This year the Swedish Research Council Symposium on Artistic Research is called Hurricanes and Scaffolding and takes place at the Arts Campus of Umeå University on the 4-6 of December 2024. I have the privilege to convene a panel on Sustainable Placemaking in Sápmi and the Nordics.
This inter-disciplinary panel focuses on the challenges of placemaking on land impacted by settler-colonialism. Common for several indigenous cultures is a relationship to land based on principles of reciprocity, where giving and taking is a mutually beneficial practice. This challenges many Western cultures tendency to mainly consider land from a utilitarian perspective, prioritizing extraction for shorter economic gains over more long-lasting values like connection, co-habitation and co-existence. How can we re-think our relationship to land through the practice of art, design and architecture?
Centering indigenous research, the aim of the panel is to examine the intricacies of placemaking based on principles of relationality and reciprocity. How do we create sustainable relations to land and people in our place-making? How do we “host on hostile lands”, taking into consideration ongoing conflicts over land rights? How do we document land-based practices without offering up indigenous knowledge for extraction?
Transgressing the limitations of the two-hour panel-session format, as well as the campus architecture, the group will host a space in the form of a tentipi on the riverbank.
We welcome you to our lávvuo/tentipi at the brink of the river Ubmejeiednuo/Ume River on Thursday Dec 5th. The day is centered around a fire, sharing experience, practices and thoughts on land and reciprocity as a foundation for sustainable placemaking. You can visit us at any time during the day – there is no beginning or end to the conversation. Please dress warmly.
Hosted by Marit-Shirin Carolasdotter, Sandi Hilal, Geir Tore Holm and Katarina Pirak Sikku by invitation of Lisa Nyberg