Give Us Our Skeletons
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Give Us Our Skeletons! (Antakaa Meille Luurankomme in Finnish, Oaivveskaldjut in North Sami) is a 1999 documentary film directed by Paul-Anders Simma about Niillas Somby, a Sami man who retraces his family ancestry as he searches for the head of his ancestor, Mons Somby.
Mons Somby and Alask Hetta were executed in 1854 for murder, following a rebellion against the Norwegian government in which two people were killed. Their bodies were claimed by the government for scientific research, and their skulls were held as part of a collection of 900 skulls at the Anatomical Institute, in Oslo.
The movie describes three parallel plots; the first is Niillas Somby's story on how he became one of the most celebrated protester and colonial resisters during the Alta Dam Protests between 1979-1981 near Kautokeino, Norway. In the years that followed, he traveled in exile to Canada where he was given sanctuary by the Iroquois First Nation, and later returned to Norway.
The second plot was the disturbing examination of the scientific racism and racial classification movement that was considered an accepted fact by Scandinavian scientists from the early 1800s until very recently. This included the plundering of Sami graves for their skeletons and the forced sterilization of the Sami and other peoples in Scandinavia who were viewed as competing with the "noble races", as part of a larger eugenics program.
The third and final plot was Niillas Somby's emotional struggle with bringing Mons Somby's skull home for a proper burial.
