JUOIGGAS! – Sámi National Theater Beaivváš

Discover the ancient art of yoik, one of Europe’s oldest folk music genres, originating from the indigenous Sámi people. Derived from the Sámi word juoigat, yoik represents a unique cultural expression for the Sámi people. This event is free to attend thanks to generous support from the Sámi National Parliament.

Please enjoy extended museum, FIKA Café, and store hours until 7 pm. Stop by the front desk to purchase admission to the visiting exhibition of indigenous art, Arctic Highways, before the show. Fika Café will be open for dinner service (reservations are not available), along with a cash bar open before the show outside Larson Hall.

Limited ticket availability; up to 8 tickets per person. Seating is general admission with no assigned seating.

This program is co-presented by ASI and the Sámi Cultural Center of North America.

About the Show

With the joik concert performance, JUOIGGAS!, the Sami National Theater Beaivváš invites the people of Minneapolis, Minnesota on a musical journey through large parts of Sápmi.

Joik is one of Northern Europe’s oldest forms of music and has been passed down generation by generation for many thousands of year. Traditional Sámi beliefs state that joik was a mythical gift from the daughter of the Sun to the Sámi people as a way of taming the wild reindeer. A musical mark of identity. A signature. A present from a mother to a daughter, from a grandfather to a grandson. From a man to a woman. A way to remember. A way to gather courage. A weapon. A way to be close to each other, even when you are not physically there.

In this concert performance, the Sámi National Theater Beaivváš takes a deep dive into the history and function of the joik throughout the ages. We encounter the close, personal joik given from one person to another. We meet the joik lyric that broke through and inspired Europe’s poets at the end of the 17th century, and we take a musical journey in time and space, around the whole of Sápmi – from hunting rituals 6,000 years ago to the present day.

About the Artists

The Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš is a professional theatre company from Guovdageaidnu, Finnmark Council, Norway. As one of the premier Sámi cultural institutions, the theatre has made it a priority to consistently perform all their plays in Sámi languages. The theatre regularly tours outside of the Nordic countries to highlight and showcase Sami culture on an international stage and has performed in Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, the Basque Country, Estonia, Russia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Japan, Guatemala, Germany and Canada. ASI is the second stop on the theatre’s debut tour of the United States which also includes shows at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle, Washington.

The Sami National Theatre Beaivváš was initially founded as an independent theatre company by young cultural ambassadors and activists who found themselves involved in one of Norway’s most well-documented recent historical conflicts, the Alta Controversy. The founding members chose to come together and use performing arts as an important weapon in what could only be described as a dramatic confrontation between an indigenous community and the Norwegian government. The company’s first play, “Min Duoddarat / Our Mountain Pastures”, was produced by young actors and activists from Guovdageaidnu in 1981. Six years later, the independent theatre company became registered as a limited liability company, as well as a cultural institution for the performing arts. Since 1991, The theatre has received annual funding from the Norwegian government as part of the government budget, and in 1993, the Sami National Theatre Beaivváš was officially recognized as one of Norway’s national theatre companies.