Who owns the ‘wilderness’?:indigenous Second World War landscapes in Sápmi, Finnish Lapland

Abstract Finnish Lapland lies on the northernmost shore of Europe by the Arctic Ocean. This chapter assesses the Second World War German materialities and landscapes of the Arctic front and discusses how idiosyncratic northern environmental perceptions have affected, and continues to affect, the local views on this legacy. It presents the Second World War history of Finnish Lapland and its material heritage. The chapter focuses on one prisoner of war campsite as an example to which we tie various perspectives on Second World War memory and materiality. It discusses the indigenous northern environmental perception and how it colours local understandings of the importance of wartime legacy. The chapter explores questions of heritage ownership, custodianship, and the generation of transgenerational memories, drawing on the perspectives presented to us by Sami interviewees in different parts of Sapmi, mostly in the Anar and Soadegilli areas but also in Gilbbesjavri, Eanodat