Wolf Hunting, Art, and Aesthetics: On Johan Turi

Lecture by Harald Gaski, Sámi literary scholar, professor, and author based in Deatnu/Tana. Moderator: Maria Lind.

In this lecture on Johan Turi (1854–1956), Harald Gaski invites new ways of interpreting and valuing Turi’s art through Sámi and Indigenous aesthetic frameworks. Turi was the first Sámi multi-artist; his book Muitalus sámiid birra (An Account of the Sámi) was published in 1910 in Northern Sámi and Danish, containing vivid descriptions of reindeer herding, hunting, trapping, belief, healing, childbirth, and joik, along with Turi’s own drawings. Recently he has been called an Indigenous philosopher, documentarian, and inspiration for Sámi cultural revitalization. Today he is one of the most cited Sámi authors. As an artist, he has only in the last decade received recognition, despite having exhibited in Copenhagen as early as 1928.