A Northern Scholars Lecture by former IASH Fellow Dr Erika De Vivo.
As part of the Northern Scholars Lectures, the University of Edinburgh is pleased to welcome Dr Erika De Vivo from the Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum og akademi for kunstfag to give a free public talk.
The Afterlife of Colonial Photographs: Digital Restitution, Indigenous Storytelling, and AI in Decolonizing Visual Histories of 19th Century Sámi Women and Children
On 7 October 2022, the Facebook page Colour Your Past uploaded a 13-second video created using artificial intelligence (AI). The video was based on an 1879 photograph of Anna Skum, a Sámi girl then living in the Alta region.
The original photograph, taken by an Italian researcher working on the Norwegian side of Sápmi, exemplifies the colonial practice of using ethnographic photography to classify, categorize, and exert control over Indigenous peoples within the framework of social Darwinist ideologies. For much of their history, such images were stored in institutional archives, inaccessible to the communities they depicted.
However, ongoing digitization efforts have made these materials widely accessible to anyone with an internet connection, enabling their (re-)discovery and reinterpretation by descendant communities, often without institutional mediation. Digitization and the consequent Indigenous reclamation have given these colonially produced photographs a new “afterlife”, allowing them to be viewed through lenses that challenge their original purposes.
This presentation examines how Sámi individuals and communities are engaging with these historical images in innovative ways, using modern tools like AI to reclaim and reimagine them. Through processes of digital restitution/reclamation, Indigenous storytelling, and creative decolonial practices, these photographs are being transformed into instruments of empowerment and self-representation.
Yet, the use of AI in this context is not without debate. While some see it as a means to reconnect with ancestral histories, others raise concerns about the potential for misrepresentation or the commodification of cultural heritage. Highlighting the challenges of negotiating identity and reclaiming agency in the digital era, this study reflects on the role of AI as a tool for creative decolonial efforts and its implications for reshaping the narratives surrounding colonial visual archives.
About the speaker
Erika is currently an MSCA post-doctoral researcher at Norges arktiske universitetsmuseum og akademi for kunstfag. Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at IASH, where she worked on linguistic activism in Sápmi, with a focus on the Márku-Sámi linguistic landscape. Her current project examines Sámi people’s experiences during colonial encounters in the late 19th century. This research project aims to shed light on the individual life stories of women and children photographed by two Italian anthropologists between 1879 and 1886.
This event is free and open to all. No registration is necessary.
About the Northern Scholars Scheme
The Northern Scholars Scheme was established at the University of Edinburgh in 1956. Its role is to foster co-operation between scholars of Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and colleagues in the University of Edinburgh. Mutual areas of interest include aspects of linguistics, and historical and other cultural studies which are common to these countries and to Scotland. Each year, the Northern Scholars Scheme Committee sponsors visits by scholars of the member countries to Edinburgh, during which time they give departmental seminars and public lectures.