Its call to ‘let the river live’ rallied against the construction of a large dam across the Álttáeatnu river on the Norwegian side of Sápmi, the Sámi homeland. The Áltá Action (c. 1978–82) catapulted the demands for Indigenous sovereignty to the forefront of the politics of the time, and grew into an unexpectedly broad movement of solidarity in which Sámi artists played a central role. Many key questions raised by the Action pertinent in the region and beyond remain unresolved today. Let the River Flow makes essential reading for any discussion regarding how governments, artists and citizens will act upon these questions within the frame of today’s worldwide call for decolonization and Indigenization. New essays by 24 leading Indigenous artists, writers and scholars as well as allies, together with key existing texts, focus on the significant political and artistic reverberations of the Action past and present.
Design: Hans Gremmen.