‘The same struggles as 100 years ago’: exhibition highlights lives of Sami people in Sweden

Show at Kin Museum in Kiruna marks handover of long-awaited report on abuses committed by the state against the Indigenous people

From a detailed multi-perspectival drawing of reindeer to written accounts of belief systems and childbirth, Johan Turi’s work offers unparalleled insight into his life as a Sami person living in northern Sweden at the start of the 20th century.

In the face of racist discrimination, land disputes and the spectre of encroaching industry, Turi wanted his 1910 book Muitalus sámiid birra (An Account of the Sami) to set the record straight about the lives of Europe’s only recognised Indigenous people.