Personal Information
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Given name: Ase Ava









Surname: Fredheim









Email: ase.a.fredheim@uia.no









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Your contribution
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Title: Indigenous Intelligence in Music-Making









Format: Project presentation (2)









Main language: English









Abstract:
In this paper I show how an Indigenous mindset founded in reciprocity can shape and guide music making. I examine the effects of placing luohti (yoik), the traditional Sámi vocal expression, in a leading position. Decades of colonial policies deprived many Sámi of cultural expressions and traditional knowledge; in several areas Sámi languages were skipped for at least one generation. Today a taking it back movement is underway—asserting rights to land, livelihood, culture and language—and many young Sámi are reclaiming skills and knowledge that should have been passed on by our families and communities. Embracing distinct qualities within Sámi music, such as in luohti, reshapes both what we make and how we create. Moreover, engaging with luohti across popular musical genres may enable a trans historical positionality in music making. By engaging with research creation as a method, I explore these processes from within through my own artistic practice. The paper is also based on semi structured interviews with several Sámi artists. I offer perspectives on how methods rooted in Indigenous knowledge may redefine and enrich musical practice. I ask: how does privileging luohti as a guiding voice influence our songwriting, instrumentation, and, indeed, the artist’s role? I show, for example, that centering luohti often shifts arrangements from fixed, grid-based productions to open soundscapes with space for organic elements, polyrhythmic turns and flexibility in terms of tempo and harmonic progressions. It becomes evident that decision making can extend to non human agents (landscape, objects, and technologies) as active collaborators. Upsetting hierarchical norms (where humans dictate musical form) and adopting active relationality with all agents involved opens new creative possibilities. These findings suggest a provocation for decolonizing compositional practice and rethinking authorship and agency in contemporary music.










Link to the Exposition :  (https://www.researchcatalogue.net/shared/798863b5a7b6b6d35ec3ba868cc4c9b4)









Image: https://test.sar2026.ie/system/files/webform/submit_contribution/205/AseAvaFredheim%20Photo_Elina%20Waage%20Mikalsen.jpg









Short biographies of the presenter(s):
- Åse Áva Fredheim (NO/SÁ) is a vocalist, songwriter, and producer, and has released three albums under the name Ava Freddy. In her master’s thesis “‘Birdsong’ in Popular Music,” she unfolded technical and motivational aspects of field recordings in music. In her current PhD project, at the Department of Popular Music at the University of Agder, Fredheim explores the intersection of musicology and Indigenous knowledge through a combination of artistic and theoretical approaches. She focuses on the Sámi vocal traditions and understandings of what it means to listen. 










Previous presentations or iterations of the research:
Presentation: “Stories of Reclaiming Yoik” at the Folk music researchers’ symposium at the Sibelius academy, Helsinki (February 2026)
Presentation: “Decolonizing Vocal Expressions in Sápmi” at the AR@26 conference, Kristiania University College, Oslo (April 2026)
Chapter: Guldalit: Transactional Resonance and Indigenous Perspectives on Listening. In Ø. Varkøy, K. Stensæht, & S. Røyseng (Eds.), Music and Resonance. Cappelen Damm Forskning. (Desk-review approved, awaiting peer review.)














Requirements
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Additional information:
The presentation is prepared in Keynote. In addition to a projector, I need the possibility to play sound.










Spatial and technical requirements :
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Potential risks or ethical concerns:
Ethical concerns worth mentioning, is that yoik is the source of some loaded discourses within Sámi communities. Opinions regarding how the rematriation of yoik should move forward are differing. I attend to these issues by highlighting how my presentation is based on my own positionality, and that I cannot represent Sápmi at large.










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