The Sámi people for Beyond Noise

Váimmus Ruoktu translates to Home in the Heart—the title of a seminal poetry collection by Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, born to a Sámi family. The Sámi people—indigenous to Lapland—have subsisted by hunting, fishing, and herding reindeer, with values of reverence for nature and sharing passed down through generations. Over centuries, they’ve thrived in one of the world’s harshest climates, in some ways a blessing in that it’s preserved their way of life.

For Beyond Noise Issue Five, Laurence Ellis took to Northern Norway to document the struggle for Sámi rights through the less-often spotlit perspective of the Sámi woman. Capturing the Sámi women at the centre of their community and the female reindeer herders embracing a role traditionally seen as solely for men.