Homecoming
Anssi Kömi & Suvi West / Finland & Norway / 2023 / 76 min
The museum world is at a turning point. Artefacts from indigenous peoples and other cultures are being encouraged to be returned to their place of origin. A Sami filmmaker traces the heritage of her own people in a personal film.
For hundreds of years, art and cultural artefacts from around the world have ended up in Western museums and their vast archives, where they have been displayed to foreign audiences. But with the growing awareness of the many forms and continuing consequences of colonialism, there has been increasing pressure on museums to return historical artefacts to the cultures from which they originate. Suvi Vest is a filmmaker of Sami origin, and together with Anssi Kömi, she is travelling the world’s museums to trace her own heritage. The goal is to establish a museum for Sami art and culture, run and curated by the Nordic people themselves. ‘Homecoming’ is a deeply personal take on the issue of repatriation, and a critical approach to how (and why) it should be done.