Katarina Pirak Sikku is granted funding for artistic research from the Swedish Research Council

With the visual art project "Bortom tankehimlens mentala sorgerand – studier av mental egenmakt", Katarina Pirak Sikku seeks to portray the grief that she, as a Sami person, can experience today as a consequence of colonialisation, assimilation policies and the appropriation of Sami lands. When describing the project, she writes:

"I want to regain the power to define myself, to recall my name and area and write myself into the landscape. What is important about this project is to make room for the loss of places that may never have been mourned. Give us permission to feel the pain. To give us space to grieve in order to move on.”

As part of the project, Pirak Sikku plans to produce site-specific works of art in Sápmi, searching archives and reading the landscape, and study other indigenous people's strategies for mental independence. The three-year project has been granted funding from the Swedish Research Council of a total of SEK 4 377 000.