00 – 2.00
Dm: northern attire, die deutschen und karl may. Im februar zitat “final fantasy northern attire” carry significance. Clothes. Erosion?

Min 300
Åsa.: Well I think we need to put it in context because as Indigenous peoples living in minorities around the world – we as Sámi people but also other Indigenous peoples face cultural appropriation profiting on our cultures and our intellectual property rights. That’s the context of this, that in this case it’s a case of a company using cultural elements and a cultural traditional clothing of the Sámi people in a commercial product. So they are in this game selling these products to those using this game. And by that they are also profiting on our property. That’s the content. So it’s not merely a matter of us being cautious of people not misusing. It’s also very commercial. And by doing this in a not-engaging, in a proper collaboration and doing this properly – It’s not portrayed properly. So it’s in that sense also showing an incorrect image of the Sámi culture and so in that sense it’s many wrongs here in the companies doing this. And of course this is one example but we have faced many examples of this and we see them all over the world unfortunately.

Dm: 5.18 unfortunately. Avatar big debate transmits wrong picture of Indigenous peoples. What are the dangers of exoticisms and racist stereotypes – even if they’re vermeintlich “positive”?

min6
Åsa: to say this outloud – we as Sámi people we are open to collaborate. We’re of course interested in spreading information about our culture and about us as a people. And in that sense we are also eager to correct and to give the right information and in that sense we – as you also said in the quote from our letter – we open up for a collaboration if companies and actors are interested in actually doing this respectfully and doing it right. There are examples of how to actually represent and show a culture in a respectful way and that can be very beneficial both for the companies that engage in it, but also for the Indigenous people that are then part of that collaboration because we need to spread more awareness of Indigenous cultures around the world. And one very interesting examples of that is the agreement and the collaboration that we as Sámi people have or had for the last Frozen movie with Walt Disney Animation Studios. That is an example of a very successful partnership between the Sámi people and Walt Disney Animation Studios about Frozen 2. That’s a moive that shows elements of the Sámi culture but it’s done in collaboration with the Sámi people and it’s made respectfully and we had a team of cultural experts that could help the movie makers portray our culture in a respectful way.

Min 8:34
dm: I was surprised. Process? Consulting – how did it work?

Åsa: Well, we all know that the first Frozen film actually had elements of the Sámi culture. So that was a way of how not to do it. And then we heard about the plans of a second movie. And we then sent a letter to the company saying that: we hear that you are making this film and we are interested in a collaboration. And we are open to discussing how you can do this in a good and respectful way and they did not only respond to it saying that, well, hearing us; they responded with a positive openness. And from there we had actually a very good collaboration.

Min 10
Dm: thats also a question of who is profiting. Is there a budget for this consultation?

Åsa: Well that is of course something that would be up to every collaboration to set for themselves and there are many ways of benefiting from a collaboration. And we know of these companies – they are very commercial and of course it’s about profiting on their work when they do a movie like this or selling – as in the bad example of Square Enix – selling parts or elements in a game so of course there are elements of discussing and negotiating terms of how to benefit and how to collaborate in a good way and that is for the parties in every collaboration to set for themselves.

Min 11:25
dm: Square Enix letter in February. Did you get a response?

Åsa: Well that’s a process and I won’t go into details about that case. We have a team handling it and working on it and I am still confident or at least hoping that it will have a good outcome. But we also need to understand that and also see the need for raising awareness of intellectual property rights and the awareness of these cultural elements being actually property. And I think it’s generally a lack of awareness and that makes companies make mistakes more often than they should have if they actually were aware. And of course it’s a matter of what kind of size of the company and what expectations you can put on them but we also see when we look more locally and nationally we see companies that profit on elements of the Sámi culture as we can see both in North America and South America. Companies that profit on for example patterns on clothing or on jewelry. That are elements of Indigenous cultures. So this is not only the big multimedia companies, it’s also a need to raise awareness nationally and more locally. And it’s also a process of Indigenous peoples 13:35 for ourselves to raise awareness that we have this right and also built mechanisms and strengthen our capacity to assert these rights and to stand up to these companies. Whether it’s internationally or nationally and to point out that this is our property and we have a right to also decide how it’s used.

14min
dm: My culture is not a costume. Panel. If your children want to dress up like us tell them we’re nudist. (Tristan Durocher, métis activist and musician from what today is Canada) . Your arguments are accessible for adults but what do you tell a child that wants to dress up like you?

Min 14:45
Åsa: Well it’s up to adults to educate and to raise our children to be respectful and to also understand that to be part of a culture has meaning and you can’t – it’s not – everything is not dress-up and not everything is available to you. So I think this is of course something that I can understand – children wanting to dress up, that’s a game and children should of course have the possibility to play but some things are not available to play with and because it can also be very disrespectful for other children. So in this sense it’s up to us as adults to teach our kids to be respectful so that they are not put in the position of doing something wrong or being disrespectful towards other children without them even knowing it. So this is a responsibility for adults and for parents. And this is also why it is important for us in the collaboration with Walt Disney Animation Studios on the Frozen 2 – to not allow for after the movie to sell costumes of those characters in the movie that are using the Sámi clothing because of not making it available to dress up as Sámi in this case. And of course to dress up as a Disney princess – that’s of course something that should be available for kids. So that’s also why it’s so important for companies to do this right, so that it won’t cause troubles for parents and for kids – to know what is respectful and what is not.

Min 17.36
dm: people of Sámi communities sell stuff. Artisans in your community?

Min 18:23
Åsa: Yes, because there are many ways to support Indigenous artists and there are so much beautiful handicrafts made by Indigenous artists and handicrafters around the world that are available for anyone to use and I encourage people to buy and to support Indigenous artists and handicrafters in buying their work. And there are trademarks that can help guide the public in buying genuine Indigenous handicraft. And in Sápmi, Sámi Council we have two trademarks. One is for traditional Duodji (min 19:16), traditional Sámi handicraft and it’s named Duodji. And that’s a trademark that handicrafters can use. They register for it and they can use that to attach to their products so that when you buy something you know that this is genuine. And we also have a trademark that’s called “Sámi made” and that could be not only traditional Duodji and traditional handicraft, it can also be new designs, clothing. It can be anything that are for sale. And you know when you buy something with that trademark that it’s made by a Sámi. So it’s a genuine origin in the design and the patterns and the elements, cultural elements are used in a respectful way by Sámi artists, designer or product maker that are allowed to use these elements. So that’s a way of making sure that you as a consumer buy something that are supportive and not eroding a culture or buying something from someone that are misusing. So I would encourage everyone to look for trademarks and there are trademarks for Indigenous peoples in other parts of the world also. So I would encourage everyone to be aware and be cautious when you go places and buy souveniers for example – look at the genuine things.

Min 21.21 Danke für den positiven Ausblick!

Åsa: Yes, because there are so many – we have so many artists and hendicrafters. We have such amazing products from Indigenous peoples around the world and those people should not be cautious in supporting by buying these products. And that’s why we need more structures of – these trademarks for example so that it’s easier for people to do it right. Because I do believe that people generally want to do good and want to do right so it should be easy to do right.