“WAnd both live in probably the most impractical place if you want to be a successful DJ,” laughs Alice Marie Jektevik, one half of the Sami female DJ collective Article 3. Jektevik, 36, and her collaborator, Petra Lighty, 30, live in a rural village in northeastern Norway.
But living in Sápmi – the region traditionally inhabited by the Sami people in the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia – proved central to their success, providing inspiration for much of their work.
Lighty said a typical coffee meetup between the two would cover everything from mixing and DJ gear to fishing, hunting and traditional crafts, and even planning visuals for a show. “Everything inspires another area,” she said. “It’s very holistic in that sense.”
The Sámi have roots between 3,000 and 10,000 years old and are recognized as one of Sweden’s official national minorities, the only indigenous people recognized in the EU.
Article 3, formed in 2018 by the predecessors of Jektevik and Lighty, was considered the only female Sami DJ group when the duo came together. Before that, a small number of Sami DJs played gigs, all of them male. Now, the culture has changed dramatically: there are many other female DJs on the scene and a large and growing appetite for country music-focused club nights.
Like many of their generation, Jektevic says, they live in a mix of old and new. “We want the traditional wisdom that never existed and we want that connection, but we also live in a world where you can go and be hyper-modern or move around a lot and DJ for money.”
Article 3 Mix Joik – traditional Sami vocal style – beats and throat singing. With the emergence of Sami DJ culture, DJs have more opportunities to perform. “Outdoor raves are in the forest or in the snow in the dark of winter, as well as dark indoor club spaces during summer festivals,” says Lighty.
On Saturday they both combine their night with live visuals featuring Sami music and indigenous music from around the world, bringing them to the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, close to the Russian border, for the art festival Barents Spectakel. They also want to feature some “guilty please pop” – as it makes mixing tracks easier.
“The main thing is to promote this semi-safe, indigenous-safe club space where people can enjoy themselves freely and feel safe and confident,” Lighty said. A well-known joke over a good beat makes for a great feel on the dancefloor, she says. “It generally makes people very happy and want to enjoy themselves, and it’s a very infectious atmosphere. It’s one of the biggest sources of professional joy I’ve had, for sure.”
The rise of Sami DJ culture is driven in large part by a pervasive new sense of pride that young Sami people feel, Lighty said. “People our parents’ age were raised with shame and assimilation and other issues and social issues that made people suppress their identities.”
During their nights, they are young men in their 20s who talk with an aspiration and pride about handicrafts and traditional Sámi clothing. “You can really see at multiple levels of society young people taking pride in their identity and having a strong understanding of what their rights are and having that work and passion to create arts and culture,” Lighty said.
The theme of this year’s Barents Spectacle, which takes place on February 19-22, is “Border Passes Us”, to mark the 200th anniversary of the northern border that separates Finland, Russia and Norway this year.
Laiti, who hails from the Finnish side of Sápmi, and Jektevik, who hails from the Norwegian side, are well aware of the day-to-day issues caused by borders for the region’s Sami people, affecting everything from arts funding to choosing where to build a career.
“You could call it forced mobility,” Lighty said. “It causes artists to move between countries and to strategize which country or nationality you want to build your career in because it gives you the best chance of survival.”
