Saamenmaa-Land of the Saame
Pekka Antikainen

Hardbound , 11.41" x 9.44", 147 pages
200 color and black-and-white illustrations
2004, Sareka Oy, Finland
Photographs and text by Pekka Antikainen
Essays by Kaisa Korpijaakko, Jaakko Alatalo

From the Publisher:
The book "Saamenmaa-Land of the Saame" tells about every day life of samipeople as well as history and tradition during last decades.

The book "Land of the Saame" is large as well. It includes 147 pages and 200 photographs

"The Saame Parliament notes that, contrary to its official claims, the state has not acquired any right of ownership over what it regards as state lands by virtue of the forest legislation or the Great Partition. On the other hand, Finland maintains a discreet silence over its decision in 1976 to declare the lands previously owned by the Saame to be state property. Later these state lands were simply recorded in the property register, without the survey required by law. The outcome of this confusion is that the Finnish state formally owns vast tracts of the north of the country without the approval of the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee and in contravention of the principles of personal property ownership. The officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry have not acted with integrity in increasing the state’s land holdings in this way."

Although little serious research into the land and water ownership rights of the Saame, or more generally into the Saame culture, took place prior to the late 1970s in Finland, Sweden or Norway, much had been written about the past history of this ethnic group over the centuries, varying in perspective according to the dominant interests of the times. In the 17th century the main writers were the priests, who, in accordance with the wishes of those in power, were preoccupied with the customs and beliefs of the Saame rather than their material culture.

Pekka Antikainen has proved a worthy successor to the many photographers who have documented life in Lapland. He has even taken photographs of some of the same people as Marja Vuorelainen did several decades ago. She depicted Inga Näkkäläjärvi of Enontekiö as a young mother, for instance, while for Antikainen Inga assumes the role of a grandmother, ahku, and matriarch respected by her whole family. In Land of the Saame she is pictured celebrating her 90th birthday, while her sons, portrayed by Vuorelainen as little boys not yet at school, are now middle-aged, austere reindeer herders.

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