Reclaiming the Past: On the History-making Significance of the Sámi Film The Kautokeino Rebellion

Abstract

Over the last couple of decades, film and filmmaking has become an increasingly powerful dimension to indigenous peoples' cultural and political revival, worldwide. Many “indigenous films” deal with the past, aiming at rectifying alleged misrepresentations or neglect of the given indigenous community's past in the discourses of dominant society. This article explores the cultural memory-making of one such film, The Kautokeino Rebellion (2008) directed by leading Sámi filmmaker Nils Gaup. The film adapts the story of a mortal rebellion in 1852, where a group of Sámi reindeer herders killed the chief of police and the local merchant. The incident is the perhaps most traumatic and stigmatized event in the history of the indigenous population of Sámi in Norway, with dominant interpretations being highly condemning of the Sámi involved. Gaup's movie redresses such perspectives, and places responsibility for the tragic events on Norwegian authorities and discriminatory policies towards the Sámi. Emphasis in this article is on the mechanisms and preconditions at play as The Kautokeino Rebellion gained significant impact in terms of altering the cultural memory of the event. Focus is on the film itself, its broader cultural context and its reception.