circumpolar Indigenous art network. For the exhibition, we selected artists known to the curators, balancing a variety of artistic expressions and including both program alumni and duojárat (Sámi craftspeople) who hadn't participated before. Our aim was to represent all of Sápmi, which spans four countries, though COVID-19 made it particularly difficult to reach Russian artists. For North American Indigenous artist participants, we initially contacted Canadian organizations but ultimately relied on our own personal networks and trusted connections. 



Tomas Colbengtson Giela dájva (Language Landscape) (2021) Oil on aluminium 100 × 120 cm © THE ARTIST

What role do (Sámi) Indigenous languages play in the exhibition?

GG, BML, DJ, TC: Language is very important in this exhibition and reflected in our choice to present the Sámi text on wall labels and exhibition materials. The catalogue text includes North Sámi, South Sámi and English text. Many of the participating artists also use Sámi titles in their works. The works themselves also communicate visually through materials that connect to specific regions across Sápmi.


How does the exhibition explore the concept of “unbounded”?

BML, DJ, TC:  As Indigenous people, we persistently emphasize that we do not think in terms of borders. The exhibition acts like a metaphorical highway connecting Indigenous peoples from Finland to Alaska, who face similar climate conditions and colonial pressures. Environmental issues, such as illegal wind farms on reindeer grazing areas, resource extraction, and climate change, affect all Arctic peoples. While our lands are divided by imposed borders, our art transcends these boundaries, allowing us to share experiences and collaborate from a broader, borderless perspective. 


Arctic Highways: Unbounded Indigenous Peoples of the North is on view at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from August 16, 2024, to March 2, 2025. Curated by Tomas Colbengtson, Gunvor Guttorm, Dan Jåma, and Britta Marakatt-Labba, the featured artists include Matti Aikio, Sonya Kelliher-Combs, Maureen Gruben, Marja Helander, Laila Susanna Kuhmunen, Olof Marsja, Meryl McMaster, and Máret Ánne Sara.