When the land becomes the sea and the sea becomes the land: Disrupting processes of appropriation of Miärralándda

Miärralándda ( Miärra : ocean or sea; lándda : land) is an Ume Sámi term that embodies the porosity between land and sea—worlds that merge into one inseparable reality. In this paper, we approach Miärralándda as a ‘figuration’ with the potential to disrupt the ongoing processes of land and sea extraction in the traditional territory of the Ume Sámi people, which are often masked as sustainable development. This land is simultaneously Sápmi and Helgeland, a region where colonisation has fragmented Ume Sámi settlements, language, legal frameworks, and practices on the Norwegian side of Sápmi. Colonial governance has enacted a division of land, sea, and people into discrete entities, rendering them colonisable resources appropriated through technological innovation. Within this political landscape, the stories of loss and grief from Miärralándda, as narrated by the Sámi people, confront neoliberal fantasies of sustainability. In this paper, we write with Miärralándda, revisiting the story of Anna Tomasdotter (1751–1833), born into a reindeer herding family in the region; attuning to the farmed salmon confined to tanks on Helgeland's islands; and journeying with the reindeer whose migration paths are severed by wind energy infrastructure built under the guise of sustainability. We argue that despite suppression, violation, and suffocation, the stories of Miärralándda persist and can be awakened through storytelling.