Beaivváš mánát / Leve blant reptiler is a book of poetry in Sami and Norwegian that carries questions about the North-Norwegian school system, the institution as an apparatus of colonial power, and the early colonial agenda foundational to those modes of thought still operating in today´s educational system.
In close collaboration with the editor Tanya we worked on how to incorporate a Sami sensibility, which at times meant reconsidering the usual western-way of seeing and designing a publication. Indigenous aesthetic systems are often grounded in epistemological cosmologies, rendering complex cultural codes for ordering the world into simple designs, such as certain colours indicating life stages, spiritual realms, and other types of animated forces, and patterns embodying cardinal directions.
Design: Blank Blank
Artist: Mary Ailionieida Sombán Mari
Published by: Mondo books / KORO
Year: 2020
Editor: Tanya Busse
Curators: André Gali and Bjørn Hatterud
Pages: 80
Photos: Tanya Busse, Blank Blank\
The Winner of the most beautiful book of the year 2021 in Norway