ABSTRACT
Artists like Mari Boine have “done more for the breakthrough of political power, than our hundreds of resolutions”, Ole Henrik Magga once claimed. This chapter describes a biographical approach with attention to lyrics and performances, and through a focus on articulations of indigeneity and religion. It discusses usage of the personal as political in the feminist sense from the 1960s, in this case related to colonization, healing, and sovereignty. A video on Boine’s fan page shows her at Tønder Festival in Denmark, one of the oldest and most prominent folk music venues in Europe. The three women laughed a lot, as they moved between Boine’s career, her recent appointment, and contemporary challenges to the university, Sámis, and people in the north. Boine speaks of shamanism as in her music, via yoik and the drum rhythms of ancient rituals, and through connections to what she during the breakfast seminar at Riddu Riddu 2018 described as a “primeval source”.
