Memory Institutions and Sámi Heritage – Decolonization, Restitution & Rematriation in Sápmi

With a focus on Sápmi - the transcultural and transnational homeland of the Sámi people - this book presents case studies and theoretical frameworks which explore the ways in which memory institutions such as museums, archives, and festivals participate in and guide processes of appropriation, decolonization, and memory-making. The destruction and concealment of Sámi objects in both private and museum collections worldwide have impacted Sámi knowledge systems, disrupting local ways of knowing.Appreciation and reappropriation are important acts of decolonization which seek to create openings for reconnection to traditions, languages, and practices that were forcibly suppressed in the past.Western memory institutions such as museums, archives, and galleries have had a great impact on how heritage has been collected, stored, conserved, and organized within closed walls and glass cases.As the new museology movement developed in the 1990s, numerous examples revealed how difficult it became