Rosa-Máren Birgitta Magga is a Sámi reindeer owner from a Sámi reindeer herder family in Jávrrešduottar, Enontekiö, on the Finnish side of Sápmi.

Rosa-Máren is wearing traditional Sámi gákti originating from her father's side of the family. Rosa-Máren has learned and continues to learn from her mother and sister how to make these clothes, but also supports duojárat (Sámi handicraft masters) by joining duodji courses whenever possible. Rosa-Máren can choose which designs she will use from her mother's family or father's family—both distinct gáktis.

In these images, Rosa-Máren is wearing first a gákti (the overall outfit), a boagan (belt), a liidni (shawl/scarf), goikkehat or skaller (shoes), and a solju (jewelry, silver brooch).

Gákti design is deeply rooted in Sámi tradition, where regional styles provide the primary framework and family lineage adds distinctive details. The cut, collar shape, and color palette often reveal a person’s home region, while finer elements—such as ribbon patterns, collar bands, and chest panels—can signal family heritage. In some regions, the buttons on the belt can also signal the marital status of the person, whereas elsewhere it’s the hat of the Sámi woman that tells if she’s unmarried, being proposed to, married, or a widow. Although these conventions are socially regulated within Sámi communities, the making of gákti is not static. It has always allowed creativity and adaptation, and in recent decades this flexibility has grown. Influences such as the feminist movement of the 1970s and the increasing visibility and acceptance of LGBTQ+ identities from the late 1990s onward have encouraged more experimental, forward-looking interpretations while breaking the gendered gákti rules, which can be quite strict in Sápmi. Today, gákti remains a living tradition: a visual language that balances continuity with innovation, honoring ancestral codes while embracing evolving expressions of identity.

Cultural appropriation of the Sámi gákti occurs when non-Sámi individuals or companies use its designs for fashion, tourism, or entertainment without consent, context, or benefit to Sámi communities and duojárat (Sámi handicraft masters). Such practices are widely criticized because they strip the garment of its cultural and kinship integrity and reduce it to a decorative object. Many Sámi organizations emphasize that gákti should only be worn by those with cultural ties or in collaboration with Sámi artisans, ensuring that its production and use respect community values and support Sámi livelihoods.

Heaikka Josába Juhána ja Čiskke Ánne Elna Rosa-Máren. Rosa-Máren Magga serves as Executive Secretary at the Arctic Council Indigenous Peoples’ Secretariat (IPS). She is fluent in Northern Sámi, Finnish, and English. Rosa-Máren holds a Master’s degree in Sámi Cultural Studies from the University of Oulu, Finland, and has completed a minor in Indigenous Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. Before joining the IPS in 2020 as an Advisor, she worked in many core Indigenous institutions in Sápmi, such as the Sámi Parliament of Finland as an Adviser to the President of the Sámi Parliament and at the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, with an international project focusing on cooperation between researchers and Indigenous communities.

Prior to working with the Arctic Council, she gained international work experience at the International Barents Secretariat during the Russian Chairmanship of the Barents Euro-Arctic Council in fall 2017 and worked in the media at the Sámi branch of the Finnish broadcasting company, Yle, both on TV and radio.

Participating in the joint Sámi and Inuit youth capacity-building program by the Sámi Council and Inuit Circumpolar Council Greenland in 2015, as well as the Summer Program on Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Policy at Columbia University, USA, and the U.S. Department of State International Visitors Leadership Program for Young European Leaders, has enriched her knowledge of the Arctic region and international affairs, as well as Indigenous social and political issues around the globe.