Sápmi and Its Cultural History: The History of Duodji and the Forces at Work in a Duddjon Process

Duojár and Professor Gunvor Guttorm lectures on the history of duodji (Sámi craft) and on what it means to work from an idea in which improvisation serves as a creative method. This approach is rooted in her own duodji practice—a process of making through which she explores a particular wood blank that interests her. When working with natural materials, improvisation becomes an integral part of the process, with an outcome that may differ substantially from the original idea. One example is the ládjogahpir (the so-called “horn hat”), and more specifically the fierra, the internal structure concealed within the hat. Why did the ládjogahpir, which was worn in everyday life across Sápmi from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, fall out of use? Through her own improvisational work with the fierra, Guttorm explores possible answers while engaging with a broader range of duodji practices.

Gunvor Guttorm is a part-time professor of duodji at Sámi allaskuvla / Sámi University of Applied Sciences in Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. She also runs her own business, GG Duodjikonsult. Her research focuses on duodji in a contemporary context and from an Indigenous perspective. Throughout her work, she has sought to understand contemporary duodji and duddjon by examining the role and significance they have had—and continue to have—in Sámi society. Her own duodji practice forms an integral part of her artistic research.
Among her most recent research projects is Architecture of Aroha (2024). She also participates in the research project Textile Heritage (2025–2030), led by Konstfack University in Stockholm. Between 2020 and 2022, she served as the Norwegian Sámi project leader for the major initiative Arctic Indigenous Arts and Design Archives, which brought together practitioners and institutions from across Sápmi. Together with Professor Harald Gaski, she co-edited the groundbreaking anthology DuodjiReader (2022). Further, in 2022, she co-curated the exhibition Arctic Highways with Dan Jåma, Tomas Colbengtson, and Britta Marakatt Labba. She has also served as main editor of the journal Dieđut.

For more information about the seminar series Sápmi and Its Cultural History, click HERE