The stories of Johan Turi through his duddjon (Sami handicraft) and experiences

Abstract

This paper is about the Sami handicraft (duodji) and craftsmanship of Johan Turi as I have chosen to look at Johan Turi’s storytelling through his duodji. What did handicrafts mean to him? What did he want to express by the duodji in different situations? Johan Turi lived in a time when museums started to collect handicrafts from different people, as a means of picturing a people’s characteristics. Did Johan Turi have the same intention as museums with his duodji? To delve deeper into the subject, I have chosen some duodji that have been restored by museums, and investigated related written materials. At the time there was a «handicraft wave» both in Sweden and the rest of Europe. How did this influence the craftsmanship of Johan Turi? Some of his duodji lies at the Nordiska museet (in Stockholm) which were items that Turi made for Emilie Demant-Hatt, who later gave or sold it to the museum. When studying Johan Turi and Emilie Demant-Hatt’s correspondence, I get a certain picture why Turi made an item and why Demant-Hatt ordered it from him. In addition, I use Turi’s book Muitalus sámiid birra (2010 (1910)) as an important source to get closer to the purpose of the duodji and Demant-Hatt’s books. I paid special attention to the chest (giisá) that Turi made. This chest, which ended up in the Nordiska museet contains many different stories, Emilie Demant-Hatt’s relationship with Johan Turi, the stories belonging to the museum, and Johan Turi’s story about his relationship to Emilie Demant-Hatt and to the Sami environment.