KulturSápmi Published a New Declaration
The KulturSápmi conference brought together 130 artists and cultural actors from around Sápmi in Guovdageaidnu from 10 to 12 June 2025. A declaration was published in connection with the conference based on the topical themes that emerged during KulturSápmi.
Picture: Johtti Productions
KulturSápmi Declaration 2025
The Sámi cultural field crosses borders
across state borders
across genre boundaries
across time boundaries – we move between the present, the past and the future in art, crafts and joiking
There are different time levels in our lives.
We are moving
between the Western and Sámi times
and we seek and yearn for a return to Sámi life beyond every border
Main points
We are a unified field, but our supporting structures separate us. Our culture has a spiritual foundation that our ancestors have preserved for us to collectively own, sustain, and renew. In the same way, we must pass on our legacy to future generations.
Our art is for everyone throughout Sápmi, and national borders should not separate us.
We carry traditional knowledge into the new era and it is our strength, power and livelihood.
We see it as essential to preserve our arts and cultural associations and institutions to better respond to future opportunities in our field and cooperate with our valuable friends outside of Sápmi.
We want to implement a Sámi export office based on Sámi values, guided by the Sámi cultural field, which ensures that the work benefits the Sámi cultural world.
We need the Sámi Parliaments to start working across national borders to form a common cultural policy and a strong common Sámi Cultural Fund based on our needs and values.
We want to remind each other that the Sámi cultural sphere is broad, diverse, and we warmly acknowledge our diversity.
We will work to establish an ethical foundation and guidelines for all arts, as ISFI has done in the film industry.
We also want our children and youth to have arenas and opportunities, as well as safe and carefree cultural and linguistic environments.
We also intend to Sámify our own internal meeting places and ways of cooperation in the future.
Picture: Johtti Productions
Kultur-Sápmi is bubbling
We have much to be happy about. In recent years, our people have won awards, been noticed both in Sápmi and abroad, promoted art in more than one field, and revived handicrafts and everyday yoik.
Sámi culture is bubbling up both at the lichen and higher levels. We are ready to take the next step. A natural next step could be establishing our own, Sámi Export Office. We intend to build a system based on our expertise, needs and goals.
We want to work with art, crafts and yoik
We want to work for funding
We want to work for events
And
We want to leave the work of explaining and teaching to others.
When forming our own structures, we want to base them on Sámi values and thinking. We intend to establish connections with our partners, who want to support us. Our art is primarily for our own people. We work with art on our own terms, bringing us closer to true self-determination and Sámi life. Our arts, crafts, and creative practices would not exist without our lands.
Our values are based on the traditional knowledge in which our Sámi languages live. Every Sámi is of equal value and importance, regardless of language proficiency, and we intend to make room for Sámi languages, as our languages carry our traditional knowledge and values.
We want to create our own projects according to our artistic needs and goals. The Sámi cultural field has high expectations that, within the framework of the Nordic countries' truth and reconciliation work, grants to the Sámi cultural field will be raised to the same level as the majority. The financial economy of the Western world and the cultural policy of the Nordic countries should not guide our artistic vision and practice. We must also have artistic freedom.
This means:
We choose what we work on and with whom.
We know what we want and the future is in our hands.
We know our own values, and we strengthen and guide each other in these.
And
everyone can yoik
Picture: Johtti Productions