Litte ja Goabddá [Drones and Drums] examine the use of drone technologies in the protests by activists and Sámi people against the Gállak mining project in Jåhkåmåhkke [Jokkmokk], Norrbotten, Swedish Sábme.
The Gállak North iron ore deposit is the largest in Europe yet to be exploited. UK-based mining exploration company Beowulf Mining PLC, through its Swedish subsidiary Jokkmokk Iron Mines AB, has submitted an application for a twenty-five-year exploitation concession for the site. The Swedish Government is currently reviewing the application. A mining permit would have a massive impact on the fragile ecosystem and disrupt the reindeer migration paths; Sámi cultural life in the area would experience irreversible decline and with it the loss of valuable indigenous knowledge.
Drones have, for the most part, been associated with notions of vertical control, surveillance and warfare, and perceived as a technology that extends capitalist and military control. This project subverts such an account by exploring the use of drones as a counter-surveillance and resistance tool in the protests against the Gállak mining venture.
Commissioned as part of the Project Realisation Award as part of Drone Vision: Surveillance, Warfare, Protest, a research project based at the Hasselblad Foundation / Valand Academy, Gothenburg University led by Dr Sarah Tuck.