Ghost

By Siri Broch Johansen

Bivttas/Now you see me, now you don’t

Siri Broch Johansen in collaboration with Fanny Bjørn, Kristin Tvare, Katja Ravdna Broch Pedersen and Maria Karlsen.

Daily we experience how clothing determines how we are perceived. Is this “The Colonial Gaze”? As “people of color with white skin”, we are invisible when we wear Western clothes. We can be a part of the society without experiencing racism. We can hide, disappear and fit in. This is a double-edged sword. The comfortable feeling of being «normal» has led to desertion from the Sami community. The result is a large Sami population no one sees. We are like wandering ghosts. When we dress up in our traditional clothing, we become visible to both our surroundings and ourselves.

In collaboration with a group of young artists, I have investigated different aspects of clothing. We have investigated how wearing Sami clothes in some places, sometimes, makes you “a little less human”. Racism in the Norwegian society is concealed – like many Sami people are. It is also omnipresent – like us. It is perceived provoking that we, who can hide in a white Norwegian identity, choose not to. Dressing into a Sami identity can mean dressing into nudity. Are our clothes our second skin? Do I have to choose to be either «human» or «Sami» – or can I be both – at the same time?

In addition, I have attended a seminar/sewing class with the Sami artist Outi Pieski. There, I experienced how taking back a Sami garment that went out of use hundred years ago, contributes to profound healing of wounds colonialism has inflicted upon me. The actual design and making of the garment, and then putting it into use, has had a profound impact. Do we have to sew our own clothes, like I did, to get maximum decolonizing benefit from them? What does it do to us to choose the position «a little less human», if that is what dressing up in sámi garments do to us? The last question is also a nod to the play «Human Zoo» by Kathrine Nedrejord, toured by BSNT at the same time as the Ibsen Awards Festival.

In collaboration with Dramatikkens Hus and Ibsen Awards.
Curated and directed by Kai Johnsen.

Photo by Aslak Mikal Mienna

Siri Broch Johansen is a Sámi playwright, singer, translator and author. She works bilingually in Northern Sami and Norwegian languages. She holds an MA in Theatre from Theatre Acadamy, Oslo National Academy of the Arts.

Her works tend to evolve around power and powerlessness, geography and politics. As a Norwegian Sámi, Johansen concerns herself with colonization and the reminiscences in our contemporary lives. She tours her projects that tend to have the character of community theatre, across the borders of the Cap of the North, i.e. in the area of Sápmi.

Siri Broch Johansen has written several dramatic works produced in Sápmi/Norway. Her own company has produced and toured both Samenes aften – odne lea du vuorru (2011) and ČSV-republihkka (2013). Gurut guvlui Heahtás/ Til venstre i Hætta/Vasemalle Hetasta was staged and toured by Beaivváš Sámi National Theatre (2014), and she wrote MariAmira for Den Unge Scene (The young stage) in 2017, which resulted in 5 versions showed by youth theatre groups from Tromsø to Kristiansand. She is currently working on the project Sabmie Ovttastuvvon Siiddat, a carnevalistic take on the current Sámi situation and a foresight as to where, in the dystopic direction, the contemporary global society is heading. The Sámi Parliament in Norway has granted Johansen a two-year working grant for this project.

Johansen has collaborated as a playwright with the following institutions and groups: Beaivváš sámi našunála teáhter (the Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš), Det norske Teatret/Den Unge Scene, Radioteatret (The Norwegian Broadcast Radio Theatre), the Norwegian Centre for new playwriting.

Johansen is also a well-known author in Sápmi. She has written two prize-winning youth novels, as well as a biography. She has contributed to a six bind books on Sámi school history, and has rendered a number of Leonard Cohen’s song lyrics to Northern Sámi language. She has collaborated with all the major Sámi publishing houses, i.e. AuthorsPublisher, Davvi Girji, Iđut and DAT.