This project aims to investigate the indigenous voices in the fashion/design industry. A growing presence of indigenous designers has emerged to the established Western platforms. With increased visibility, more perspectives on indigenous identities and cultural expression are made available to the mainstream consumer and industry.
With this expanded discourse in contemporary indigenous expression and practices in design and fashion, both opportunities and ethical quandaries will emerge:
- Can anyone be a consumer of indigenous design?
- What distinguishes the indigenous designer from other Western designers?
- What responsibilty does the indigenous designer bear on their shoulders?
- What does it mean to be a indigenous designer today?
- What distinguishes indigenous design from crafts and cultural expression? What distinguishes indigenous design from art? Is it necessary to distinguish?
- Will the growing presence in, for example, the fashion industry have negative consequences for indigenous cultures, and will opening up lead to stealing, cultural appropriation and washout?
- How does participation in the modern fashion industry align with the mandate of being part of indigenous culture or collective?
- Can indigenous methodology be a tool or inspiration to create a more sustainable, holistic way of managing one's practice and the industry as a whole?
- Must there be strong forces to safeguard, and how do you safeguard your own indigenous culture as a modern person?
- What is the responsibilities of the designer, the industry and the consumer?
- Are we too focused on expanding and reaching out?
With my perspective as an indigenous designer as traveling tool, I wish to navigate in the landscape of the ethics and responsibilites of sharing culture, as both a individual and part of a collective. Through my own artistic research, I will map these questions, and create networks with other indigenous designers, to gain a broader perspective on how one might
imagine the interest in indigenous design should be managed or guarded, and the possible consequences and benefits of being visible and accessible. The project aims to create a dialogue between past, present and future, expanding and protecting, and discuss the vulnerability of sharing culture and heritage as a minority in the modern world.
Ramona Salo Myrseth (b. 1991, Gáivuotna) is a fashion -and costume designer, duojár and textile artist, based in Gáivuotna (Sápmi) and Oslo. Her works are rooted in Sámi culture, where thoughts about time, connection to nature and Indigenous philosophies are tools for navigating in different landscapes. Her practice focuses on textile work in contact with the
body and landscape, and tells stories across time and space. She also explores her objects as storytellers through performance art. Her life project "Den Samiske Halvtimen" (The Sami Half-Hour) is the frame work for her artistic practice, which is different threads woven together into an interdisciplinary, ongoing collection of fashion expressions, redefining what
the practice of a fashion designer can be.
She holds an MA in design (KhiO), a BA in Art and design (Oslo Metropolitan University), a BA in Criminology (University of Oslo) and a one-year programme in Art history (University of Oslo). In 2019 she was the recipient of the Design and Architecture Norway DOGA award for newcomers, and won first place in the 2019 Diploma Selection contest at
Designblok in Prague. In 2019, she was nominated for artist of the year by Subjekt, and was one of D2 Magazine's Lederstjerner "30 under 30". She has worked as a costume designer in several productions, and for theaters such as Hålogaland Teater, Kväänitatteri and Beaivváš Sámi Našunálateáhter.
She is also the costume designer in the sámi television series Oro Jaska (NRK).
Salo Myrseth is represented in the collections of the National Museum in Oslo, the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Trondheim, RiddoDuottarMuseat, Center of Northern peoples / Davvi álbmogiid guovddáš, Northern Norwegian Art Museum and Museo
Nacional de las Culturas del Mundo Mexico City.