“Indians” in Lapland

Abstract

This article examines mechanisms of marginalization in the monocultural setting of Finland in the early 1990s through the case of the multinational Iriadamant “lifestyle Indians”. The Iriadamant imitated Native Americans in appearance, and the “tribe” settled in Finnish Lapland to experiment with a non-consumerist ecological and spiritual way of living off-grid. We examine how this community was perceived in Finland and assess how Finnish perceptions of Iriadamant otherness and marginality were anchored on material culture and material practices. Furthermore, we discuss how the marginalization of the Iriadamant resonated and was intertwined with the marginalization and exoticization of Lapland, which is part of the ancestral homelands of the indigenous Sámi and has for centuries been seen as an enchanted land of natural and supernatural wonders. We consider marginality and marginalization in the context of the Iriadamant in Lapland through more specific issues of identity/indigeneity, ecology and spirituality.