In the book, Sámi Musical Performance and the Politics of Indigeneity in Northern Europe, Thomas R. Hidler provides a critical analysis of the political, cultural, and social transformations in the non-Western, Nordic, Sámi indigenous community. This book—which is the seventeenth in the Europea: Ethnomusicologies and Modernities series published by Rowman and Littlefield—explores how the Sámi people, residing in the Nordic peninsula and indigenous to northern Europe (Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia), interpret concepts of cultural revival, sovereignty, and “transnational activism” using symbols of “Sámi-ness” such as music, songs, and language.

The Sámi people have used the vocal tradition of joik in their contemporary songs, festivals, and digital technologies though joik is traditionally a form of repetitive “word painting,” a method of “naming and remembering people” through oral storytelling, and a way to personify places and animals within the environment, that was used purely in a cultural sense (5). The modern-day use of joik music alongside such musical genres as rap, jazz, and rock, as well as on the internet, is indicative of the incorporation of Sámi-ness into mainstream culture. "Joiking" has also been used in addressing longstanding political and social issues in this region, which include land dispossession, resistance to Christian religious persecution by embracing a nature-based cosmology, and forced cultural assimilation.

Hidler uses ethnographic methodologies such as formal and informal interviews with Sámi musicians and cultural organizations, scholarship in ethnomusicology, participant observation of Sámi musical festivals, and historical archival work to form a narrative about the reconstruction of Sámi indigeneity. The author’s main argument holds that the concept of identity is never static but is, instead, a fluid idea which allows an individual or a community to transform over time without losing personhood or cultural indigeneity. This book is comprised of six chapters and an epilogue which includes the author’s commentary on the July 22, 2011, massacre of members of the Labour Party Youth Group outside of Oslo, and on the Riddu Riddu festival which, as a result, became one of multiculturalism rather than Nordic pride. There is an extensive notes section after each chapter which refers to the most recent scholarship on political activism, on Nordic musical genres, history, and culture, and on anthropological theories on identity and indigenous rights.

Chapter 1 is an introduction to the overall argument and organization of the book. The reader is given a brief overview of Sámi history and the Nordic environment, their connection to nature (in which they view themselves as descendants of non-human entities, namely the reindeer and the sun), their connection to Sámi Nordic ancestral space, and their resistance to cultural assimilation by Finland, Russia and Sweden. In chapter 2, we explore Sámi history, which includes resistance to Nordic nationalism and a move to, instead, re-define Sámi indigeneity on its own terms rather than those of the Nordic governments. Musical performance, especially in the Sámi language, and the creation of a pan-Sámi community or “Sámi-ness” have contributed to a redefinition of Sámi identity as seen in the Kautokeino Easter Festival and the Melodi Grand Prix festival in Norway.

In chapter 3, Hidler shows how joik and Sámi music have been viewed as the Other in relation to European musical styles (73). Previous opinions on joik, and therefore on Sámi culture, were that it was primitive, connected to the wilderness, uncivilized, and lacking in musical art or refinement (74). To counter this claim, the author uses the contemporary activist, lawyer, and performer Ánde Somby as an example of a Sámi performer who combines his culture, music, and academic ability to show how Sámi music “provincialized” Europe by looking past limiting concepts of modernity, time, and tradition (102).

Chapter 4 shows the reader how contemporary Sámi artists have focused on a pre-Christian nature-based cosmology which includes shamanism, a connection to the gods or saivu, trance-inducing rituals like noaidi that connect one to the supernatural, and a cultural link to the sacred sites or siedi where animal sacrifices were performed. All this has given the Sámi people a stronger sense of place and a link to their Nordic homeland prior to assimilation to other European nations. This connection to the environment has become an important factor in the re-envisioning of a Sámi indigeneity, sovereignty, and political rights.

Chapter 5 focuses on the concepts of embodiment within Sámi music, the claim to authorship and ownership over their cultural heritage, and the fight to disparage appropriation and dispossession within Sámi musical performance. The newly emergent Sámi music industry has contributed “toward transforming archived forms of cultural heritage into embodied knowledge,” while the Sámi cultural festivals serve as an “indigenous museum,” a place where cultural heritage is diffused to the general public (180). The final chapter explains how, through the emergence of a Sámi identity, the Sámi people have become part of the larger global community.

As typical of other books in the Europea series, Hidler’s shows how Sámi music and culture has built a connection to the nation-state which will help the Sámi gain political recognition locally and globally. This book offers arguments for indigenous autonomy and cultural sovereignty that can be used in the cases of other marginalized groups exhibiting “aboriginal universalism”—such as Native Americans in North America—who are fighting to keep their traditions and heritage alive amidst claims of inauthenticity and cultural diffusion (199). This book is well-written and organized cohesively, as one chapter leads seamlessly into another. It will be a valuable addition to the fields of European studies, ethnomusicology, and identity studies.

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[Review length: 914 words • Review posted on February 11, 2015]