“Muitalus Sámi eatnama dovdameahttun elliid birra” – girječálli Johan Turi kolonialismma geavadiid árvvoštallin

Johan Turi published his famous, classical work Muittalus samiid birra over 100 years ago (1910). It was the first book ever written by a Sami in the Sami language. Although Turi’s book made him famous worldwide already in the early twentieth century, recognition among his own community, on the other hand, was much slower. In this article I discuss how this book can be understood from postcolonial and indigenous perspectives and what kind of new epistemological and indigenous ways of knowing are opened when reading this book. The article also discusses in which kind of historical, social and cultural circumstances this book was written and what kind of meanings it carries to the present day and for future Sami readers and researchers.