Birds in the Earth
Film.
2018.
Two young Sámi ballet dancers travel across landscapes from Lapland to Helsinki, tracing the layered tensions between Indigenous identity and Finland’s dominant culture. Their movements unfold across forests, open routes, and urban sites, highlighting how cultural belonging is negotiated in both protected and contested spaces. The work touches on historical and political questions of land sovereignty and the persistent effects of colonial structures. Environmental concerns also surface as climate change threatens reindeer herding and the delicate ecosystems central to Sámi life. Through its quiet rhythm, the piece underscores the dancers’ presence as an assertion of continuity. Their journey suggests that tradition and modernity remain inseparable forces shaping Sámi experience in an era of rapid ecological and cultural change.
Marja Helander (FI)
Marja Helander is a Finnish Sámi photographer. and film-maker. After originally training as a painter at the Lahti Institute of Fine Arts from 1988 to 1992, Helander then pursued her interest in photography and graduated from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki in 1999.
Her earlier work explored her identity between Finnish and Sámi cultures, with the Sámi being the indigenous people of Fennoscandia. Helander´s recent photographic work has focused on northern landscapes in which dark views are portrayed without people. The work's focus is on postcolonial topics in the Sámi area, with a particular emphasis on the global mining industry. The encounter between nature and mankind is not harmonious, but destructive. On the other hand her video works are playful, exploring the contradiction between the traditional Sámi way of life and the modern society.