Voicing and staging Indigenous resilience: Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen's performance of the Sámi yoik Máze

Abstract

Across the world, Indigenous traditions have often been silenced. Norway implemented oppressive policies towards the Indigenous Sámi people, targeting their language and culture practices. Traditional Sámi singing yoik, was associated with Sámi religion and at times banned though retained as cultural and social memory. This article explores Sámi resistance and resilience in the face of European colonial oppression, focusing on the traditional practice of yoik as a means of cultural endurance and resilience. Through an analysis of Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen's performance of Máze - broadcasted by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) - the article examines how yoik operates as a multifaceted communicative practice. Though suppressed, yoik still persisted as a vital expression of Sámi identity, memory, resistance and resilience. The performance of Máze is situated within broader historical contexts of colonial violence and Sámi protests, particularly in relation to the Alta Dam controversy as the village Máze, due to the construction of the dam, was supposed to be submerged. Through the interplay of voice, instrumentation, bodily posture, camera work, and stage design, Ella Marie's performance of Máze enacts a powerful reminder of colonial past, but also resilience and ongoing decolonial resistance. Yoiks such as Máze are songs of struggle historically and contemporary and have become a means to overcome historical silences, giving voice to all those who resisted silencing and showed resilience.